Beauty-Robin McKinley

I've been meaning to read this book for a couple years now. I've really enjoyed most of McKinley's books, and only disliked a couple, so I knew I'd be in for a treat with this one. I wasn't disappointed.

This book was so well paced. It reads very easy, with no convoluted long sentences that I've found in other McKinley books. I liked that she stayed quite close to the original fairy tale in her adaptation. I also really liked the characters in this book. The fairy tale focuses on Beauty and her father, but this book made her sisters convincing and sympathetic characters, and I really enjoyed that. Occasionally Beauty's stubbornness was annoying, but this was very minor. It really was only annoying when she insisted how plain she was, even when others told her otherwise. However, I didn't find it realistic that she somehow had gotten pretty red hair by the end. Unless I'm mistaken, hair can't turn red from blonde. People have to be born with it. But that obviously is a very minor annoyance and I'm rambling now.

Overall, this is a great adaptation on the classic tale Beauty and the Beast. Well written and very enjoyable, it's one of my favourite McKinley books. 4 stars!

In the Forests of Serre-Patricia A. McKillip

I really enjoyed this book. I've never read a book by McKillip, but I think in the future I'll have to. I really loved her writing style in this book. It was languid and flowed well, like a dream or a fairy tale. I loved all the fairy tale elements in this book. I don't think I've read a book like this in a while. Her writing style is very well done, with an excellent choice of words. She knows what should be said and what doesn't need to be. I think the book ended well; the conflict was resolved, but I was left still wondering at what might happen to a couple of the characters. The little bit of wonder left at the end of this book was just perfect. Overall I greatly enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it to lovers of fairy tales. 4 stars.