The Beast's Heart

January 1, 2019
Shallcross' debut is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the beast's point of view. After the beast tricks her father into taking one of his roses, Isabeau arrives at his dusty chateau and agrees to keep him company for a year. Over the months, their friendship develops through poetry, music, and magical-house-provided fireworks and mulled wine, despite Isabeau's mysterious nightmares and the Beast's continued proposals in his hopes of breaking the spell. Parts of the story remain overly attached to classic versions of this tale: the Beast's despondency often comes off as emotionally manipulative, and the end-goal for all of the women in the novel is portrayed as marriage. But Shallcross does well to use the magic mirror as a device giving the reader a window into the social world of Isabeau's family; unlike in the original tale, Isabeau's sisters redeem themselves, becoming contented, hard-working women. Isabeau and her two sisters provide the emotional core of Shallcross' retelling, and the emotion-rich romances and family relationships of this book are what keep it so compelling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)