I've been waiting a while to read this one... 'Beauty and the Beast' retellings are right up there for me alongside 'Hades and Persephone' ones. And as this is the official twist on the tale, I had high hopes! Sadly however, they weren't quite as fulfilled as I'd hoped.

Firstly, I do love the premise that Belle's mother is the Enchantress. It adds a whole other layer to the canon version of the story, but the retelling goes into far more depth, giving you a proper backstory for Maurice and Rosalind. Though it's not hugely detailed, the worldbuilding really enhances the experience, giving explanations and justification for the Enchantress' actions. This makes it so much better than the brief retelling of a Christian parable that the original tale includes with no real context. I enjoyed the focus this whole portion of the story relieved, and the dual tineline shifts between Rosalind and Belle's stories really worked for me.

Unfortunately, I didn't find a lot else to rave about. Apart from the ending, Belle's story broadly follows the canon version of events, so there is very little that jumps out at you. Even the 'big' changes don't feel like they have much if an impact to the overall tale. I think the sweetest bit is Belle trying to teach the Beast to cook, but yeah, there aren't a great number of meaningful revisions, which makes the whole thing fall a bit flat.

Likewise, basically everyone you recognise feels totally out of character. The Beast is just a petulant teenager rather than an ugly soul turned good by the power of love. Gaston is a soft, bumbling idiot more often than not (although he does have an inkling of the mean streak). Even Belle just doesn't chime with her movie counterpart - somehow she's harder, and perhaps more modern feeling. The lack of familiarity made it so much harder sink in and enjoy. I also wasn't hugely impressed with the replacement villain of the piece. It felt a bit pointless when  you already have such a good villain in Gaston that you could use, and while it wasn't hard to follow why things turned out the way they did, it doesn't make for the most thrilling villain arc.

Generally speaking, the writing and layout us quite patchy in places - there are certain a few typos in my copy, and several instruments where a character is experiencing a flashback or memory, but there is nothing to separate it from the main text - you only realise you're looking into their mind when you're half way down the page and it suddenly dawns on you why you're suddenly reading about a different setting! 

This is my third Twisted Tales, and so far they've been average at best. However, the ones I've read have all been by this author. I have two more on my TBR shelf, both by different authors, so I will.give those a go at some point to see if it's a series problem, or an author problem for me.

The definition of I don't how to feel. There are some core elements of the book I really liked once everything came together but I really felt let down by the first half of the book.

I'll start with the negatives first. My first negative is the beginning of the book, we did not get enough build up and it felt like it was going for a whole knew Twisted story whilst also trying to stick to the movie. It might just be my taste personally but I just couldn't get into it at all which didn't help with the fact that the characters personality felt off. Really did pick up for me in the second half though.

Did not like the characterisation of Belle at the beginning of the book. The Beast was understandble as that's the whole point of the original movie but Belle didn't feel like herself. It was like she was one of the people who constantly critise the story. Her hostility to the servants was also weird as in the films even when she didn't know they were cursed, she trusted the servants a lot more than the beast. It unfortunately spoilt my enjoyment a lot.

Finally, I appreciate the story they were trying to tell but it should have been longer with more chapters from The Enchantress pov. There's a lot Braswell could have done with this narrative but I feel like she didn't do enough. The Enchantress being Belles mother was just their for motivation. I would have loved more flashbacks and a longer established redemption and apology for literally cursing an eleven year old boy. I loved the Enchantress in this but I was expecting more.

Positives, this one actually bumped up my enjoyment of the book and gained it half a star. The mystery of what happened to the Encharmtes is a huge hook in the book and leads to some dark, shocking and disturbing. We know some stuff but don't know everything until we're trying to solve the mystery with Belle and Beast. I truly never expected things to go so dark and that's good because a good mystery needs to leave you speechless when you get the answers you were searching for. 
If your a parent do not give this to your child if they're not 15 as this is definitely for older YA readers. Stuff gets dark really part and that was a huge hook for me.

As well as being probably one of the Darkest Beauty And The Beasts retellings it leans into heavy subliminal messaging and has a good moral to pass onto the readers. As a marginalised person the treatment of the Encharmtes hit deep. No more beauty is found within being the only message, we also learn how important to not harm or hurt people we do not understand. It's especially relevant to what's happening in modern times with political leaders but I won't spoil. Its so important that media starts teaching our youth that difference is not less or scary through the Encharmtes. Braswell doesn't execute this perfectly but she does it in a respectful and sensitive way.

Finally, I'd say I loved the fact that the horrors of the curse was developed more. The live action film touched on it a little bit but this really leans into it and it allows for High Stakes as the novel processes. Won't spoil but it creates some really suspenseful and horrifying moments that Disney would never even consider putting on the big screen. I'm also impressed that this is written well in a way that doesn't bleed into the adult genre instead of YA. 

Overall not the best but it was enjoyable and made me think a lot. Definitely recommend checking out if your a Beauty And The Beast fan but maybe pass if your not into dark stories with real life undertones.