Tag: Retelling

Reviewing Beauty’s Daughter

Title: Beauty’s Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy
Author: Carolyn Meyer
Published by ‎ HMH Books for Young Readers
Year: 2013
Format Read: Kindle
Pages: 353
Language: English
ASIN: B00AUZS6K6
Dates Read: 2024, March 27 to April 14

In the past, I have read In Mozart’s Shadow and Patience, Princess Catherine by Carolyn Meyer. I loved them both. I appreciated her vivid use of first person, how she incorporated many historical figures into the story, and her deep emotional characters. I wanted to read another one of her novels, but I wanted to read a story with an ancient setting. I liked Troy by Adẻle Geras when I read it in middle school, so I decided to try Beauty’s Daughter. 

Hermione is an evocative, inquisitive, and assertive protagonist. This story focuses on Hermione’s perspective before, during, and after the Trojan war. Throughout the novel, her thoughts and feelings of her mother, as well as others, change over time. The characters are used to convey plots of the war and other Ancient Greek stories (in case the reader is unfamiliar with these). Basically, many pages of the story’s first part is a summary of the Iliad and other ancient lore paraphrased from Hermione’s perspective with an emphasis on her relationships to others. I have not read all of these legends or myths, but I am familiar with the basic plot of many. Despite all of the details and references to Ancient Greek stories and characters, this book was still  an easy read, and it is just the right length.

Due to the winding plot filled with many disappointments for the characters, I thought that the novel’s ending would be bittersweet, and I was prepared for the death or disappearance of Hermione or her lover. Also, I had gotten names and prior Greek stories confused. Orestes and Pylades are characters in this book, so I thought they were going to turn into stars or constellations by the end of the story. Fortunately, they do not, but I assumed this because I confused their names with Orion and Pleiades, persons from another myth I’ve either read or heard about. Anyway, the ending was alright, a little bittersweet, but the leads got a good ending. 

There is an author’s note where Meyer explains how she uses myths combined with much of her own imagination and creativity to create this novel. I do think that this book is an easy read for 12 and up, but there is suggestive content in keeping with the spirit of the values and myths. I would recommend it if you like ancient world literature and retellings. I think that I like the other novels that I’ve read by this author better because they seem to have a better structure and more likable extra characters. 

A Travel Through Straight On Till Morning

Title: Straight On Till Morning
Author: Liz Braswell
Published by Disney Hyperion
Year: 2020
Series: A Twisted Tale Series
Format Read: Kindle
Pages: 349
Language: English
ASIN: B07VW38815
Dates Read: August 11 to 20 2022

I found this book series while scrolling through an overwhelming amount of fairy tale retellings on Amazon. A Twisted Tale series retells Disney movies; the plots seem to offer very intriguing alternative/what-if scenarios. For my first book to read in the series, I decided to randomly go with Straight On Till Morning. Peter Pan (1953) was an enjoyable movie, and I was so captivated by the scenario of this book- Wendy going to Neverland with Captain Hook.

I thought the story would follow the events of the movie more closely than it did. This retelling was almost completely unrecognizable to the movie; there were several differences. There are a lot of details and narration about Wendy, her life, her family, and acquaintances. It’s almost 100 pages before Wendy even leaves London. She is already 16, moved out of the nursery, and she does not go to Neverland with her brothers. Throughout the novel, there are some variations on characters that are in the movie, new characters, and characters absent from the movie. The narrator’s voice is somewhat wry.

On the Amazon page, the recommended age minimum is 12. Honestly, I thought this was probably because of the reading level; however, this story is actually darker and more serious than the movie. This would definitely be a hard PG. There are some suggestive references, a few minor coarse words, more violence, alcoholic references, and more peril. Also, the author does use a lot of interesting dated British words or rare words; I had to constantly look up words while reading the novel.

This story is very much about Wendy coming of age. The adventure she takes helps her decide what she should do with her life. Also, there seems to be a deeper characterization of her character. Her relationship with Tinker Bell and the jealousy the fairy has when it comes to Peter Pan are explored in depth throughout the plot. The story is a wild ride; by the end, Wendy is tan and in rags. Additionally, to me, in this retelling, it seems that Captain Hook is portrayed as an extremely more pitiful villain than in the movie.

Overall, the novel is alright. It was fun to read and then muse about for a few days. Honestly, it was more like a well-crafted fanfiction for older intellectual teens and young adults than an alternative version to the famous animated film. I may try out some other books in this series.