Beauty Reborn by Elizabeth Lowham is a darker and bittersweet retelling of the familiar Beauty and the Beast fairytale, laden with an equal dose of humor and tragedy.
In this book, Beauty runs toward her future with the Beast in an almost suicidal desire to escape the trauma she endured at the hands of contemptuous suitor. However, instead of the death she sought, she discovers in the Beast a sensitive soul who is able to break through Beauty’s “thorns” and show her that not every relationship must be abusive. Despite Beauty’s reticence to any kind of relationship (because of her past failed experience), the Beast’s kindness allows her to heal from her trauma, accept her fault in it, and forgive herself in order to move forward with hope. Their relationship felt very sweet and pure, grounded more in simplicity and faith rather than in the fiery passion Beauty indulged in with her prior suitor. I liked that it portrayed a kind of “growing up” on her part, as she moved away from the excitement and thrill of her dangerous lover and delved into a softer, truer type of love with the Beast.
The language of this story was really rather wonderful. It did seem to move very quickly at times for a young adult novel, and I could have wished for a little bit more development in the beginning chapters, but the author writes with a lyricism that drew me right in. There is heavy content, but the author handled it very delicately, and the actual traumatic scene was much more implicit than explicit, and the effects were mostly made manifest in Beauty’s emotional state. It could have been a little more developed as a story since it is pitched as Young Adult, after all, and it read a bit more Middle Grade – but I appreciated the delicacy used in regards to the heavy themes and thought it was balanced well in the story. Overall, I recommend this for anyone who has ever read Beauty by Robin McKinley, or Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip.
Review of an Advance Reading Copy provided by Shadow Mountain Press
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 1 mild obscenity
Violence/Gore: Many instances of violence and gore, including but not limited to a girl seeking death from a beast; many reports of a beast in a wood; a young man dislikes another man; report of a parent dying from a fever; report of a violent storm; a girl finds a baby bird fallen from a tree; a girl dreads a man’s presence; implication of danger in an enchanted forest; a girl suffers from painful memories; a male character uses tears and apologies to manipulate a female character; implication of past trauma; characters smell and see the cloud of a forest fire; a female character travels through a dangerous enchanted forest, is attacked by trees and feral creatures, and uses a magical weapon to defend herself; a sister is cruel toward another; a female character makes a selfish wish.
Sex/Nudity: Many instances of sex and nudity, including but not limited to several scenes where a male character proposes marriage and a female character refuses; report of a man kissing a girl’s hand; a girl takes a bath (not sexual or descriptive); characters flirt dangerously; a girl is afraid to wear enchanted clothes for fear they might vanish; a few instances where a male and female character kiss; report of a girl’s first “bleed”; a female character remembers a man’s weight on her; rape is implied a few times but is never explicitly detailed or shown, and a girl later confesses the trauma to her father; a male character claims he and a female character are secretly engaged and that the female character is pregnant; a man and woman dance; a female character tries to steal another female character’s true love; a man and woman marry.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death of a family member; rape; socioeconomic issues; jealousy; enchantments.
Drugs/Alcohol Use:
There is a scent of ale; characters drink wine at a wedding.
