Unapologetic Reader, Psychotic Writer

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favoritest fairy tales of all times. I always loved Beast more than any of the other Disney Princes (with the exception of Flynn Rider - but hey, technically he is not a prince) and actually found the Beast cuddlier, and his mannerisms more adorable and helluva lot better than when he is reverted back into the Prince. Beast was cute, very, and his gruff exterior made his love for Belle even more precious. But as I grew up, I found the story shallow - that too much importance was given to outer beauty in that story. And even though Belle could come to love a gruff beast the fact that his turning back into a Pretty Prince seemed to be necessary for their happily ever after really pissed me off. Of Beast and Beauty was not shallow in this or any regard. It was beautiful. It molded the elements of fantasy into one of our most cherished fairy tales and gave us a retelling that blew my mind away. Who is the Beast? What is the Beauty? And what exactly does it mean to have a happily ever after? “Beauty is wherever you find it, and Beast is there when you need to defend it.”Stacey Jay has drafted a beautiful, complex story about love and hate and war and desperation and bravery that will touch the hearts of the readers. She has shown how thin is actually the line between love and hate and between saving the world and feeding the evil lie. Isra and Gem struggle here with their world, their positions, their feelings for each other until they do not need to. It was amazingly heartbreaking to read. The characters were amazing. The plot was amazing. A post-apocalyptic world where the Smooth Skinned humans stay safe within the dome of their precious city and scaled Monstrous roam outside in the desert trying to infiltrate inside for their kind's survival. Smooth Skinneds hate the Monstrous, the scaled creatures considered base and animalistic. The Desert People detest the bestial name given to them by the people inside the city and are looking for ways inside the city to protect themselves from the desert that is dying around them. And there are the roses, they are killing and feeding from the blood of the Queens of the city saving it with the power of the sacrifice. Drinking away the life and providing sustenance until it gets hungry again. Stacey Jay has made an already dark fairy tale darker, with more at stake. Isra is a blind girl, throned as queen inna young age, made as a pawn in the political games and readied as a sacrifice to the rose in the name of the city. And Gem, a desperate boy - man - looking for answers in the city's garden, hoping he could take the roses' magic to save his tribe not knowing how dark the power is. There's a twist here. Gem, the Monstrous, is the prisoner of Isra, the Smooth Skinned. It seems important, this distinction, that bestiality and beauty is actually about the person's heart and beliefs and maybe, Gem's heart was the Beauty in the story and Isra's city's preoccupation with their smooth skins the Beast. It's amazing if you can look at it this way. I did not know what I expected from a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it was not this. Not this brutal, bloody, emotional tale of survival and sacrifice. It was so much different from the original story, the Disney retelling and yet was the same in some ways. I absolutely loved it. Gaston as Bo was still a prick of epic proportions though. The number of times I wanted to kick his nuts were astounding. 4.75 Stars