McKinley: Beauty or Rose Daughter??

So i'm a little confused with Beauty and Rose Daughter. Would you recommend one over the other, or should I read both?

They are very different. Beauty is pretty much a straight-forward fairytale telling in my mind. Rose Daughter is more stripped down and almost abstract in places; it feels more like a fantasy novel than a fairytale to me if that makes sense.

I love them both. I'd be hardpressed to recommend one over the other.

Beauty was first and a wonderful story, one I've loved for years. The best version of this story I'd ever read. Then Rose Daughter was written, by a more mature McKinley who is now questioning some of the fairy tale tropes--and I love it too. By all means, read them both.

Agreed with both of the above commenters: they're completely different books, written at completely different points in McKinley's life, and you should absolutely read them both.

I really prefer Beauty. Rose Daughter became rather bizarre at the end *stops there to avoid spoilers*

...a more mature McKinley who is now questioning some of the fairy tale tropes...

Didn't she always do that?

To answer your question, "Beauty or Rose Daughter," I'd have to resoundingly reply, "YES!"

So, yeah. Both. Definitely.

Like wisewoman, I much prefer Beauty. As much as I love Robin Mckinley's books (she is one of my favorite authors), Rose Daughter has always felt like it has too many unrelated ideas thrown together and they just don't all fit. The writing is beautiful, but the story never made much sense to me.

But I would of course suggest reading both to make up your own mind.

Unlike wisewoman and bluesalamanders, if I had to choose one or the other, I would choose Rose Daughter. ESPECIALLY because of the ending. :)

I'm not sure which one I would recommend. Rose Daughter is probably the more complex fantasy. The 13 year old inside me, though, loves Beauty with all my heart (their heart?).

I think the most enjoyable part about reading these books is seeing what one author can do with one story. I'm always amazed at how differently this story is told in the two books. I can't read one without HAVING to go and read the other right away.

Both of these books are amazing. I loved Beauty but Rose Daughter has something to it that the other doesn't. I relate more to the character from Beauty, but the castle and grounds in Rose Daughter is more fantastical than any other one. By all means, read both - it won't take that long!

Both. :) Actually, read all of her stuff you can get your hands on, because she's never written a bad book.

I like Beauty over Rose Daughter, but only because I picked it up when I was 11 or 12 and fell more in love with it than I had any other book in my life. It's in my top ten best books of all time (strangely, all of those books were books I read between the ages of 9 and 14...).

Beauty is one of the books that convinced me to be a writer.

But I've read Rose Daughter 2 or 3 times too.

Thank you all, I shall read them both.

I agree, read both! Beauty first (for your impatient inner 13 year old), then Rose Daughter.
My favorite of her books will always be The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword though. Unless Chalice turns out to be super awesome.

Flemmily, which would be your favorite of those two? The Hero and the Crown or The Blue Sword? I'll tell you mine after I hear from some of the rest of you too.

16 ronincats

That's not a fair choice! I love both of those almost equally. Possibly The Blue Sword a bit more because Harry is easier to relate to than Aerin, but Hero was my first McKinley, I've read it so many times over the years that I practically know it by heart...

However, my favorite McKinley is Sunshine.

I'm looking forward to Chalice, though - I've heard it's fantastic, and Dragonhaven was a sore disappointment.

I do like the Blue Sword more than Hero but only a little.
Sunshine was really good as well..and I actually also really liked Dragonhaven-I know a lot of people were disappointed by it but I liked the world, the main character, and the ending a lot

I could never choose between The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword!!! They're such different books, for all that they're set in the same world.

And I adore Deerskin and I love Sunshine, too!

But I certainly wasn't a huge fan of Dragonhaven, sadly. I wanted to like it. But...no, not really. I liked aspects of it. The idea of a dragon preserve was fun, and I liked the dragons themselves.

But to be honest, I didn't like the fact that she went into SO much detail about the ending and wrapped up all of the plot elements so far down into the future. I mean, I always loved that line at the end of Hero and the Crown, where she says of Aerin: "And the not-quite-mortal part of her did sleep, that she might love her king and her country." To me, it said everything necessary about Aerin's future as queen AND her future with Luthe, without having to nail it all down. It let me dream!

Maybe it's because I, too, read Beauty when I was young, but I still prefer it to Rose Daughter. I didn't think Rose Daughter added enough to what was already said in Beauty to make it worth having written a separate book (not that it was bad or anything). I wish the best elements of both could be combined.

My favorite is Deerskin. It's one of the few books I've read that truly scared me.

Deerskin is good, but it's um...not exactly a fuzzy read, you know? I spent the entire book terrified someone was going to die...or worse. I'll probably read it again though. I re-read all of her stuff at one point or another.

If your choice is between Beauty: a retelling of the story of Beauty and The Beast or Rose Daughter, read Beauty. Maybe it's girlish of me, but I loved the dress descriptions, and Greatheart. I also really wanted the Beast's library!
Between The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown... I preferred Hero and Crown, but only because I like the more traditional fairy tales - and I liked Talat.
Has anyone read Brair Rose also by Robin McKinley? That was a rather weird fairy tale - much more contemporary and real than some of her others.

Do you mean some McKinley story that I haven't heard of or Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (which matches the description) or another Briar Rose
http://www.librarything.com/search_works.php?q=briar+rose ?

ok I just reread them both and I definitely prefer Beauty. Rosedaughter is more about long descriptions than plot.

22 Scooby

Do you mean Spindle's End? I really like it, but it's not one of her most popular.

Wow, first post in this group and from a topic which last message was on August 22. But I had to start somewhere. :p

I read 'Beauty' somewhat recently and although I thought it was nicely written, it was also obviously written by an author who was maturing. It was more dry and less lyrical than others of hers I've read (Sunshine comes to mind, one of my favorites).

It was also entirely too close to the fairytale story we know, which actually took away from it. Usually one expects a retelling to present something a bit different or new from what you're used (Gregory Maguire's novels are examples of this), but 'Beauty' didn't really deliver that. I felt like I was reading the original tale, only a bit more fleshed out on some details, but otherwise identical.

I have 'Rose Daughter' in my TBR pile so I can't really compare the two.

I love Beauty, and Blue Sword. Rose Daughter and Hero never quite clicked with me - they're good, but not the wonder of the first two for me.

One thing though - don't read Hero, Blue Sword and Beauty in close succession. They're way too similar in the heroines - the misunderstood, goodhearted girl who is quite certain she's a failure and, suddenly and not by her own actions (at least mostly) gets thrust into a situation where she is the hero...and doesn't believe it until everyone assures her....

Each is good, the three together are bleah. IMHO.

I initially read The Blue Sword whilst in Mongolia (where better place to read about wild places and adventures on horses??) and fell in love with it but it was a borrowed copy so after a few weeks I got that one and The Hero and the Crown and reread them

The Blue Sword remains my favourite..........I don't think I would like either of them as much had I read The Hero and the Crown first, I needed the hints of the past legends and the telling of the country as it becomes to make it so fascinating to me.

I haven't read any of her others though.

I just recently finished off the box set, A Robin McKinley Collection and thought all three books; The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown and Spindle's End were decent, although The Hero and the Crown is by far my favorite McKinley yet.

Generally I didn't really care for Beauty: A retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast and would say I enjoy her original tales more as opposed to her fairy tale retellings.

So what did you think of Spindle's End? It's highly modified, but it's definitely a familiar fairy tale retold...

I did like Spindle's End better than Beauty. Even though it was a re-telling, it was a much more original re-telling (hopefully that makes sense). There was only a very passing resemblance at all to the original story.

If anyone is interested I did full reviews of all three books under the A Robin McKinley Collection entry.