īeauty is the first book I've read by Robin McKinley, but friends have been raving about her stories for a long time. Wanting more of this unlikely but beloved couple, I was eager to pick up Beauty, Robin McKinley's retelling. Unlike many fairytales, Beauty and the Beast's relationship is not based on insta-love or physical beauty, and it takes time to develop trust between them, let alone love.

My favorite growing up was always The Little Mermaid, but recently I've fallen more and more in love with the tale of Beauty and the Beast. So, when people say things like, “Ah yes, this dude definitely created YA and changed the genre” I kind of want to punch them, because people like McKinley were putting young women front and center in the own stories as far back as the 70s.As my daughter discovers Disney animated movies, we've been revisiting fairytales in our household. I’m not saying these books are perfect I haven’t read some of them in a while, so I cannot vouch for them being problem-free, but McKinley was definitely a part of my proto-feminist development. In a way, she helped me believe I could take control of my life and to be central in my own story, in a way that a lot of books I had been reading just didn’t allow.

She builds out the relationships around these characters, and allows her characters to stumble and fall without punishing them.

McKinley manages to build stories slowly, often with young women in central roles comes to terms with their role in their own lives. Sunshine remains one of my favorite vampire books ever, because it feels so realistic in some ways. As I got older, I read Deerskin, a darker fairy tale retelling around sexual abuse, but McKinley deals with it without brushing it off or robbing her character of trauma or agency just to get to a happy ending. It managed to be completely different, and just as interesting as her first try, and I was in awe. Never forget.Īfter Hero and the Crown, I devoured all of McKinley. I read Spindle’s End, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty (to this day, I don’t think I’ve read fairy tale retellings that land in my heart quite the same way as hers did), and Outlaws of Sherwood(a little slower and not my favorite), more Damar, and her second retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Rose Daughter. So, my brother read it first and tore out the last couple of pages LIKE A MONSTER, so I had to wait a couple of days to go to the library to find out what happened at the end of the book. I do have to tell this story about The Hero the Crown though.

Beauty book robin mckinley