Book: Beauty by Nancy Ohlin

Published May 2010 by Simon Pulse|118 pages

Where I Got It: Nook store

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy/Re-telling

You can find Beauty on goodreads & Nancy Ohlin on twitter, facebook and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

Ana is nothing like her glamorous mother, Queen Veda, whose hair is black as ravens and whose lips are red as roses. Alas, Queen Veda loathes anyone whose beauty dares to rival her own, including her only daughter. And despite Ana’s attempts to be plain and earn her mother’s affection, she’s sent away to the kingdom’s exclusive boarding school.

At the Academy, Ana is devastated when her only friend abandons her for the popular girls. Isolated and alone, Ana resolves to look like a true princess to earn the acceptance she desires. But when she uncovers the dangerous secret that makes all of the girls at the Academy so gorgeous, just how far will Ana go to fit in?

What I Thought:

I liked Beauty!  It’s such an interesting take on Snow White, and it makes me want to read more re-tellings featuring Snow White.

I was struck by what Ana did to stay plain in order to earn her mother’s love, and what her mother did to stay beautiful, including sending away her own daughter to an Academy and giving out orders to have Ana killed. It definitely makes you think about how obsessed with beauty and youth some people are, and what people will do to retain that beauty and youth. Potions and pills and sending away girls to the Academy, only to give them pills that make them beautiful before making them sick.  Queen Veda really will do anything she feels she needs to, even it means taking the beauty and youth from the girls at the Academy.

I also liked the Academy, which wasn’t what it seemed- the Academy was interesting but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.

The one thing about Beauty that made it hard to love (or even really like) was the length.  It’s not much over 100 pages, and I felt like the idea, the world and the characters weren’t as fleshed out or as detailed as I would have liked.  It seemed like nothing really got the attention it deserved, which is sad, because the story itself is really intriguing and different.

Let’s Rate It:

I liked Beauty, and while it does make you think, I also wish it were a little longer, because not a lot was explained.  Beauty gets 3 stars.