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Book Review of Beast

Beast
Beast
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Genres: Children's Books, Teen & Young Adult
Book Type: Paperback
althea avatar reviewed on + 774 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


A retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast, told from the Beast's perspective. (it's also told in present tense, which I found rather distracting - but overall, it was quite good, although not as good as the other book I've read by Napoli, 'Zel'.)
Here, the Beast is a young Persian prince. Inadvertently, is crosses a peri, who curses him that his father will kill him the next day. The next day, his father has a lion hunt planned - and the prince realizes that he has physically become a lion.
He manages to avoid being killed, and hopes that the curse will wear off, but it doesn't - and he learns that his only hope is to have a woman love him for who he is, without knowing that he is under an enchantment. He finds that to be hopeless, so he simply goes in search of a place where he could live as a lion, without the danger inherent in staying in his father's hunting park.
In an unlikely and quickly-skipped-over journey, he gets from Persia to France, and finds an abandoned castle (which mystifyingly, still has lots of useful stuff in it), and from there, the story-as-we've-heard-it basically ensues...