Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge

by Jensen Lisa

Filled with magic and fierce emotion, Lisa Jensen's multilayered novel will make you question all you think you know about beauty, beastliness, and happily ever after.

They say Château Beaumont is cursed. But servant-girl Lucie can’t believe such foolishness about handsome Jean-Loup Christian Henri LeNoir, Chevalier de Beaumont, master of the estate. But when the chevalier's cruelty is revealed, Lucie vows to see him suffer. A wisewoman grants her wish, with a spell that transforms Jean-Loup into monstrous-looking Beast, reflecting the monster he is inside. But Beast is nothing like the chevalier. Jean-Loup would never patiently tend his roses; Jean-Loup would never attempt poetry; Jean-Loup would never express remorse for the wrong done to Lucie. Gradually, Lucie realizes that Beast is an entirely different creature from the handsome chevalier, with a heart more human than Jean-Loup’s ever was. Lucie dares to hope that noble Beast has permanently replaced the cruel Jean-Loup — until an innocent beauty arrives at Beast’s château with the power to break the spell.

• ISBN10: 0763688800
• ISBN13: 9780763688806
• Publish Date: 10 July 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Candlewick Press,U.S.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780763688806

Reviews

[Empress of Sass]

Spoilers contained in this review.

I am shocked at this take on Beauty and the Beast. Horrific message and plot aside, the writing style of this book is a slog. There is very little dialogue and the majority of the book is told in the protagonist’s meandering and dull inner narrative.

The twist in this retelling is that despite being raped by the human form of the Beast, our heroine needs to stop letting revenge and hate for that man consume her and instead forgive him, because it was the evil human who did it and not the beast. Apparently the Beast is his true soul and the actions of the human were the real curse. Lucie forgives and absolves the Beast, because “it wasn’t him who raped her and countless others, it was his cursed Jean Loup the evil Chevalier form, so totally not his fault at all “. Not only does she forgive him but she falls in love with him and they end up together.

I’m honestly floored that this story was told in this way, romanticizing a love story with a rapist and preaching that the victim also had a lesson to her in the form of letting her hate and vengeance go. This is by far my worst read of the year and possibly of the last few years too. I do not recommend it.