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The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
Price: $28.02 Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: October 31, 2000
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Editorial Review:
Francesca Lia Block, whose Weetzie Bat novels have often been called pop fairy tales, here turns to the real thing for some very different imaginings of Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Rose Red and Rose White, and other tales. Block's stories are more resonance than retelling, fevered dreams behind which the outlines of the traditional tales move fitfully like figures glimpsed now and then through a summer fog. Veiled references to Block's own Los Angeles appear in the twisty house of the seven dwarfs built into a canyon like Laurel or Topanga, the redwood forest on a seaside cliff through which Beauty travels to her Beast, the tree-darkened canyon houses with French doors that open onto exuberant neglected gardens lush with irises and roses. In these evocations Bluebeard becomes an aging blue-haired producer, Sleeping Beauty pricks her arm with a heroin needle, Red Riding Hood's wolf is a lecherous stepfather, and the Snow Queen is a sex goddess who lives in a marble mansion with her boy toy, possibly in Beverly Hills. Sensuous images enrich these languid and darkly ironic visions: jasmine-scented night gardens, leopard couches with velvet pillows, luscious food flavored with mint, coconut milk, or pomegranate sauce, cool candlelit baths. As always, Block's poetic allegories of adolescence are strikingly original and a bit dangerous, a feast for connoisseurs of YA fiction and savvy older teens. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell
With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out.Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place.A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse.And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men.Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself.Best Children's Books 2000 (PW)
Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - great
this book was really great. often with the retelling of a popular story there is the potential to fail miserably, as so many people know and love the original. even taking the bare bones of a story and (like cinderella for example) and using it as a plot line for other stories wherein you can clearly see the reference can go horribly wrong because there are so many examples of this story being told correctly and well... that is is somewhat admirable for an author to take on these stories and succeed ... Read More
Rating: - Oh come on!
I would have to say after reading through the other reviews a lot were biased, however they have their own opinion
The book is a retelling of your normal fairy tales, in which its what you base it on, Francesca Lia Block does a wonderful job in telling her own versions of the stories in her own almost dream like poetic ways, now some may not find enjoyment in that but from the first Block book I ever read i want to own them all and i had lost the book and i had to buy it again. Her books ... Read More
Rating:  - Writing style fits the contents, but stories lack depth. Promising concept, disappointing product; apathetically recommended
From Snow White to Thumbelina to Sleeping Beauty, in The Rose and the Beast Block retells nine fairy tales, telling them in her unique voice that makes magic appear naturally in urban settings, modernizing the settings, characters, and often the underlying meanings of these classic tales. The stories vary in quality, but on the whole the idea is admirable but the execution is disappointing: too much time and effort is given to plot, too little to meaning, and the so the stories are empty. I appreciate ... Read More
Rating: - Intense
The author of this book takes well-known fairy tales, such as Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast, and retells them from an updated point of view, from the woman's perspective. The results are interesting, although not nearly as light-hearted as the tales we all are familiar with. Many of the stories involve sex, abuse, and drugs, and although the women in the stories usually end up okay, they have to go through some difficult times before they get there.
I liked ... Read More
Rating:  - ONE OUT OF 9
NOT ONLY DID I READ IT IN A DAY - NOT MUCH CONTENT-
WHAT STORIES WERE EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE EMULATING WHAT STORIES IS THE TRUE QUESTION-
THE VERY FIRST STORY "SNOW" WAS THE ONLY ONE I CARED FOR
I THINK IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER...........
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