5 Thoughts on Quest for a Beast (Short Story) by Sarah Holman

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been catching up on Sarah Holman’s novels and short stories, in a challenge to read and review 10 of them in 10 weeks, and this is the last one! I’ve so enjoyed finally reading some of these tales I’ve been meaning to read for so long, from this prolific author. 🙂

Here’s a quick review for a short story today.

Title: Quest for a Beast: A Beauty and the Beast Story
Author: Sarah Holman

• Date read: May 28, 2017
• Rating: 4 stars
• Genre: Christian / Contemporary / Short Story / Fairytale Retelling (Beauty and the Beast)
• Age: YA
• Year pub: 2015
• Pages: 41 (Kindle)
  
• Fave character: Nelson
• Source: Amazon
• Links: Goodreads • Amazon • Author Website

5 Thoughts on Quest for a Beast

1. A quick and intriguing short story. Some parts I wasn’t sure if I cared for, and/or might have disagreed with, but overall I was impressed with the writing of this story and it kept me very engaged, so I’m giving it a 4-star rating. 🙂 It’s loosely based on the Beauty and the Beast story, which was fun to pick out, as well!

2. Quest for a Beast is a modern tale about a girl and her brother and some other teens who go on a slightly perilous trek through some woods (most of the story) to find a criminal (known as the Beast) and bring him in for the reward. Whether or not they succeed… well, you’ll just have to read it to find out. 😉 I don’t read a lot of straight-up modern fiction, so it was a little different for me, but I was super absorbed as I read, and curious how it would turn out and what would happen. I did guess a couple of things (and kind of hoped for them) which made me super happy! 😀

3. There were a couple different Christian messages in here and I really liked the redemption one, being a common Beauty and the Beast theme. 🙂

4. The characters were all individual, and I liked Adara okay and Nelson definitely grew on me. 🙂 I was a little disappointed that Adara’s brother, Jasper’s, story-arc wasn’t addressed, even when another character’s was. I guess it’s a short story so there wasn’t room, but I still would have liked some sort of improvement from him. 😦 So that was a little sad. There’s still time, but still.

5. Ooh! I loved a certain reference at the beginning! 😀 I think Adara was reading a Cindrella retelling, also by this author (Waltz into the Waves) and that bit of meta-ness made me super happy as well! 😀 Overall, it was an original and interesting short story, which, aside from a couple quibbles, I really enjoyed! ^_^

Favorite Quote

“You stay here while I go turn off the alarm.”

“How will you do that?” Philip asked.

“I have done my research,” Nelson replied nebulously.

~ ~ ~

What’s your favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling? 😀

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Dream away in those pages . . .

~ The Page Dreamer

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