Review: Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani

At last, I have read this book of stunning dark fairy tale retellings. Of course I would read this, as I adore Soman and all his books. Reading his new versions of old tales was every kind of amazing. I'm giving this book four stars, though, as I did love these stories, but did not completely love them. But they were truly incredible.

What I loved most about these twelve stories was that they were all diverse. They were all fantastic. Some had hopeful and good endings, some had dark and evil endings, haha. They were all different from the original fairy tales we know. But, confession. I have never read any of them. Only seen the Disney movies, ha.

I'm having trouble figuring out to write down my thoughts about this book. I will not be writing too much about it, as it was a pretty short and easy read. And there were twelve different stories. At first I thought it would be longer versions of the stories that are in The School for Good and Evil books, as all these fairy tales have a story in those books as well. But no. These twelve tales were all new. Except for the last one, which I am certain is canon from the first series. Which I very much loved. I liked the writing a lot. It was different, which is one of the reasons this is a four star and not five, as I had a little trouble with it. But I grew to love the writing and I never had trouble enjoying the stories. All were awesome. I loved that the stories were new and different. I so loved how they were all dark. I loved that many of them were gay.

This book tells the story of twelve fairy tales. Red Riding Hood. Snow White. Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel. Jack and the Beanstalk. Hansel and Gretel. Beauty and the Beast. Bluebeard. Cinderella. Peter Pan. The Little Mermaid. Rumpelstiltskin. I will not be writing about all of them, but will share a little. They were all four stars for me. I loved how different they were from the tales that I know. Different in a good way. I wish they all had a good ending, though. Some were all kinds of sad. Rude. But all of them were so incredible.

If I need to choose a favorite story, I think it would be Hansel and Gretel. Because that one had the actual best ending, I think, ha. Despite that very evil beginning. Shudders. But the ending was good. The story I wanted most to have a good ending was Beauty and the Beast. Which had the worst ending ever. Sobs. The rudest. The Little Mermaid had the shortest ending, but might have had the most easy ending there was. Peter Pan had the saddest ending, to be honest. But also the most beautiful romance, which I loved.

There was so much to love about these stories. And I think you should all most definitely read all of them. They were very much like The School for Good and Evil books, yet different too. It seemed like the same world. And yet they are not the same tales we get to read a little of in the books. Except for the Peter Pan one. Which was so good but so sad too. Okay, all the stories were sad, haha. But a little hopeful too. As most of them did have happy endings. I loved the characters in all of these stories. They were all special.

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales were just as beautiful and beastly as I thought it would be. Despite me not loving it to pieces, I still loved it a whole lot, and these stories were so precious to me. I think you will all love these tales. They are diverse and gay and so lovely. Okay, so dark and evil at times, but still amazing. Rumpelstiltskin may be the one I will remember most, as the girl had some real bad luck yet ending was pretty good. I can't wait to read even more books by Soman. His stories are always the best.

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