The Beast Within

Genre: Fiction, Fairy Tale
Rating: TV-PG 14 (death, love, darker themes)

Villain backstories are a somewhat new demand in the entertainment world, especially for Disney villains that we have all grown up loving to hate. The Beast Within is a Disney Villains backstory that sheds some light on why the Prince from Beauty & the Beast was cursed to become, well, the Beast.

Beauty & the Beast is my favorite Disney princess film and I seek out retellings and spinoffs, accepting varying degrees of conformity to the Disney movie. The Beast Within stays fairly true to the story while Belle is part of the show, but diverts heavily from what little we gleaned from the movie (i.e. the castle and its inhabitants had been cursed for 10 years, the change was overnight, the enchantress worked solo).

These types of books are perfect for moods that require a nostalgic, quick, entertaining, and easy read. The backstory is told from Beast’s perspective in the 3rd person, but we never get a confirmation as to how old the Prince is when his backstory begins, which I found a smidge distracting throughout the read. There were several connections to other fairy tales happening in the Disney-verse (which I, personally, loved) and some twists to the relationships built between well-known Beauty & the Beast characters.

As a head’s up, Valentino (and virtually all Disney-spinoff writers) relies very heavily on the reader’s personal understanding of the parent story – not a lot of background is given nor does character building heavily occur in these types of books. So if you have forgotten Beauty & the Beast, you might want to go rewatch the movie before picking this up.

I was a bit disappointed with the ending, as it didn’t focus heavily on Beast’s thought process and experience as he transformed back into the Prince, but rather the viewpoint of the Enchantress. It felt like Valentino was trying to sprinkle in a good moral there at the end, but ran out of ink before proper execution could occur.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book. The writing style wasn’t knock-your-socks-off great, but it was perfectly acceptable for the type of novel this is. As long as you approach this with a desire for pure entertainment and nothing more, I think you’ll be more than satisfied with your choice.