Rose And The Beast: fairy tales retold by francesca lia Block

This book was really great. Often with the retelling of a popular story there is the potential to fail miserably, as so many people know and love the original. Even taking the bare bones of a story and (like Cinderella for example) and using it as a plot line for other stories wherein you can clearly see the reference can go horribly wrong because there are so many examples of this story being told correctly and well... that is is somewhat admirable for an author to take on these stories and succeed as did this author.

The book is a collection of short stories, the retold fairy tales being snow white, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Rose Red and Rose White, Blue Beard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen.

The author has a very lyrical style of writing that leaves you with an almost evanescent interaction with the emotions she's throwing at you... kind of reminiscent of Patricia Mckillip, but not that intense. Some of the fairy tales are modernized and some aren't, but all of them take a different look the fairy tale in question, staying close enough to the original that you can clearly relate it, but looking at it from different angles, making it almost a different story. The plot doesn't change, the perspectives do.

Definitely a successful attempt.