I was lucky enough to borrow an ARC. I realize that that is a privilege and I really don't want to hurt sales for one of my favorite authors. BUT, I really didn't enjoy this book, largely because I took a strong dislike to the heroine.
This has been my least favorite book of McKinley's, topped only by Deerskin which I found too painful to re-read due to its subject matter. I was really looking forward to this one!
BTW, I knew going in that this was going to end on a cliff-hanger and that Book 2 was still being written. This was not a problem for me because it turned out to be much less 'fraught' than I was expecting. In fact, I was glad that there was finally some action going on--even if mostly off-stage.
That was one of my main problems with this book. It went on-and-on-and-on-and-ON with internal monologues, Sylvi's whining and explaining everything at length but with very little happening. Not a lot of action, and the most intriguing happening off-stage.
My second problem is that I took a strong dislike to the heroine Sylvi. (Robin McKinley is known for her strong heroines so Sylvi was expecially disappointing to me.) This is a girl who has EVERYTHING! She's a princess, the only daughter, has two loving and supporting smart and caring parents, 3 loving and supporting brothers, dedicated and caring servants and teachers. She has THE SPARKLY MAGIC GIFT of being the ONLY one who is able to talk to the amazing Pegasi, her countries allies and SPARKLY MAGIC BEAUTIFUL AMAZING creatures who are everything that you can think of and who are fully sentient with a fully developed culture and religion of their own. Plus she is bonded with the most amazing beautiful Pegasi Prince who becomes her best friend for ever and ever and who she is able to talk and joke with mind to mind. (Writing this is making me think of Bella and Edward for some reason. But I haven't read Twilight so maybe I'm wrong in this. Of course Edward Cullen is vampire and Ebon is Pegasi, I know that.)
Not only does Sylvi have all these advantages, but she is also the only human (or nearly) who is able to experience flight. Her only flaw, is that of being small for her size which she bemoans ad nauseum throughout the book and which, again, turns out to be to her advantage, because not only is she able to communicate with the Pegasi, be BFF with Ebon--the most sparkly, charming, hot (for a Pegasi), mind-connect and joke around with him, but he also enables her to fly by carrying her on his back when they sneak out at night!
Well, what does this young woman do with all these magical gifts and opportunities you say? Very little I'm afraid. She is incredibly passive, whiny, and doesn't do much of anything--even when she really really needs to. (And has a responsibility to her family, her country, and her allies and friends the Pegasi to do so!) She just talks. And talks. And talks. And moans to herself. She does get to do some really neat things when she visits the Pegasi as well as become even more of the magical/sparkly/annointed by-the-gods/chosen one/human.
Well! That sounds terrible. I'm being really snarky! I would hate to discourage anyone from reading this book! But it really didn't work for me, obviously. Maybe if I were still 13? But I'm not and passive and ineffective heroines don't really work for me anymore--I don't have the patience for them. Plus there was so little that actually happened in this book action-wise, that I feel it really should have been condensed to about 3-5 chapters of a synopsis and added to the beginning of Book 2, or told in a flashback. Sylvi is no Aerin, Sunshine or Harimad-sol. Maybe if I would have been younger, more patient, or one of those females who LOVED HORSES this would have worked for me?
I did really like the world RM created! I loved the Pegasi and the glimpses of their country, religion, culture, arts and crafts. That was fascinating and unique to me! BTW, the Pegasi' anatomy as described doesn't make sense to me. If I understand the description they have a wing like a bird or a bat that has a hand attached to the knuckle? Biologically and skeleton-wise, wouldn't this mean a hand attached to the knuckle end of a finger/wing bone? Then feathered? While horses are theoretically mammals? With hair. So feathers & hair...? And a hand on top of a finger? Magical creatures don't have to make sense, I guess.
I also loved Sylvi's parents and thought their story--which is only alluded to in this book--would have been something I would have loved to read. Danacor, Sylvi's brother had tons of possibilities, the history of the country is fascinating, the magical scary creatures were interesting, Ebon was a total fantasy male soulmate (in spite of being equine, as I mentioned before. And his family is also very interesting. But unfortunately most of the book was filled with Sylvi's interminable unspoken rambling monologue and I grew to dislike her by the end of the book.
Well! I'm now looking forward to the next book (Pegasus II). Because I have hope that now I've waded through the world set-up that I will finally get some action. And maybe, just maybe, it might focus on someone more interesting than Sylvi??? Or that just maybe she might grow up a little and be more interesting and do something to justify her having all these advantages and magical sparkling abilities that would make her worthwhile heroine material?
If anyone actually reads through this looooong rambling rant of a review, and if you want to, please comment after you've read the book. Am I crazy? Did this book work for you? Why? Did the issues that bothered me affect you at all? I'm really starting to doubt myself. Please comment if you feel to.
I also want to stress that Robin McKinley is one of my VERY FAVORITE authors. Please let me encourage you to go out and read everything that she's written. She's that good! That's why I'm wondering if I'm overreacting here. Maybe when I go back and re-read it, I'll like it better. I often do.
But now? Should have been a 4, I enjoyed like a 2, rounded out to a 3 for the world and characters (except Sylvi) and potential for next book.
![Bud Bud](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126238806/724276731.jpg)
Beauty by Robin McKinley Summary
The New York Times–bestselling author of Rose Daughter reimagines the classic French fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast. I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour. . . . My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old. . . . I said: ‘Huh! I’d rather be Beauty.’ . . . By the time it was evident that I was going to let the family down by being plain, I’d been called Beauty for over six years. . . . I wasn’t really very fond of my given name, Honour, either . . . as if ‘honourable’ were the best that could be said of me. The sisters’ wealthy father loses all his money when his merchant fleet is drowned in a storm, and the family moves to a village far away. Then the old merchant hears what proves to be a false report that one of his ships had made it safe to harbor at last, and on his sad, disappointed way home again he becomes lost deep in the forest and has a terrifying encounter with a fierce Beast, who walks like a man and lives in a castle. The merchant’s life is forfeit, says the Beast, for trespass and the theft of a rose—but he will spare the old man’s life if he sends one of his daughters: “Your daughter would take no harm from me, nor from anything that lives in my lands.” When Beauty hears this story—for her father had picked the rose to bring to her—her sense of honor demands that she take up the Beast’s offer, for “cannot a Beast be tamed?” This “splendid story” by the Newbery Medal–winning author of The Hero and the Crown has been named an ALA Notable Book and a Phoenix Award Honor Book (Publishers Weekly).