Reviews for Beauty

The average rating for Beauty based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-09-30 00:00:00 New Guest This is an interesting retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Alix and Lee, the painter and the deformed man. It was beautiful and convincing as it unfolded. However, the ending really didn't work. It felt rushed, sloppy, and, in some key ways, unnecessary. **SPOILER** What I wanted to see was how their relationship progressed as they worked at being married. That really had to bring up a lot of issues for both of them, but it was all skipped over as suddenly Alix wanted to have a baby, which Lee did not because he didn't want to pass his genetic disease on. So that became the focus. And then ... **SUPER SPOILER** why did the author think it was necessary for her main character to die at the end? How did this make Lee's character development more accurate or believable? Couldn't he have learned to love his child while still loving his wife? It just seemed contrived and buying into that whole concept of death making love more real or something. I think it's cowardly when an author kills off a main character as an easy way to further the plot rather than working with that character to progress the plot. Let the character live. If the death is crucial to the story (which in this case, I didn't agree that it was), then okay, but otherwise ... oh well. So, would have gotten more stars if the ending had been better.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-06-22 00:00:00 Edward S Smith I could have sworn I reviewed this. Oh well. I should have liked this. It had all the elements I enjoy. It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast for crying out loud. How could I NOT like it? The 'beast' was a man from a wealthy family with a disfiguring disease. The 'beauty' was an artist who was filling in for her ill father, commissioned to paint the man's portrait. Good so far. LOVELY so far. After they meet, great, I'm along for the ride and enjoying it, despite some minor issues I had with the actual style it was written in. Then came the ending. WHAT? I usually find myself rating fairly high if I enjoy (more or less) everything to do with a story up until the ending. But this ending? I hated it. HATED. IT. And somehow it sucked whatever enjoyment I had for the rest of the story along with it.