Black Beast by Setcheti (R)

[chibifukurou]

Title: Black Beast
Fandom: Magnificent 7
Pairing: Ezra/Chris
Categories: AU, Kids, Romance, Suspense
Length: Epic (43,000)
Warnings: n/a


Author on LJ: n/a
Website: http://www.setchetiscampfire.net/

Summary: This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast in the spirit of the original Brothers Grimm tales, which were very unlike the sanitized retellings released by Disney.


Review:I can’t second Setcheti’s comment about this not being the Disneyesk version of Beauty and the Beast enough. Don’t expect to see any overly intelligent animals, snubbed fairies, or talking household items.

Ezra(Beauty) is the middle of Josiah’s five sons and is often treated as an outsider due to the fact that he broke his father’s commandment to never duel. While his father accepted him back into the family neither his father(Josiah) or his brother(Nathan) trust him. Despite this Ezra would do anything for his family, even trade himself for his father when the Beast offers to let one of Josiah’s son’s take his place of servitude.

Setcheti does a marvelous job bringing this fairytale to life in a completely new way. I’m particularly impressed by how she takes the pieces of the sevens’ personalities and weaves them into the fairytale world’s mythology and culture to make a cohesive whole.


Black Beast

Comments

source material

[(Anonymous)]

I'd be shocked if this author hasn't read Robin McKinley's Beauty, which is a fabulous book.

Re: source material

[blandine.livejournal.com]

I just found your rec (some three years after you posted it...) and I will certainly follow the link to it, but, I hope that you will not find me overly pedantic if I mention that "Beauty and the Beast" was not originally written by the brothers Grimm, but by Madame Leprince de Beaumont a French writer of the mid 18th century. The original title is "La Belle et la Bete" (which explains the name of the character in the Disney adaptation). Apart from this I do totally agree with you, Disney productions tend to water down and sanitize every fairy tale they lay their hands on, whereas the originals where usually meant as much for an adult audience as anything. If you are (still) interested in the subject I would recommend watching the 1946 movie version of "La Belle et la Bete" by Jean Cocteau. It is truly a classic, full of poetry and a bit cruel too, like the original story.
Anyway, thank you for the rec and sorry for the long aside.