Beast by Marian Churchland; graphic novel; 152 pages
I love retellings of Beauty and the Beast, which is why I picked this up. I also found that I loved Churchland's art, especially the depiction of the shadowy Beast. The story is pretty modern: a sculptor is brought to a run-down old mansion to create a portrait in marble. Her patron only appears at night, seems to be made of shadow, and is called only "Beast." I loved this take on it, and Churchland's storytelling is subtle--filled with pregnant pauses and long silences. My only complaint about the book, in fact, centers on that subtlety: When Colette, the artist, realizes she loves the Beast, it felt very rushed, and not quite natural, given how little we had seen them together for the rest of the book. I'm willing to take the blame on that--I read this in a single sitting, and may have rushed through the parts that I was meant to linger on. Still, I'll be interested to see more work from this writer.
I didn't read this carefully, but I thought it was cool, too. What did you think of the ending?
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