Transporting an altogether ordinary heroine into a magical world was part of the fairy tale’s appeal for me, so that was kind of a disappointment. Beauty’s world is one of sorcerers, magicians, and “greenwitches,” and, while the mythology and history of this world kind of feeds a childlike imagination, it also kind of takes away the power from Beauty’s experiences in the palace. The catch with this story, though, is that the magic is not sequestered only in the Beast’s palace. A whole chapter shows Beauty discovering a painting of the night sky on the palace roof, and how enthralled she is with the detail and meaning behind each constellation-a mundane experience, but you are breathless at the end of it. McKinley’s strength lies in making the ordinary extraordinary: she could write for pages and pages about roses and paintings and the other mundane objects of the palace, and yet she keeps you in the palm of her hand. The conflict with Rose Daughter lies not with Beauty being the only hard-worker in her lazy family, but rather how she discovers the secrets behind the Beast’s palace. The first point to Rose Daughter is that it makes three-dimensional, likable characters of Beauty’s sisters, Lionheart and Jeweltongue, both usually lazy, jealous shrews in fairy tale books. They’re both the same flower, but they have different smells and colors, providing a unique experience either way.

Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but it’s not so much comparing apples to oranges, as much as it is comparing two different roses.

Just to say up front, this is not a compare-and-contrast between Beauty and Rose Daughter. Now, how about when that author returns to the same fairy tale twenty years later? Can the same magic be made a second time with Rose Daughter? When the stars align to not only give you a novel-length retelling of your favorite fairy tale, but also fresh and quality characters with breezy storytelling, it’s a good day indeed.

That book was called Beauty, a novel-length retelling of Beauty and the Beast. During the freezing Wisconsin winter term of my junior year of college, I curled up with a classic novel from renowned fantasy writer Robin McKinley.

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley