Risa's Review Shop

•REVIEW 26: BLIND AND THE BEAST•

Genre: fantasy
Author: XDhelloXD
Chapters read: five
Trigger warnings: none so far

A mini review
Star rating: 🌟🌟🌟

°🌼°

A beast is all that stands between you and true love.

Risa's summary: it's the norm.
First, a young woman is sent out to be kidnapped by the king of beasts, then a worthy young man rescues her and their marriage is sealed.
Ah! Lucky Belle; she's been chosen this time.
That's not the word. Maybe, unlucky is a more... suitable term.

I was quite excited for this one; it's a retelling. I found out this Belle was visually impaired and got even more excited; how will this spin turn out?

I love describing in three words, so: clever, enjoyable, and appealing. However, I had certain issues with this book.

First off, a great starting point is an essential ingredient for an interesting story. I found this story's start rather banal, my excitement waned a bit at this point.

The story moved a bit further and my excitement waned even more; descriptions were so sparse.

Throughout the parts I read, I was almost as blind as Belle was; I had very little to no idea what any of them looked like, the castle, too.
So, Belle thought Vandy wasn't human, I had absolutely no option but to think the same. What was he then? Was he a talking tree -- courtesy of a twist -- or the classic candle man? The writer gave me no clue as to what he really was. If he was indeed the candle man, then my best guess was: Polly must have been the talking tea pot. But of course, the part came where Polly hugged Belle and nothing happened... I mean, I would react if I unknowingly hugged a talking tea pot. So Polly was human?

Understandably, Belle couldn't describe things that could only be perceived by sight, but these things could very well be described by other characters present in that scene. The story wasn't written in first person, and that makes it a bit easier.

Also, 'blind' is a pretty vague term. Complete blindness is quite rare, so, I'd have loved to know what type of visual impairment she suffered from. All doesn't have to be explained right from the start, but planting bits and pieces of clues usually would do the trick.

Grammar was very impressive! There were errors, but none strong enough to prevent the story's flow, a good edit should fix them.

I had lots of questions, and I can only hope they were answered in the succeeding chapters; it'd be quite disappointing if they weren't.

Why was it implied that the beast had never seen a human -- in the 'what are you?... Belle the human' scene -- yet, he'd been chasing women out of the forest for the past six years, and knew very well that they were sent by other humans?

Her town's marriage policy suggests that just one woman gets married each year. How did that really work? This is getting quite lengthy, so, I'll have to stop here.

The book's cover was pretty, but I was not a fan; didn't find it book cover worthy. The book's summary I found fairish.

Blind And The Beast is an appealing twist on a classic tale. I'd absolutely recommend this to anyone who'd enjoy a fine retelling.

🌼 Risa Quill 🖋️

XDhelloXD, please let me know what you think of this mini review.