“Beasts and Beauty” - Soman Chainani, illustrated by Julia Iredale

🐺 Just to let you know how this review is going to go, this book was almost a DNF for me. But my inability to leave a novel unfinished, forced me to finish it. We picked it up because it was suggested as as a middle grade, dark retelling of well known fairy tales. IMO it is definitely not middle grade, but it lacks the depth of content in most stories to make it a compelling YA read.

🐺 We began the audiobook together, but midway through “Little Red Riding Hood”, Sanjay was covering his ears, and Ashwin looked petrified. These wolves mean business, and the townspeople are scarier still! The audiobook narration was fabulous, the words dripping with malice and foreboding. But, I eventually switched to the printed version when the kids checked out, because the illustrations by Julia Iredale are stunning. This Snow White is a “beauty that fights like a beast”.

🐺 As I read beyond “Red Riding Hood”, I noticed that several stories have pronounced dark, sexual undercurrents. There is nothing explicit, but the allusions are clear. This is not a middle grade book! It’s definitely YA.

🐺 I like the premise of Chainani’s storytelling: he’s subverting fair tales a la Gregory Maguire. His language is moody and atmospheric. The stories were far more gruesome than I expected. However, despite occasionally packing an emotional wollop, these just weren’t earth shattering retellings. Chainani develops characters slowly, more in line with a longer novel. As a result, the stories tend to end abruptly.

🐺 My random thoughts on some of the tales in this collection: 

• The theme in most of the stories seems to be the exploitation of young, innocent people by forces of evil represented by adults.
• His “Snow White” was the most subversive of the bunch. She has a “fair” heart, but her skin color is a luminous ebony.
• “Hansel and Gretel” and “Beauty and the Beast” are set in non-European lands, which is a refreshing update. The rest are set in nameless European locales.
• I did like Chainani’s “Little Mermaid” - I wish the original Ariel had met this blunt sea witch. But it was more conversation than story.