Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book

How do you write a new story set in the middle of Disney's beloved movie “Beauty and the Beast”. Truth be told, it couldn't have been easy. It must flow into the tight storyline without messing up the well known ending.

The story begins immediately after Beast gives Belle his library. The first 50 pages are spent recapping how Belle came to the castle, her imprisonment, and her hometown. Honestly, it was rather boring, but necessary for anyone unfamiliar with the story. As Belle continues to clean her way through the library, she finds a copy of Neverwhere, an enchanted book that will transports a person to a place called Neverwhere. There she meets a countess who is willing to help Belle in any way she needs. Belle becomes transfixed with the book. To her it is a sanctuary, a safe-haven. Is Neverwhere really as perfect as it seems, or is there something evil lurking underneath?

Highlights:
Jennifer Donnelly sure worked her magic to create an original storyline. I loved her characters Love and Death, and how she intertwined a magical book into the Beauty and the Beast storyline. I felt like it was a perfect piece that could be added to the movie as a bonus story. It still felt in character and didn't harm the original storyline or characters.

Lowlights:
- Not enough information on Love and Death. I would LOVE to know more about them, or have more appearances by them. Yes, there was plenty with Death, but more of their struggle would have been fascinating. I would have preferred them to summarize Belle and the Beast's story as opposed to Belle having to re-explain things to Chip. If she's been there that long, wouldn't she have told them all this hundreds of times?
- All the recapping in the beginning was rather exhausting. I understand it was necessary to set up the storyline, but it caused the story to drag.
- Mentioning Gaston. His name didn't serve a purpose to the story. Bringing up his name felt forced and made me think “Well, maybe Belle did fancy him, if she remembers him so well.”
- Too short.

Summary:
Overall, it's a decent little story that fits in well with the Beauty and the Beast timeline. As a Jennifer Donnelly fan I was rather disappointed. This book felt rushed (to make the Beauty and the Beast film launch timeline), AND I felt like Disney put numerous restrictions on her work. I would have loved for them to give her more reign to incorporate the rest of the Beauty and the Beast tale, or expand it more from the original story to include the two sister Love and Death. The completed book felt tugged in too many directions 1/3 Jennifer's brilliance, 1/3 pre-written beauty and the beast recap, and 1/3 disney execs telling her how to write it.