I’ve always loved Beauty and the Beast stories. I have a whole rant about how the point of the story is that even though Beauty might grow to like the Beast while she is his captive, she doesn’t love him until he releases her. Some adaptations work with this idea better than others. The Beast’s Heart does a remarkable job of including the poetry of the story while omitting some of its more problematic elements.

The story is the classic fairy tale. To sum up: once upon a time, there was a rich young guy who was an enormous jerk. A fairy cursed him, turning him into a beast until such time as he can learn to love, and until he wins the love of a woman who agrees to marry him. One day a lost merchant who has fallen on hard times wanders onto the Beast’s estate. The Beast tells the merchant that the merchant can leave, but that the merchant must send one of his daughters to live with the Beast instead. The daughter, who in this story is named Isabeau, shows up. The Beast falls in love with her and every night he asks her to marry him. Every night she refuses, even though she finds herself growing more and more fond of The Beast. Will she learn to love the Beast in time to reverse the curse?

The Beast’s Heart is narrated in first person by the Beast. Because he has forgotten much of his past, he remains mysterious for a lot of the book even though the reader is essentially inside his head. When the merchant is told that he must sacrifice his daughter, he refuses to make a trade. He goes home to say goodbye and then tries to return. Isabeau comes to the house against her father’s wishes – in fact, she outruns him to the gate which then closes behind her. The next day the Beast apologizes to Isabeau, saying he was so lonely he had become desperate. He tells Isabeau that she is free to leave at any time, but she takes pity on him and promises to stay for one year. His behavior is impeccable except that every night he asks Isabeau to marry him.

During this year, the Beast is able to watch Isabeau’s family through his magic mirror. At first, Isabeau’s two spoiled sisters languish, and it becomes evident that Isabeau worked hard to keep her depressed sisters and her depressed father alive after they lost their fortune. With Isabeau gone, the sisters find new purpose in their lives and have their own romances. The story of the sisters is much more interesting than Isabeau’s story since Isabeau doesn’t have much character development. She starts out great, she ends up great.

The biggest weakness of the story is the actual romance between The Beast and Isabeau. We know what will happen and eventually it does (Disney fans, there’s no Gaston lurking around – this is more true to older versions of the story). On the other hand, I loved seeing what happens with the sisters, what happens between Isabeau and her guilt-ridden father, and being able to hear the point of view of The Beast. I also found that I did not miss the “Beast is loud, Isabeau makes him chill out” aspect which is part of many retellings.This Beast has a lot of baggage but is not abusive, thank goodness, and there’s still plenty of conflict in the story.

Also, I loved the prose. Here’s a sample:

I had not been able to resist a certain measure of exotic variety that could only ever exist by magic. It took time (of which I had eons to spare) and much careful experimentation, but at last I had gardens straight out of the pleasantest dreams. Winding paths twisted past flowerbeds permanently in their prime, flourishing with springtime blossoms and fragrant herbs growing together with delightful untidiness. I had orchards both in fruit and in flower and lawns ornamented with ancient yew trees trimmed into fantastic shapes and hedges. Sometimes the lawn and yews were cool and green and sometimes they were covered in a blanket of clean, white snow. Another lawn was set with bosquets of different varieties of trees, all in glorious autumnal colors. Tended by my unseen servants and pampered by magic, my gardens flourished, even as parts of the house persisted as ruin.

Isn’t that lovely?

Because Isabeau is a pretty flat character I’m not giving this book an A, but I did enjoy it very much and I highly recommend its take on the sisters and their character development. Connoisseurs of this fairy tale’s many retellings will not be disappointed.