Rose Daughter

You know the story of the Beauty and the Beast. Of course you do. Disney even made a movie, right?
You know nothing.
Rose Daughter is a lyrical, fantastic and grounded retelling of the fairy tale. Three sisters, reduced by penury by their father's bankruptcy, remake their lives in a remote cottage surrounded by rose bushes.
The oldest daughter disguises herself and becomes a groom to work with the horses she loves, and the middle daughter discovers a passion and talent for sewing and becomes a renowned seamstress. The third daughter, Beauty, tends their ailing father and makes the cottage garden prosper and the roses bloom for the first time in decades.
This is a YA, so not all that long, and I can't really bear to tell you more of the show more plot because it's just so beautiful. And I'm not being ironic here. The language made me want to put on slippers of gold cloth and dance, or dig my fingers in the dirt - go read it. There are strong themes of family – the three sisters who learn to value themselves – and family - the three sisters who learn to value each other – and the glory of love. show less

Everyone knows the story of Beauty and the Beast. What makes McKinley's Rose Daughter different is the treatment of Beast. Yes, the moral of the story still stands that true love is blind and even a beast can find love...eventually. Yes, Beauty is selfless and kind, a lover of all nature (even bats and toads), but missing is the feeling she is a prisoner; that she is trapped with the beast. In Rose Daughter she can go home at any time. All she has to do is tend to the Beast's roses to repay him for the dark red one her father stole. The other major difference is that Beauty does not end up with a charming prince at the end. I greatly appreciated the choices she had to make, especially the one at the end.
As an aside: Straight away you show more know you are in for a treat when a bad-tempered dragon on a leash is introduced on the very first page. show less

I was decidedly unimpressed. Or impressed, for all the wrong reasons.

This meanders along, with plenty of minuscule descriptions of the mundane and not much substance to the characters or the story.

If form over substance books are your thing: go for it. Otherwise, maybe not.

I found it rather tedious.

However, I'm willing to give the author another chance and will, eventually, read Beauty - allegedly that one's much better.

"Rose Daughter" is Robin McKinley's second take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, and boy did I have trouble with it as a teenager. I think it is because it is definitely a more mature look at the story; I just reread it for the second time after several years and this time around I understood the intent behind this new rendition.
This isn't intended to be cryptic, just to explain that as an idealist teenager, there were some things I didn't "get" about McKinley's new version.
One very interesting aspect of the story is that it is much more directly allegorical than her first book, "Beauty." In this retelling, Beauty's sisters are named "Jeweltongue" and "Lionheart," and they interact with characters such as the seamstress, "Mrs. show more Bestcloth," and the squire, "Mr. Trueword." The core of the story is the familiar arch of the merchant's family that loses everything in financial ruin, and moves to the country in their hardship. Of course Beauty sacrifices herself in order to save her father when he steals a rose from the castle of a mysterious Beast, and of course she ends up falling in love with this Beast. But the depth with which McKinley paints the experience of loneliness, regret, and heartbreak is something quite beautiful to read, and hard to describe in just a few short paragraphs. Read this for a moving love story (one with a lot of beautiful descriptions of roses). show less

Compared to Beauty, Rose Daughter is (in my opinion) softer, gentler and rather like looking at the familiar tale through a veil...it's slightly fuzzy and shimmery around the edges. Both versions are slow moving, almost pastoral in nature, there is the beast, but we are absent the menacing feel that many retellings of this particular story have. The main "negatives" about Rose daughter are the lack of depth in the Beauty and Beast characters (which I don't know really makes all that much difference in the end) and the utter cacophony of rose talk...there are endless pages of rose gardening, pruning, planting, musing about roses, dreams about them, looking at them, admiring them, talking about them...by the end, I was feeling beat about show more the head and shoulders with all the rose references and talk. It's clear the author is very in love with roses and the gardening thereof, but I could have done with less of it in the book myself.

In the end, I'm left with the feeling that the individual characters where not so much important as the overall story...the traditional elements are all there...ruined merchant family, three sisters, move to the country, fathers trip to the city for the ship that returned, father gets lost in the woods and finds beast/castle, father takes rose, beast demands daughter, daughter goes to castle/beast and on and on. As in her previous book, the two older daughters are NOT vain, spoiled and mean-spirited nor are any of the daughters all that put out about having such a drastic change of lifestyle. Here again, beauty is hard working, industrious and initially the most helpful of the daughters.

This version is looser, the bones of the original are there and there ARE a lot of similarities between Rose Daughter and Beauty...but where beauty focuses a lot more on the relationship between the Beauty and the Beast, this one feels more focused on the family and how they endeavored and prospered without Beauty and on the back-story of how the Beast came to be...and this time it goes beyond the simple shallow, callousness of a young and vain prince...and I rather liked that about this version. Additionally the use of magic is prominent in both, but is very different in Rose Daughter...darker and more ever present I think is the best way to describe it. There are illusions about a curse and how that all plays out in the end is an interesting twist to the tale.

Overall, I think people who loved beauty and who cannot get past comparing the two may not fully enjoy Rose Daughter...this is a different kind of tale (so very similar, yet strikingly different); its shorter, choppier, doesn't pay as much attention to the main characters as one might think it should, and the ending IS a kind of happily ever after...but not in the way we'd all think, and I think despite it being a good ending, the reality of it is too much for people to accept. For me, I'm good with it, the story is reminiscent of the original feel of fairy tales...Rose Daughter is rich in details and a magically enthralling world but it's vague and fuzzy at the same time. What I mean is that as in most of the original stories there are details or gaps in the story that leave you wondering but...or how...some string of events could possibly work out that way...there is a it of unreality to it that gives the reader pause and for some, that's too uncomfortable a thing to have happen in a story. For me, it comes down to having JUST enough to wonder about (a few loose ends that never really go anywhere) that Rose Daughter lingers, conjuring alternatives that might have been and enjoying over again what was wonderful about this version and in my mind and that's a good think in my book.

In the end, I can enjoy both of McKinley's versions of Beauty and the Beast...for different reasons. I give Rose Daughter a sold A, it's just as readable for me and every bit as enjoyable. I'd recommend it in a heart beat for anyone who enjoys reading revisioned fairy tales...for those addicted to McKinley's usual style of writing or who simply adored Beauty beyond all measure, these readers may have trouble enjoying Rose Daughter because it is a departure from her usual writing style. show less

The most amazing thing about this book is that it is so completely different from Ms. McKinley's first re-writing of beauty and the beast. Almost everything about the first book is turned on its head in this re-telling - and yet, I love it equally well. Some things I thought were fun: all the names of people (and even places) are descriptive (Lionheart, Jeweltongue, Longchance). They all suggest things about character and fit well with the main characters (whose names are certainly roles too). The roses are a treasure trove for any rose gardener - there is so much about them. The scents and colors and personalities are all loving described as only someone who loves roses could do. I liked the ending - the idea that love can transcend show more appearance and it doesn't have to be rewarded in the end with perfection (physical or otherwise). Very satisfying to read this re-visiting of the famous fairy tale - and the author's note at the end is a bonus! show less

I spent most of this thinking I liked this more than Beauty, and I think I still do--the ending just has me bewildered and mildly annoyed. 4* still because it was gorgeous, dreamy and rich with description I feel I could smell and taste, but that's just McKinley... which also unfortunately makes it SLOWWW... as a retelling, it doesn't stick nearly as close to the source as Beauty does, adds a wild set of magic... I hesitate to say rules or systems at all, none of it makes any real solid sense... just magic... and lore which changes the purpose of the Beast I don't entirely understand the purpose of the paintings--I figured it would wind up the same as always, the Beast changed due to hubris and greed and avarice and Beauty seeing the show more paintings and recognizing him... but they were just there and for what given the Beast was really the kind philosopher and not the villain of the original story?? and again the ending was not ideal, but also after reading the author's note I wonder if she simply felt like changing it up that much in comparison to her first retelling but why like that lmaooo kind of defeats the purpose of the original fairytale?? Many people have mentioned it makes them feel gross and I would like to concur bro I do not like that. I don't know. This is an odd one for a retelling. However, pretty if slow. Do not understand the reason for all the sorcerer strife or even what they DO in GENERAL. Shoutout to cats and to ghosts and to sisters who fight for love.

Edit, later… this is one of the books where I actually am going to lower the rating later because I think about it and am simply befuddled… the ending, mostly, to continue to reiterate myself, but many other things.
However, I’d also like to acknowledge the deliberate storytelling Beauty takes a hold of in one particularly trippy scene and knowing she’ll tell the story later, and the layers of stories the surrounding characters narrate to create the tapestry of curse and rhyme and reason which the Beast and the greenwitch are entangled in—by their own doing—but it’s gorgeous and so very McKinley. not enough to rescue the rating unfortunately. show less