Beast

by Donna Jo Napoli

Meet the Beast-- before there was Beauty

Orasmyn is the prince of Persia and heir to the throne. His religion fills his heart and his mind, and he strives for the knowledge and leadership his father demonstrates. But on the day of the Feast of Sacrifices, Orasmyn makes a foolish choice that results in a fairy's wretched punishment: He is turned into a beast, a curse to be undone only by the love of a woman.

Thus begins Orasmyn's journey through the exotic Middle East and sensuous France as he struggles to learn the way of the beast, while also preserving the mind of the man. This is the story of his search, not only for a woman courageous enough to love him, but also for his own redemption.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fairy Tales, Romance, Retellings, Beauty and The Beast, Fiction

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. She loves to garden and bake bread, and even dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist.

At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder. But dear dear Taxi died in 2009.

She has five children, seven grandchildren, and currently lives outside Philadelphia. She received her BA in mathematics in 1970 and her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures in 1973, both from Harvard University, then did a postdoctoral year in Linguistics at MIT. She has since taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Swarthmore College. It was at UM that she earned tenure (in 1981) and became a full professor (in 1984). She has held visiting positions at the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Capital Normal University of Beijing (China), the University of Newcastle (UK), the University of Venice at Ca' Foscari (Italy), and the Siena School for the Liberal Arts (Italy) as well as lectured at the University of Sydney (Australia), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and held a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin. In the area of linguistics she has authored, coauthored, edited, or coedited 17 books, ranging from theoretical linguistics to practical matters in language structure and use, including matters of interest to d/Deaf people. She has held grants and fellowships from numerous sources, including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Sloan Foundation.

Reviews

[Zoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't say that I really enjoyed this book. It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, a story that I love, but in this case I didn't find that the retelling improved on the story at all. The premise is intriguing enough: this is Beast's story, starting from before he met Beauty and explaining how and why he came to be a Beast. Unfortunately, I thought the reason for his transformation was unsatisfying, the descriptions of his time as a beast were distasteful, and he was a pretty unlikeable character overall.

Beast is set in Persia, and the protagonist is a prince. As his servant is preparing a camel for sacrifice at a religious festival, he notices that the camel has a scar that makes it unfit for this sacrifice. The servant has no alternative camel ready, an oversight that could result in a severe penalty, possibly even death. The prince, who has a good heart and a dislike for the suffering of others, weighs the risks and benefits and decides that the camel should be sacrificed despite the flaw. This will save the servant and help the people, who receive portions of the meat. And, he reasons, God is merciful.

It's not entirely clear why this reasoning breaks down. The prince is turned into a beast (a lion, in particular) not by God, but by the angry spirit of the camel. I can't honestly say why the camel was angry, because it wasn't explained what exactly happens to an animal that is sacrificed inappropriately. For whatever reason, though, the prince is punished for his attempt to do good by being turned into a lion, and the curse will only be broken if he wins a woman's love (this part is explained by the camel being female, though again, the logic here isn't entirely clear to me). Needless to say, if the goal is to bring the Beast to life by providing his backstory, the backstory needs to make sense. I wasn't exactly satisfied in this regard.

So then the prince is a lion, and does lion things. Although as a man he has never laid eyes on a women other than his mother, his first act as a lion is to mate with some female lions in the palace hunting grounds. This wasn't described in very much detail, but I still could have done without it. I just didn't need to hear about his “thrusting”. Also, note that this is a YA book, or possibly even children's. The prince also spends a lot of his time hunting, which I didn't find very interesting. Basically, I wasn't really into the story until the requisite scene where Belle's father encounters the beast while seeking shelter from the storm; i.e., until Napoli's story converges with the traditional version. Unfortunately, this didn't happen until more than halfway through.

I did enjoy the development of the Beast's relationship to Belle, but I couldn't fully like him because of the way he treated her pet fox. This fox was possibly the best character in the story; he was loving, playful, loyal, forgiving, and basically wonderful all around. And the Beast constantly thought things along the lines of “What a stupid animal” or “That foolish fox....”, for no particular reason that I could see. I'm not sure how he changed from someone who seemed so compassionate initially into someone who thought badly about innocent animals; and no matter how well he treated Belle, I think his ideas about the fox were more telling about his personality.

So, an initially likeable man is transformed into a beast because he made a religious error while trying to help others; once he's a beast, he becomes less likeable rather than learning any sort of valuable lesson.

I've enjoyed other books by Donna Jo Napoli in the past, but I think I'll stick to Robin McKinley for Beauty and the Beast.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Proud, stupid, Orasmyn. Only a woman’s love can undo the curse. And no woman will ever love you.”

When Prince Orasmyn of Persia foolishly sacrifices a camel that has been deformed (a big no-no in Islam), he has no idea how big of a mistake he has made. Cursed by an evil fairy, he will now live out the rest of his days as a lion until he can find a woman to love him. But who could ever learn to love something so monstrous?

”I am a lion. And I will die a lion, for no human woman will ever love me.”

Of all the Beauty and the Beast retellings, very few tell the story from the opposite end of the spectrum. We all know what Belle does and how she feels.... but what about the Beast? It seems that all the retellings create a half-dimensional version of him. The one who looks menacing but it a kind, gentle soul on the inside. But how does he really feel? That’s what Donna Jo Napoli, fairy-tale reteller, extraordinaire, attempts to do. And for the most part, she succeeds. Interestingly enough, she chose not to base this off the Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont version (aka the Disney version). Rather, it’s based on the Charles Lamb version, which was itself set in Persia.

Napoli’s knack for research, linguistics, and authenticity to the original source never fail to amaze me. She is one of the few retellers out there who respectfully walks the line between putting her own spin on it while still being faithful to the original tale. Her descriptions of the surroundings and the characters emotions are unparalled. Prince Orasmyn is one of the most morally conflicted characters I’ve read about in a long time, and for half of the book he’s a lion. The fact that she got me to care for the emotions and feelings of a goddamn lion is pretty much a miracle.

There were some little issues I had with this book. First of all, there were so many plot holes that it gave Swiss Cheese a run for its money. For example, Orasmyn communicates with Belle by writing in French. Yet when we read about his previous life in the Persian palace, it’s not mentioned that he’s ever even learned French, yet alone had a chance to speak or write in French. And how the heck does a lion know how to write? If he were in true bestiality form, he wouldn’t know how to write, read, or comprehend the spoken or written word at all. It seems the author couldn’t make up her mind whether she wanted Orasmyn to be totally lion, or a lion with human characteristics. She was going for the latter, but in some instances (DON’T get me started on the lion sex), it seemed she wanted him to be full lion.

The second issue I had with this book was actually the character of Belle. This version of Belle I thought was rather flat affect. She either chatted aimlessly with the fix kit Chou Chou or pouted looking as if she would burst into tears at any given moment. Granted, when you’re being held captive by a mysterious looking lion who somehow knows how to write in a language he’s never spoken before, you’re bound to be stressed out. But the independent, feisty Belle we all know and love simply wasn’t there. There wasn’t anything particularly special about her at all, other than the fact that she’s supposedly the “Chosen One” who’ll love Orasmyn.

And finally, for a Beauty and the Beast retelling, the actual entrance of Belle and her storyline was extremely brief. The transformation scene? Sneeze and you’ll miss it? The bonding time between Belle and Orasmyn? It was there, but so rushed you don’t really get a feel for their love. The author spent a great deal of time setting up the world of Orasmyn that she seemingly forgot to flesh out and create the most important plot line of all.

So how does this rank among the seemingly endless sea of Beauty and the Beast retellings? Pretty darn high. The Belle could have been more fleshed out, as well as the romance, but for the most part this is a masterful, rich tale of bestiality, faith, hardship, and ultimately, forgiveness, love and acceptance. Highly recommended.

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hey author, your plot device is showing.

And not just little glimpses here and there; in this book they’re as naked as baby mole rats.

In fact, ‘Beast’ is basically one giant plot device to tell a fairytale, with awkward glimpses of a novel, instead of a novel that turns out, quite delightfully, to be a fairytale.
The premise is certainly interesting: Beauty and the Beast told from the Beast’s point of view. Ooh and he’s Persian too, how exotic!

But two chapters in I realized that it was going to be a major letdown. The book used words and sentences and paragraphs, but they didn’t seem to be doing the jobs that words and sentences and paragraphs are supposed to do: depict setting, report dialogue and, most importantly, flesh out characters. Here they are just vehicles for Napoli to use all the foreign words she found in her research. It’s as if, by sheer italic force, she is going to make the reader notice how much time she spent researching ancient Persia. “Look, look- I learned all these fancy words and by golly, I’m going to use every single one of them!”
Never mind that it breaks the flow of the narrative, never mind that a first person narrator wouldn’t mentally be stopping to define things, never mind that I didn’t come to read a hagiography of Persia, and please get on with the story.

But the real reason this book fails to engage the reader (though it is quite easy to read) is that Orasmyn, the character we are stuck through the whole book, is unbelievable.

Problem 1: He is a prince, the only son of the Shah of Persia, and he is a weakling.
This alone does not disqualify him as believable character but there is no reason at all WHY he is this way. What reason does he have to be scared of the hunt? Why does he hate sacrifice?
The fact that both his parents love him just the way he is struck another discordant note. The Shah of all Persia (and it seems rather a stretch to say that a mighty Shah would ever only have one child) loves his son even though his heir shows no inclination to fighting, war or any of the other duties a prince will one day assume. In fact, he’s pretty incompetent at everything. Surely his father would be at least a little frustrated with his play-in-the-roses son, if not downright hate him.

And here is where Napoli could have created a more believable Orasmyn #1. He would still be the weak, rose-loving prince but without his parents’ love. His father is ashamed of him, in fact, and is perhaps plotting to put an illegitimate son on the throne in his place, or perhaps he has a younger brother who outshines him and has the people’s love. The rose garden would then become a natural place of safety and retreat- a glimpse into the troubled soul of a troubled prince. The curse too could be centered around his own weaknesses- perhaps he summons a pari to find a way to defeat his usurping (Gaston-like) brother and she tricks him.

Which brings us to Problem 2: the curse. It’s lame.
I’m sorry, but killing a camel with a scar does not mean you deserve to get turned into a lion. And here is the confusing note- it’s hard to tell if Napoli agrees with this or not. Because it’s hard to tell how she feels about Islam in this story. At the beginning, one expects to see a bit of tension between native Zoastrianism and invading Islam. Orasmyn likes his native folklore and yet has a deep, unshakeable faith in Islam. But which one does he adhere to more? A novel would have highlighted this internal tension; this book is too busy defining words. Even more fundamental to the story: which religion is responsible for the curse?

The pari is Persian but the crime is against the Quran. So if Orasmyn believes more deeply in Islam, wouldn’t he eventually have to come to grips with the fact that his religion has turned him into a lion for disobeying a rather arbitrary rule that he really isn’t even responsible for? Wouldn’t that cause just a little bit of internal wrestling, perhaps even a crisis of faith?

Problem 3: Orasmyn is a lion.
At the beginning, one assumes that as time will pass he will grow more and more leonine. I began imagine a great struggle as the human side of Orasmyn fights to retain his identity, to battle against the beast-like side of his nature. This does occur, but there is no alternating lion personality to create a true struggle.

In fact, as a lion, Orasmyn is pretty terrible. He can’t hunt, can hardly fend for himself, and just sort of wanders around moping over his life. I was hoping for passages told completely through a lion’s eyes- a lion who has always been a lion, who acts solely on instinct and resents this strange mind that keeps intruding into his own.

Back and forth passages between Orasmyn and the lion would have been awesome- 1st person to 3rd person and back again, at least in the second part, which consists mostly of Orasmyn walking around and eating cats.

In fact, the first two parts are so lengthy, and so unrelated to Beauty and the Beast, that the third part, in which she tries to prove that is really Beauty and the Beast she’s been telling, is horribly rushed (by this time you won’t mind, however, since you just want it all to be over). Forget about a real relationship between Belle and the Beast; Orasmyn is too busy raiding kitchens and garbage barrels to actually spend time with the girl who is his sort-of captive.

Also, that awesome scene in the movie where he transforms back into a price? Forget that too- 3 sentences at the end ought to suffice. And forget a Gaston character. Or the servants. Or really anything that makes the movie/fairytale awesome. Because hey, reading about making candles is fun.

[Also, what is the meaning of this passage, in what is supposed to be a book for middle school/high school readers? “[Belle’s] backside presents itself to me. Like the backside of a lioness. The urge to mate renders me hot and savage.”
Stop. Just stop. Was it really necessary to make it go that direction? No. No, it was not.]

And here I come to more believable Orasmyn #2, and the one, in my opinion that would have been far better. He would be a young, arrogant prince, the darling of the entire kingdom who is bold and ruthless on the hunt. Perhaps one day he comes across an old lion, feeble and weak. He should spare the beast, but instead he kills it, not because it is a threat, but just because he can. And then a pari curses him (more justly) and he is forced to dwell in lion skin, where he begins to question everything he believes about his faith, his family and his own place in the world.
The rest of the plot would be similar but with a much more believable narrator to carry us along.

Final verdict: 1 star. It's really not worth the time or effort.

[Sara Saif · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was weird, disturbing, uncomfortable and wrong on so many levels. Just thinking about it now makes me cringe. I'm furious, yes, but mostly, I feel severely creeped out. My mind is a jumble but there is a lot I have to say, and I want to say it as coherently as I can. There will be a lot of spoilers henceforth.

First things first:

What this book is about:

It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Like her other books, Zel and Sirena, the only two I've read besides this one, the author has gone back to the very roots of the story. She's put her own unique spin (I say this with sarcasm and a little contempt this time) but has stayed true to some aspects of Beauty and the Beast that we're familiar with. Also:

-This book is from the Beast's perspective.
-The book deals heavily with Islam, in fact, the plot leans on it. Much of it takes place in Persia.
-The Beast is a literal one: he's a lion.
-It's the best and the worst example of what happens when you try to realistically merge Islam with fantasy elements (this is probably ironic for non-Muslims because we believe in angels and jinns but I can't describe it otherwise. This was what I was referring to when I said my mind is a jumble and I want to explain things clearly).

Also, can I just say, a good chunk of this book is basically a transcript of a National Geography documentary on lions? This is legit. I'm not even trying to mess with you. There is a lion mating scene. I did not need that in my life, in my head.

Now, let me try and describe my Feelings. I haven't had these with a capital F for a long, long time. This should be entertaining:

The Weird:

I would call this entire book weird as fuq but let's be specific.

So, the Persian prince, Orasmyn gets turned into a lion, the king of beasts, by a fairy (I will get to this, believe me, I will). He has to run away from home because the fairy timed his transformation at the exact time his father is going out hunting for lions. He tries to make sense of what has happened to him, tries to orient himself while he spends some time in the woods near his palace. What happened there will come under an entirely different section so let's skip that as well.

Eventually, he decides Perisa is no place for him, he must go to India, the home of lions. He stays there for a long, long time, accomplishes nothing, comes right back. He decides he can't stay in his homeland, again, he must go to France because he heard once that French women love roses and he loves roses so the woman who will fall in love with him and break his curse must be French. He goes there. This is the last hundred or so pages, might I add. This last quarter checks everything that happens in the story we know, as lifelessly and as hastily as possible. And then... it ends.

So, again, the weirdness:

1- The overabundance of Arabic/Persian words. There is a point beyond which you're just overdoing it, no matter how well researched and meticulous it is. It's not appealing, it's annoying.

2- The plot and pacing:

This is a 400-page book. The middle 200 pages are a documentary on the behavior; eating, mating and hunting habits, of lions. Excuse me. I came here to read fantasy. If I'm craving National Geographic, I'll go on Youtube.

Also, the in-between phase where he's just turned into a lion and learning the ways of living as one, he encounters two lionesses. The author described one of them in his eyes in such detail that I became sure this particular lioness would have some form of significance later on. He notices her cuts and bruises, her eyes, her everything and it's was so intimate. But a short while later when she was hunted and killed it struck me as weird. Singling one lioness out of two served no purpose at all.

The pages and pages that deal with Orasmyn's journey to India, his stay there and eventual return, are the most infuriating fillers in the history of the universe. IT DID NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. He didn't become part of a pride. He didn't get a lioness. He didn't learn to become a good hunter. Why the ever-loving fank did he have to go there?

3- The connections with the known tale:
- According to the pari, a woman's love will break this curse because it was a female camel that he wrongly sacrificed...Even if I were to digest this, which I still have not, one question remains. Per this logic, why wasn't any woman's love enough, like his mother's? Why specifically did he need a woman to love him as a man?
- He was like, 'I love roses, the women of France love roses. I will go and hit on a Frenchwoman and make her mine.' Nice, Orasmyn. That makes perfect sense.
- He finds an abandoned castle and lives there, waiting for an opportunity. A man spends the night in the castle. He appears like BOO give me your daughter or I will kill the rest of your family. He can read and write in lion form so he communicates this by writing on the ground. The man is stupid enough to leave his youngest daughter, who asked for a rose, at the castle's doorstep like a Christmas present. Sure, asshole, why not? Daughters are expendable and that too when you have many other children. So, this genius decides to give up his daughter instead of running away with his family or getting people to go to the castle to kill the lion or something.
- While he waits for her, he thinks that being the youngest, she must be a child. So he thinks of her as 'his child'. That was not creepy at all.
- Belle tries being nice, he runs away, Belle offers him food, he's offended, Belle wants to ride him, it hurts his pride. GO DROWN YOURSELF.

- Unlike the original story, there is no compulsion on him that would stop him from telling her everything. But he decides genius that he is, that the fairy would want him to do it so he must not. Are you shitting me?! She just said a woman's love would break the curse, there was no 80 page long TERMS AND CONDITIONS document. You could have told Belle everything upfront.
- There aren't any talking objects, just a fox cub whose family he ate so he doubles as Chip.
- This is the last hundred pages as I said. But it felt both like nothing at all was happening (they plant food, they eat food, they buy food, they read, Orasmyn indulges in leonine angst constantly) and that everything was happening too fast. This is where the Beauty and the Beast part starts so 100 out of 400 felt more than a little rushed.

4- The ending:

A reading, writing, moody lion prone to bursts of violence that lives in a dark, dank, old castle... what isn't there to love? RIGHT? And since the 'love story' literally had no coverage (leonine angst did), I wasn't having it.
Belle leaves to take care of her father, comes back and finds the sick (dual meaning) lion in a burrow waiting for death. She professes her love which made me want to gouge out my eyes, he transforms, the book ends.

5- This line in which he's talking about an elephant: His legs are broad like pillars - he could hold high any faith. Da fuq is this supposed to mean?

So, to summarize, THIS BOOK IS FUNKING WEIRD.

The Disturbing:

-Did I mention there is a mating scene in this? The newly transformed Orasmyn finds two lionesses after running away from the palace and he mates with both of them.
Yeah, this was not going as I had hoped. And to make it worse, it is described quite vividly. Thanks for that.

-Then when he's with Belle, he's either hungry or horny. There's one particular scene where Belle's bending down towards something. When he sees this, he's assailed by a 'hot and savage' desire to mate...
-In the Beauty and the Beast we know, yes, the Beast was half-lion, half-bull which isn't human either. But he walked and talked and learned to eat like a man. Despite his beastly appearance, he was human-like. THIS was a real lion, for God's sake. Yet Belle blushed and flushed and fell in love with him. And not as a pet, it was the lovey love, which is why he transformed back.
My point is, it's adult, not Young Adult and the B&B lover inside me is forever scarred.

The Uncomfortable:

This is the part I want to be clear about.
As I've mentioned before, the book deals with Islam heavily. Prayers, sacrifice, pillars of faith, hajj, wudhu, it has everything.

And it made me incredibly uncomfortable.

- Contemporary books that deal with Islam are fine, those make sense because Islam is a practical, real-world religion. But incorporating Islam in a fantasy setting becomes awkward. It does not mix well in such an environment. And here's how I think it should be done:

It shouldn't.

- When an author does that, there's bound to be something that goes directly against one or more Islamic tenets. As a Muslim, I don't find it okay. At all. Take Magnus Chase, for example. Norse gods. Cool. But add a hijabi teen Muslim girl who also happens to be the daughter of Loki? Theologically incorrect, and embarrassing for everyone.
- In the context of Muslim representation: no thanks. I don't care if there aren't any Muslims in fantasy books, because as I've explained, at times the two aren't compatible. So, if I have to choose between placing Islam in a setting that directly or indirectly invalidates its teachings for the sake of 'diversity and representation' and not having Muslims in fantasy books altogether, I think I would survive the latter.
- You need deep knowledge and understanding of the religion itself to know how far you can go and still be relatable. For example, if a science-fiction fantasy book is about aliens and life on other planets and the protagonist is a Muslim, that works just fine. Allah has created this entire universe so the existence of life beyond Earth doesn't go against Islamic teachings. I think I read this in the Themis Files trilogy, at one point the author says that religion all over the world was affected after an alien robot was discovered. If that ever happens, bro, it would not affect Islam in the slightest.
- If a book is using Islam as extensively as this one does, ignoring the incompatibility part, if it's not 100% correctly described (and it MUST, it's a never-changing religion not a collection of opinions that can be changed and molded by anyone), those loose or inaccurate bits can give the wrong impression about Islam to readers who don't know much about it. I care about that. Which brings me to the last part.

The Wrong:

So many things. The author did do her research and a lot of things were on point but some were not. I could ignore one or two of those but I couldn't ignore the rest. I'll just mention the two most glaring mistakes (I do not care if they were intentional, they were wrong and they made me squirm:

- Muslims, whether they've performed hajj or not, do not fast on Eids. In fact, these two days plus three after Eid-ul-Azha are the only five days in the entire year when Muslims are expressly forbidden to fast. It's an occasion of joy and celebration and you're supposed to eat, morons. So what do Orasmyn and other hajjaj do in this book? They fast during Eid. And it's written in a way that doesn't clarify if it's their own doing or if it's a part of Islam so you can guess why it made me furious.

- Orasmyn is cursed into a lion because he let a scarred camel be sacrificed. Whether scarred animals can be sacrificed or not and what type of scarring/injury makes an animal unfit for sacrifice is another discussion which I don't believe is relevant. Because he let the camel be sacrificed, a pari, which the author explains is a jinn (WHICH IS ABSURD), places a curse upon Orasmyn for his faulty judgment. Now, two things. One, this entire part made no sense to me whatsoever. So he angered a jinn for...what exactly? What the fuck does a jinn have to do with an animal being sacrificed? And two, the jinn do not have the power to do something like this to a human being so that renders the very basis for your plot void.

Thank you for surviving this review and a very good day to you.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is it about "Beauty and the Beast"? There is something about the tale, even the Disney version of the story. I know it's Disney, I know. I know the Disney movie ends with the girl who wants "more than this provenical life" getting married. But there is something about it, even in Disney form. Maybe, the Disney success is because of the artwork and music, or because Belle likes to read, or because Belle does, in fact, save the Beast at the end.

"Cinderella" may be the most cultral diverse fairy tale, but "Beauty and the Beast" seems to be more famous.

I know that the B&B tales are believed to be, in some circles, stories that get women, young girls really, use to the idea of marriage, especially marriage to a stranger. I've read various versions; my favorite by far being "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". I've read several French versions (those salon ladies went to town on this tale), including the one where the prince is turned into a beast because he turns down the sexual advances of the fairy. I've read some of the novel length treatments, including Robin McKinley's two versions, both of which are excellent.

Most of these stories are told from the woman's point of view and very little is told about Beast.

Napoli changes that with her book Beast. Most of the story focuses on the adventures of Beast prior to his meeting his Belle (don't worry, that's covered in the book as well). Perhaps the most compelling sequence of the book, as well as the saddest, is when Beast, here in the form of a lion, tries to get use to his new form. He knows that he can no longer be with people, so he tries "hanging" with the lions. This does not work. He is not a lion born, but a lion made and this brings a host of problems.

What Napoli seems to be doing with this sequence and the back story is showcasing what it means to belong as well as what it means to be an animal or human. For the Beast is not an animal, even if he is no longer wholly human. The Beast tries to become the total opposite of what he was prior to his transformation, and this doesn't quite work. It can't work because while we change, we never fully lose what we were at any given point. What Beast is trying to do for much of the book is combine the animal and human part of what he is, the dual side that most people have.

Napoli's book has been challenged and banned in various schools. This is undoubtably due to the Beast's behavior. He gets rather friendly with two female lions. While this raises eyebrows, as I am sure it was intended to, it does make sense. Take a horny seventeen year old, put him in the body of a lion, and then present him a female lion in heat. What do you think he is going to do? What comes across quite clearly in the rather subdued description is the Beast's uncertainity and uncomfortness with what he has done. Here, it seems that Napoli is going back to the old story, but instead of dealing with the question of marriage, it becomes more a question of sex. She seems to be addressing the questions of revulsion, pleasure, and embarassment that surrond the sexual act.

It makes a rather interesting inversion of the actual tale.

[Brittany · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, the interesting twist in being told from the male perspective, in plot elements by making the curse have a religious reason, the Muslim overtones with the different culture.

Right away I was getting irritated with the constant vocabulary words being fed to me and quickly defined. The relationship he has with his parents, especially his father and his part within the curse is interesting and then never fleshed out or picked up again.

I mentally rebelled again a prince protagonist who would think he was rescuing a rape victim and would need to struggle with his own desires at seeing the normally (culturally) hidden places of skin.(She turns out to be a djinn about to curse him, but still!)

Its understandable that a love story between a Beast and a woman would hint at bestiality but this book does a little more than hint, making it an element, before we even meet his love. With very little inward struggle (illustrating for us how much he really is a beast I suppose) he almost immediately finds two very willing lionesses. Can you say icky? He struggles been bloodlust for Belle and just plain lust, in icky ways (to give example or not to give example...yeah, not).

Not to my taste, I did finish it, but more to see how far she take that element; not, perhaps, as far as some, but further than I wanted to go.

Would definitely be a major discussion at a book club but I would not recommend, especially not to the targeted YA readers.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had escaped my notice when I picked up this book that it is intended for younger readers. Do I need to go into my reasons for reading this book? A man who is a beast is surely a storyline that appeals to all of our inner desires, no?

No.

Napoli is a linguistics teacher, and loves to use Persian and Arabic words in this text—and immediately explains them. Some appear only once, some are repeated. There is also a glossary at the end.

To read this book, one needs to suspend disbelief well past the literal version of a "man who is a beast." In this retelling of The Beauty and The Beast, the beast is a lion, or rather a man in a lion's body, and yet that lion is capable is doing so many things with that lion's body! Because I am shyly demure, and live in fear of spoilers, I won't go into that further.

As "children's literature" I don't know what to say about this book. That is not my field. As a general reader, it was a quick read, even if my eyes got tired from being rolled. However, I'm giving this 3 stars, because the beast is truly a "fixer upper" and such men do exert a certain appeal.

[whalesister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the Beast's point of view. Beast is a Persian prince who gets turned into a lion. Lots of little details about Islam and life in ancient Persia, but way too much focus on bodily functions from the point of view of a real animal--all lions do is eat, sleep and fornicate, right? A bit graphic in parts, even downright yucky sometimes. I would never give this to my children to read. I would have eliminated one scene completely before ever calling it YA. That said, I have to say I still liked it--for adults. The setting was real, the characters fascinating, the plot really well-done. I knew what was going to happen, but I still couldn't stop reading to find out how Napoli would make it work.

[Katie Harder-schauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an audiobook copy of this book through Audiofile Sync's summer reading for teenagers program absolutely free of charge with no strings attached. This is my honest review.

I loved this take on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. The blend of old and new elements was smooth and made perfect sense within the confines of the story. I especially liked how Orasmyn was turned into an actual beast (a lion) and not just a human-like beast that can talk like in the Disney version of the story. It was interesting seeing how Orasmyn adjusted to his new form and I loved watching him try to navigate life as a lion, which was apparently not easy for someone who wasn't born as a lion (and that makes sense).

Read the rest of my review on my blog. --> http://justanothergirlandherbooks.blo...

[Jen Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest I did not finish this book. The beginning was great right up until the main character changes from a man into a beast. Right after that he mates with two lioness and that was a little too much of a beast for me to like. I skipped ahead a bit(something that I never do) and it didn't seem to get any better. I skipped to the end to see if I should finish it and in a matter of a couple sentences the beast turns back into a man because of Belle's love and that is how it ends. Not an ending I enjoy.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the best book about bestiality I've ever read. Probably. Okay, just kidding, it's the only one (so far).

Yeah, I really don't know what to say for myself here. I'm not a fan of romance novels in the slightest. I grabbed this off my girlfriend's shelf (she hasn't read it) basically on a whim. I wanted to try reading something outside my comfort zone. As an aspiring author I've heard that's a thing I should do.

And...I liked it. I'm just as surprised as anybody, believe me. I can immediately see the things that would stop other people from liking it though. Let's review them.

1) It's about bestiality. I mean, the protagonist bones two female lions in the first third of it and then tries to start a romance with a human woman while he's still very much a freaking lion. It is what it is. Obviously this makes some people very uncomfortable. Some of the reviews here are are so full of outrage about this that I just can't help but laugh. Is it really any weirder than being in a serial killer's head while reading Dexter? Sure, it's an odd choice to turn into a whole novel, but it's a take on Beauty and the Beast, so it's not like the bestiality was the primary inspiration. Also it was done well, so that's really all that matters. She paints a vivid picture of what a man getting accustomed to a lion's body would feel like, and I was pretty impressed by that. Getting to be in a character's head, especially in first-person viewpoint, while they are in the body of an animal is kind of a rare thing I hadn't come across anywhere but short stories before.

If it makes you uncomfortable, don't read it. Or do read it, and also lots of other messed up books, and maybe venture into the darkest reaches of the internet while you're at it because you are super sheltered and need to desensitize yourself if you ask me. I, honestly, just found it kind of funny. I mean, how can you not? He turns into a lion and pretty much the first thing he does is bone not one, but two female lions! TWO! He emptied those lion nuts post-haste. He didn't even get a chance to eat anything first.

2) The author likes to use specific cultural/religious terminology and define it in the same sentence. This happens most often at the very beginning, and it's a little much. It definitely gets better the further in you get though. I mostly skimmed over it, but I also kind of liked it at the same time. It did a nice job of pulling you into that world, and It made me feel like I was learning something. Since I already have a fondness for this culture and setting maybe I'm biased. But hey, if you find it annoying then you find it annoying. That's all there really is to it, and I totally get it. But, to be fair, the author's afterword mentions that Orasmyn would've written the whole thing in Arabic anyway. I just imagined it was the way somebody chose to translate the story into English from his original text and that made sense to my brain.

3) Everything is very convenient. The reason the protagonist is turned into a lion, for instance. Some may cry "overly apparent plot device." To me, it just combined with the language of the novel and the setting to make it seem like a lengthy fairy tale, and I love fairy tales more than just about anything. This seemed like a story straight out of Arabian Nights, and that was pretty awesome.

So, to recap, don't read this book if you: are uncomfortable with bestiality, hate smatterings of unnecessary foreign words, or hate overly convenient plots.

Do read if you: like fairy tales, or if you like Persian and Indian culture in fiction.

Simple, right?

[Wayward Skyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

I scratch in the dirt, "You are brave."
She gives a small gasp of amazement and stares at my words. "I don't have a choice."
I wince. "And honest."

This was a surprise... A really delightful surprise. Beast was unique in so many ways, where it was set, how it was written, and the fact that Prince Orasmyn was actually turned into a lion. An actual lion, king of beasts.

You know how you see books, and on the back are excerpts from reviews that say something like, "Thrilling!" or "Riveting!" And you're just like, "Yeah, sure it is."

This book was riveting.

It was absolutely absorbing. I picked it up, and I never wanted to put it back down again. If I hadn't been interrupted I might have actually read it all in one sitting. However, since I was, I had to read it in two sittings instead.

It was so fascinating, the location, the rituals, the religion to which Orasmyn belonged. Then when he was cursed and transformed, how he tried to adjust, simply learning how to walk on four paws, trying to climb a tree, running from hunters, smelling things he never could before, and seeing in shades of gray. Learning to hunt, eating meat, eating blood, because of his instincts and feeling guilty about it. Honestly this was a perfectly portrayed perspective of a human trapped in a beast's body, fighting his instincts, and frequently conflicted what he had done or what he might do.

And the writing style. It was abrupt, but that suited this retelling better than long thoughts or fancy descriptions. It was first-person point of view from Orasmyn as all this happens, and he simply tells it how it is, how it happens, what he does, how he reacts.... I can see some people disliking the style for how blunt it is, but I was just drawn further in by it. Everything that happened... It was neither too descriptive, nor lacking in flavor, horror, disgust, despair, longing, hope, determination, love...

This book was just... too distinctive, too vibrant for me to give it any fewer than five stars. I have sharp, powerful images in my mind from its pages. I really... I went on the journey with Orasmyn. I was there, and I saw it all. The only thing I can say about it is that it ended just a bit too short. I would have looooved an epilogue. Still, I can easily imagine how certain things turned out, and it gives me a smile to picture it for myself.

Definitely the best Beauty and the Beast retelling that I've read. If you couldn't tell, I loved it.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly original take on Beauty & the Beast. Prince Orasmyn is heir to the throne of Persia, and is deeply religious and gentle, though intensely proud. When he makes a foolish mistake, he is turned into a lion by a pari, and will remain in that shape until he is loved by a woman. Napoli treats the beast in a highly realistic manner; he is very much an animal, albeit one who remembers what it was to be human.

[Carrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actual rating -8 stars, this was horrible. I only finished it because it was for class and I wanted to complete so I could convince the professor it was terrible.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so horribly disappointed. If this was my book I would dump it in the trash. I thought this was going to be a normal Beauty and the Beast story retelling. I do get that all of them are going to be slightly different, but this was just pathetic.

First off, I was confused for about maybe a third of the book-so much of his religion and stuff and I really didn't get or care about any of that. This is where I yawned several times and nearly I feel like the real actual story didn't start until perhaps just after halfway over? :/

So when the prince turns into a lion, like a few hours later, he comes across two lionesses and mates with one. It was pretty unnecessary to add this. What the heck, Napoli! It wasn't really graphic-definitely not compared to what some books include-but it still described what they were doing. That bothered me.
After that, the prince sort of just is acting stupid. For another big part of the book he's wandering around and following this other herd of lions and this part gets pretty boring. I sit there and read about how he decides, oh wait, I've gone so far in one way, I need to go the other way. XP

Then later he gets to France and is walking around there. The first confusing part is when he's just found his random castle thing that has a rose garden out front. Another inappropriate part. "She was bareheaded-face and hair, as is the crude habit of the woman here. He was clean-shaven and wore no hat-a peasant youth. They undressed and lay in each other's arms, offering my eyes the intimate curve of their bodies, the generous heat of their affection.
A moan escaped my lips.
They grabbed their clothes and ran."

This was for no reason at all. SO COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. What the heck again, Napoli!!

Oh, and the prince, the main character? Unlike most well written books-I'm not saying this is well written-you like the characters and they become your friend. I feel like all the characters here were spoiled brats. I did not like them. Belle's dad was probably the best and he was only in the entire book for a few paragraphs. Just really blah and I'll probably forget them as soon as I pick up my next book.

This is just another one of my opinions, but I didn't even like the cover. :/ Just bleh. He's peeling a lion off his face?? What's going on here?

Anyway...I just really really hated this book. I should have DNFed it but for some crazy reason I didn't. I don't see anything good in this book at all, except that there wasn't any swearing. I won't ever pick it up again. I've read much better Beauty and the Beast retellings.



Please note-It's really rare that I ever write long reviews about this, so please don't start ranting in the comments about how sensitive I am. If you do I'll delete them. I am entitled to feel any way about a certain book. Thanks.

[Melanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little disappointed with this.

It's a prequel/retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from Beast's point of view, with the only real piece of magic being the transformation.

It starts off promisingly; incorporating his Islamic religious beliefs, his difficulties adjusting to his new form physically, and trying to reconcile the new instincts of his lion body with his human mind. He's neither fully beast nor fully human, mentally as well as physically, and that interesting struggle dominates the first half of the book.

But, in the second half, the action suddenly shifts from India to France, and this is where I started having issues with the book. His dual identity begins to take a back seat to the tale of his day-to-day living. What was a strong man/beast theme suddenly becomes "how does he contort his body to perform typical human tasks?"

Just a couple chapters before, while he's in India, he's struggling with his body in order to hunt and keep himself fed, then suddenly, he's transplanting rosebushes with ease and repeatedly breaking into buildings in a neighboring village to steal items to pamper Belle with, and writing messages with his paws in a bare patch of earth - which always seems to be available, even when there's snow on the ground.

By the end of the book, he's planting entire flower gardens from bulbs and having something presentable within just a couple of weeks!

In the original tale, there's an enchanted castle, magical servants, wealth and comfort. We never question it because a)it's magic and b)it was like this when the story begins.
But here, there's no magic. The prince merely finds a mysteriously abandoned castle that's amazingly still furnished, (complete with a well-stocked library) and moves right in. And he does a wide variety of housekeeping chores all by himself without thumbs. No tools other than his paws and his jaws.

Without the convenient excuse of "It's Magic!", I found that whole concept to be a little too far-fetched.


I would have been willing to overlook this if the man vs. beast themes had continued as strongly as they had in the first half, or if Belle's and Beast's differing religious faiths had played a larger role, but as it was, it felt a little lacking.

[Isis · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is extremely rare for me to abandon an audiobook. Partly this is because a good reader - and most pro audiobooks have excellent readers - adds sparkle to even the dullest prose, and partly this is because I listen while running, and so if a hit a place that I don't enjoy I will still continue to listen until the end of the run, and possibly become re-engaged. But after too many chapters of translated Persian terms, graphic descriptions of hunting (from the prince-turned-lion's POV) and sex (ditto), and confusing conflation of culture and religion, I poked the button that replaced Orasmyn's voice in my ears with an album of Polish sea chanteys, and I never looked back.

The last is maybe the most subtle issue with this book. The Persian prince Orasmyn is cursed by a peri (jinn) because he prepared an imperfect animal for Islamic ritual sacrifice. This could lead to some examination of the tensions between his culture and religion, but he pretty much glosses over these when they come up. Instead I'm left wondering why a Persian supernatural being cares about a violation of Islam, and why this doesn't bother Orasmyn more than it apparently does. Which also reminds me, it would have been nice to have had this book more firmly set in a historical time period. A lot of the reviews refer to "Ancient" Persia, but clearly if it is Islamic Persia it is at least early medieval period.

The other problems I had were simply due to bad writing; molasses pacing that dragged out Orasmyn's sexual and hunting escapades (with little moral examination - it would have been interesting to see him 'becoming' a lion, and frightened by his loss of human dignity), and constant peppering of the text with Persian and Arabic terms and their translation, which break the narrative flow and seem to be mostly the author crowing about the research she did. It makes sense to use a term such as 'pari', when the pari is an important figure in the story and mentioned many times. But naming various spices in a meal, or the wall around a garden, or the furniture in a room, just seems egregious.

[stevie jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Books That I Wish I Could Erase From My Memory

I had hoped that I would have forgotten about this book.

It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling from the Beast’s POV. Except, instead of turning into a “beast” he becomes a lion.

And...

(sigh)

Mates with other lions. Very explicitly. I don’t actually really remember much else about the plot other than it following along the original story (in a way).

Like, I didn’t want to read about lion sex, but it happened.

Is it still considered bestiality if you’ve been turned into a lion but consciously you’re still a man?

reviewing books that I read a long time ago

⋆⁺₊⋆⁺₊⋆

• 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 •
✰ 1 ✰ I hate it. This is awful. I should’ve dnf’d.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━☽✰☾━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Debbie is on Storygraph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A YA book, and it reads like one. Still enjoyable though. Beast retells the story of Beauty and the Beast from the perspective of the prince, which is new and interesting. What I really liked though was the different background Napoli gave the prince. Instead of being from European descent, he's the prince of Persia cursed by a fairy. Orasmyn, the prince, is changed into a lion rather than a half-man-half-beast creature. I would have liked it to have been longer though. Napoli does a very good job fleshing out the story and the character of Orasmyn but Belle remains very two-dimensional. There are still other adaptations of the fairy tale that I prefer, but this one was passable.

[Toni FGMAMTC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This story didn't instantly grab me. The very beginning is about religious sacrifice of animals for a wedding celebration. After the main character was cursed and became a lion, it got interesting to me. It's kept more realistic in descriptions of his animal side than than a Disney version of the beast. When he meets the girl, he has to fight his animal side even. If you like fairytale retellings, or if you are looking for something a little familiar while also very different, check this out.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was lovely, and so refreshing to read the beast’s perpective. It’s 3/4 story about a guy figuring out how to be a lion and 1/4 romance though.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't care for this version of Beauty and the Beast. I am not sure exactly what it was that rubbed me the wrong way.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read a couple other of Donna Jo Napoli's books I have to say that she is a very good young adult author. I first picked up Beast thinking it was Beastly (since the new movie had come out recently). After I read the description on the book however I realized it was something different, but not completely.
Beast is the story of a Persian prince named Orasmyn who is turned into a lion. The lion is in sharp contrast with his human personality. Prince Orasmyn flourishes in his higher status. He is a highly talented gardener and somewhat of a sensitive/immature person. His family has no idea of his transformation and tries to kill him, so he is forced to flee. He then struggles greatly living a lion life. Napoli include scenes of very beast-like behavior. Prince Orasmyn's internal conflicts are immense as he battles with the raw instincts of the lion body and his prince-like nature.
He can no longer handle living in the wild, and so flees to France and takes refuge in an abandoned castle, eventually creating a flourishing rose garden.
Long story shorter: a girl falls in love with him and he is transformed back.

Like I said, something different, but not completely. I enjoyed this fresh take on the famous Beauty and the Beast tale. I appreciated how real Napoli made it seem that Prince Orasmyn actually was a lion. It was interesting to see the rawness of a beast. It was easy to make connections between our struggles as humans to keep our moral standards when challenged with just completely letting go of ourselves. I think we all have times where we let our natural instincts (usually our raw emotions, like anger or sadness) take control over actions. It is not always (or perhaps never) as extreme as it is in the book, but I think we all can relate to the internal conflicts that Orasmyn is battered with. In the book he struggles with keeping his Islamic faith, and unlike other versions I have seen and read, I really felt like the beast took control of Orasmyn sometimes.

Napoli starts off the story with this:
"For help on... matters of Islam and Persian history to matters of India and wildlife.. I thank..." she then goes on to list names.
Throughout the book there are many aspects of Islam and Persian facts that are included. In the beginning you learn a lot about the folklore (as it was a wicked fairy, or pari, that curses him) as well as the religious rituals performed. The use of Farsi and Arabic is continued throughout the book, adding an interesting spice of language to the reading.

A little about the author: Donna Jo Napoli earned her Ph.D in linguistics, and since then has taught at multiple university as a linguistics professor. This explains the French/Farsi/Arabic words throughout Beast. Along with other books, she authored one titled Zel, another version of Rapunzel.

All in all Beast was an interesting tale. Little magic except for the first magical transformation is used in the book, making it seem more real than the usual accounts of Beauty and the Beast. It is a young adult novel, and it definitely feels like one, but who doesn't enjoy a good story?

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read by Napoli. Admittedly, I liked it more than Spinners but this is due to my love for the Moorish Renaissance era and the lore of Napoli's retelling of Beauty and the Beast involves a detailed story of a Persian Prince being cursed and his self-banishment from his own land all the way to France. I was consequently enchanted and read it in one sitting.

Like Spinners, the ending is abrupt, so I must now conclude that this is Napoli's style when it comes to fairytale retellings. She's the sort that gives the reader a rich tapestry for a background story but then finishes the book the way the classic fairytale ends, without what I would call a natural epilogue a novel would normally take. (Which is perfectly fine. All authors have styles that define them.)

So as a fan of both fairytale retellings and Moor mythology, I'm giving this book a strong four stars. I hope I have the opportunity to read more of Napoli's books in the future.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it, but no.
It's an ugly mashup between historical fiction, multicultural fantasy, and the fairy tale, with the weakest features of all thrown together and not developed. More page space is, effectively, given to Belle's father than herself, ferpeetsake. And I have no guess how the prince is going to reconcile all his cultural and personal history and values into his new life, because I just didn't get to know him. Not recommended for the targeted teens, or for adults.

Bonus star for the clues I got, near the beginning, as to why certain practices, like fasting, are good discipline and still performed by the devout... but since the prince's original culture is just set up for the story and doesn't really seem to affect his character, that star is barely there. Iow, 1.5 stars rounded up because my library copy shows that at least one person has read & loved this book, given the wear on it....

[JordanD · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing story! I really enjoyed reading this book, and found this book with the help of my librarian at the school I work at. This book explains how the Beast got cursed and his journey and the struggle he went through to reverse the curse and also find a woman that loved him for him. This would be a great book to compare perspectives when used with the actual tale of Beauty and the Beast. Many times in the movie of Beauty and the Beast the Beast is considered a mean, scary animal, while this story explains the Beasts side and what he went through. This gives more of an explanation of the Beast's life. Great story that discusses the journey before he met Belle.

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just re-read "Beauty" (by Robin McKinley) for our Book Club and came across this version of the tale told from the Beast's perspective, so I thought it would be interesting to read as well. Several things make this version unique -- the setting in ancient Persia, the incorporation of some Islam beliefs, the fact that the beast is an acutal lion that can't speak, and the lack of any other magic (i.e. the castle itself is not enchanted). I enjoyed the perspective for the most part, but wished there was less of the Beast's wanderings (and instincts) as a lion and more of the developing relationship with Belle. I also felt like the ending was pretty abrupt.

[Olivia Vailahi]

I really liked this book it opened my eyes on relationships. A part in the book reading, "For through the love of a women, I can know the love of the merciful one. Passion leads to compassion." Meaning that you should always be patient waiting to really see who the person is on the inside. This book is another version of Beauty and the Beast. So yeah I would anyone who likes a book with somewhat drama.

[Zahra Dashti · Rating 4 out of 5]

جذابیت خاص خودش رو داشت. یه روایت از داستان دیو و دلبر. البته باورهای خرافی در مورد اسلام توش بود که احتمالا نویسنده با فرقه خاصی از اسلام آشنا بوده. دست کم تو تشیع من چنین چیزهایی نشنیدم!
بدترینش روزه گرفتن تو عید قربان!
از این چیزهاش چشم بپوشیم کتاب خوب و جذابی بود.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just don't like the way Napoli writes her fairy tales. They are so harsh and more like an Opera. I would never recommend any of her books to young adults.