Roses, by Barbara Cohen

[rachelmanija]

A non-fantasy YA re-telling of "Beauty and the Beast" in modern times which attempts to stick as closely as possible to the original fairytale (with one very significant exception) while making it seem plausible in context. Intriguing idea, so-so execution.

Teenage Izzy has never experienced sexual feelings, unlike what seems like her entire school, and feels like a freak. It only gets worse when the hot guy one of her friends is in love with starts hitting on her. But then her father (under understandable circumstances) picks a rose from a bush growing on the grounds of a flower shop, accidentally damaging it.

The owner suddenly appears. He has been hideously burned and has no nose. Also no lips. He demands that in repayment for the ruined rose bush, he get... Izzy's services as a highly paid part-time flower arranger. Since Izzy needs a job anyway, she agrees. For the rest of the book, she is torn between the hideously burned Leo (who also has hideously burned clawlike hands) and Roger, the hot guy from school.

The main way that this diverges from most retellings of this fairytale is that the Beast is not animalistic in a disturbingly sexy way, but a forty-something man with no nose. This makes Roger a genuine rival, because not only is noselessness not sexy, but in a realistic setting the age difference is much more of a barrier. Cohen makes it less skanky than it could be by having Leo request a kiss rather than marriage, but still.


Leo was hideously burned in a car crash that killed Roger's sister, whom Roger never knew, twenty years ago. He refused plastic surgery out of guilt. At the end, Leo is going to get the surgery (transformation!) and Izzy ends up with Roger. I am not sure whether her romantic choice was a cop-out due to Leo having actual missing facial parts rather than sexy fur, or whether it was that the age difference was just too creepy.

ETA: Forgot to mention that Leo keeps the melted hulk of the car his girlfriend died in inside his garage to remind him of his guilt.

Comments

[feklar.livejournal.com]

Too creepy for me. It's weird, but things I can accept and enjoy in more fantastical situations (massive age difference romance, sexist alpha males) just don't work for me in contemporary settings.

[taliabriscoe.livejournal.com]

I think it's a wonderful idea, sounds very intriguing EXCEPT for the age difference. The only roll a 20+ year older male needs to have in a young teenager's life is father figure. Ew.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Huh. That actually sounds like it could be pretty interesting. I'm a sucker for fairy tales redone in a contemporary way anyway, so I might have to check that out.

I find it kind of vexing that Izzy would end up with Roger in the end, though. Understandable, given the circumstances in the book, but still. Wasn't the whole point of Beauty and the Beast that you could love someone and be happy with them even if they were hideously ugly? It seems kind of disingenuous to end the story as 'and then she ended up with the hot guy after all, the end!'. I dunno.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought it missed the point too... but I didn't want to see 17-year-old Izzy with a 40-something dude either.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I am impressed by your tagging system. Most people who used "body parts: no noses" or "cow fisting" tags would be indulging in whimsy, but you're giving them a workout.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

...was it any good? Because it sounds terrible.