Review of The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones
Heather Rose Jones’ book, The Language of Roses (Queen of Swords Press, 2022), is a retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast with a series of interesting twists on the original fairy tale.
This version of the story goes into some detail about how the Beast character wound up in his state, and it also gives him a sister, who is very closely tied to what happened to him. The protagonist of the story, Alys, comes into the Beast’s home in much the same way as she always has (as a result of her father’s gluttony and avarice), but with the addition of the sister and the backstory, things don’t necessarily go as expected.
Not present are the talking and singing housewares of the Disney version, but they are truly not missed in this imaginative retelling. Alys and the other female characters have far more agency than they did in other versions of the story, and it’s very much not a story about learning to love a beast. But if you’re a fan of fairy tales retold, especially when the author weaves queer elements in so deftly that you might swear they’d always been there, you will enjoy The Language of Roses!
Comments