Skip to main content

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly

By


Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Belle finds an enchanted book during her stay at the castle. 

Category: YA

Why I chose this book: I love Beauty and the Beast and books, so it sounded like an interesting twist

My personal opinion: *Some spoiler alerts but I don't know how to describe it without.* 


Death and Love are characters (used in much the same way as in The Book Thief). It was one of Love's Enchantresses that put the spell on the Beast and castle and Death and Love have a bet as to who will win out over the Beast. Death stacks the book (literally) by putting a book called Nevermore into the library.This prologue was kind of interesting. Belle is frustrated by the Beast and her life at the castle. Those feelings coupled with her adventurous spirit, Belle walks right into Nevermore when she finds it. (And the reader is screaming, "Don't do it!") It is a magical world until the enchantment starts to fall apart and Belle finds out that it has all been an illusion and a trap. This part creeped me out a bit and I probably wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been relatively close to the end and wanted to see how the author wrapped up the story. I definitely recommend that readers be closer to teens than middle school to pick this one up. 

Warnings
Language: None
Violence: Very minor
"Adult" situations: None 
Death: Some (of non-human creatures)

Movie rating equivalent: PG-13

Protagonist description: At the beginning at least Belle is the same adventurous, kind girl that she is in the Disney movie and while it;s understandable from her character's perspective I wanted to scream at her at several parts during the book. It's hard to see a smart beloved character far for something you know isn't going to turn out well. 

Point of view of story: Belle

Book length: Medium

Story flow: A bit chopey as she moves between worlds, but easy to follow

Grammar and spelling issues:None

Character connection (no spoilers): Death and Love were interesting. And as for the actual characters from Beauty and the Beast, I'd be interested in knowing more about all of them. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Game by Terry Schott

By
Brief synopsis (no spoilers) What if this life is just a simulation? What if our bodies are in another world, plugged into a virtual reality game, and our entire life is just one play in that game? What would our real life be like, if we could experience several full simulated lifespans, in our teen years, and then enter adulthood? That is the premise of this story. Category Sci-Fi Why I chose this book It was either free or discounted on Amazon, and sounded interesting My personal opinion (the review) Too many inconsistencies. For example: The real world is able to view the players in the game in "real time", but time in the game is sped up, so that a week in real life is worth a decade in the virtual world. How do real world people have enough time to experience the virtual world, in real time, while still being accelerated? Danielle enters the game 3 days behind Trew, but she only ends up being 1 year younger. If a week is a decade in the game, then 3 days should have be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mark of Fire by Richard Phillips

By
Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Two main stories: Carol, the daughter of Lord Rafel, wants to be a magic wielder. As she learns magic and grows in strength, she is unaware that she is being hunted by the greatest wielder in the world. The second story is about a ward of Rafel's, named Blade, who becomes an infamous assassin and works for the king. The king sends Blade to kill Rafel and Carol, but he warns them to flee instead. Blade wanders, to escape the king's justice, but finds himself in his own adventure. Category : Fiction, fantasy, possibly YA Why I chose this book : Kindle First My personal opinion : I really enjoyed the story line, the world the author created, and the depth of the characters. It was easy to lose myself in the story. I also really appreciate that the story is "clean" - no bad language, no sexual situations, etc. I feel comfortable recommending this to my teenage children. Warnings Language: none Violence: fairly frequent fighting "Adult...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

By
This is the fifth book in the Artemis Fowl series Brief synopsis (no spoilers) Artemis continues his adventures, leaning farther and farther away from the villain role, and closer to the hero role. He's quite the teenager, with all the hormones of that age. He has discovered another group of the People (demons), and they need saving. Artemis Fowl to the rescue! Category YA Fiction Why I chose this book Next in the series My personal opinion (the review) Artemis is typically flawless. His plans execute perfectly, and when they don't, coincidence saves him. This time, he fails a bit. He loses some time, his body is a little less perfect, and not all of his plans go through perfectly. I like that- it makes him more real, as a character. Warnings : Language - none Violence - mild "Adult" situations - none Death - yes, but temporary Movie rating equivalent PG Protagonist description Artemis is a genius beyond description. He tends to be prideful a...
Post a Comment
Read more