Jennifer Baker (1)

So, story time. When I was in school, I had a purple folder I reused for classes. As all my folders, it was covered in doodles, reminders, and scribbles. And one day I noticed in a small section was written "The Rose - Jennifer Baker". I have no idea when I wrote this or why I wrote this. My guess is it was middle school and it was a book one of my crushes was reading. One year passes into another and another and another and I rediscover it. And I forget about it. Then I rediscover it. And then forget about it again. This continues until I finally put it on my to-read list.

It's... it's not good. It says it's a "modern take" on Beauty and the Beast, but it sure as hell feels like it was made by and for the Disney movie. The father is an inventor (though this time he's a fisherman). There's a scene just like the "Bonjour" sequence where Belle goes around her high school and talks to all the characters. Gaston is there (and this time he's a bro, like the preppy guy in all the eighties movies). There's an enchantress, a ticking clock rose, a Mrs. Potts (the maid), and a fuzzy beast.

However, there is a fix to one aspect -- Belle is supposed to be the protagonist, but she never really learns anything. She was right all along. It's Beast who has to change, and this book focuses more on that. We get more of his perspective, his back story, and loads of his angst.

But the plot never deviates from the path laid out by the cartoon. I was hoping this would be closer to the Charles Perrault tale, where Belle has two spoiled sisters and her father is a merchant. But nope, it's like someone wrote fan fiction and said "It's Beauty and the Beast... but in modern day!" except you've got to do more than just fast-forward one hundred years to have an original story.… (more)