Awesome!

Yet another great listen that the first review you see is a negative. Can Audible change that up? Please?

I almost didn't get this audiobook because the top reviewer was upset with the narration. I'm on an 'inhale every awesome story I can find by T Kingfisher' jag, so I'd be perfectly happy to read her fascinating book, instead of listening to it, but there's no need, the audio version is terrific.

Bryony and Roses is based on Beauty and the Beast and I confess, I groaned when I discovered that, expecting a dutiful by the numbers retelling, when I should know better. Yes, there are many similarities to the well known story, but T Kingfisher's made some interesting changes and yet again made it her own tale. It's much more fulfilling than the original with a gratifying depth of character and lots and lots of fascinating things added into it. Whether it's a pleasant interlude in the garden or an unexpectedly touching scene to sooth hurt feelings, plus hilarious pithy exchanges, the truly horrifying aspect of fairy tales as well as numerous totally relatable emotional situations T. Kingfisher's story delivers. It's meat and potatoes writing, with soup, salad, all the side dishes _and_ you get dessert too. Woot! Good deal.

So, please, take that first negative review with a grain of salt. Justine Eyre's accent and elocution for Bryony is spot on and what a pleasure it was to listen to her performance throughout the rest of the book as well.

Great listen. Great story. Get it now.

10 people found this helpful

Absolutely lovely

I’m so happy I’ve finally found a book version of “Beauty and the Beast” I adore that’s short enough to re-read and not spend more than a few hours on it, start to end 🌹✨📚! I thoroughly loved this retelling and I am grateful I waited for an audiobook version to exist before reading it because I’m not sure I’d have loved it this much without Justine Eyre bringing it to life in a wonderful way. 5/5; can’t recommend this book enough especially if you love this particular fairy tale in general.

4 people found this helpful

Not AT ALL the Right Voice for this Wonderful Book

I read this book long before I heard the audio version, as T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors.

This book is also one of my favorite books by this most excellent author: mystery, excitement, love, humor, gardening - what's not to love? The BOOK gets FIVE STARS.

But this is the kind of book that needs to be read with a little TWINKLE in the eye...if you've listened to Gerard Doyle perform the Septimus Heap books, you know what I mean. And among other things about her performance (see below), I'm not sure that narrator Justine Eyre has ever HAD a twinkle in her eye.

The AUDIOBOOK gets a generous THREE - and ONLY because the book itself is so good.

But Justine Eyre has (or fakes quite proficiently) a very nasal, kind of upper-class British accent, and once you hear how, at the end (or at some point in the middle) of about fifty percent of the words in the English language, she makes a kind of "nh" sound, it will drive you slowly insane.

I love a good British accent; I've spent years studying accents and dialects of English for stage and screen, and I'm an amateur phonetics junkie, so I feel fairly comfortable making the judgement that for a book in which the protagonist is a PEASANT GIRL, you don't want someone who sounds like a parody of Queen Elizabeth II on her coronation day in the early 1950s.

First of all, it just doesn't fit the story, which is a retelling of an old folk tale and would greatly benefit from a SIMPLE British accent -not Cockney, not working-class- just a simple, young, versatile R.P. accent.

Second of all, hearing "doh-eh(nh)" for the word "door" and "smohl-eh-(nh)" for the word "smaller" and on and on makes you feel like you are being COMPLAINED AT for the length of the audio book.

It's the talking-with-the-mouth-half-closed style of her voice, combined with the fact that the narrator doesn't really ever change her cadence or prosody (rhythms of language) from sentence to sentence...this narrator might be fine for some character in an Agatha Christie, but she doesn't even change her voice much for the main character, who is supposed to be a PEASANT GIRL for pity's sake. The voice of the Beast is not much changed either, save for being kind of desperate and rather overwrought, and a bit deeper.

Just. So. Wrong.

I could suggest about five different narrators off the top of my head who would have been better. Or, should I say "bet-teh-(nh)"...

So, long review short: BUY THE BOOK (or kindle book). Justine Eyre ruins this one, and it's a VERY good one to be so ruined.

14 people found this helpful

DNF

I love a beauty and the beast retelling and this one is enjoyable but I can not listen to the narration. This wavery, strange emphasis on the final syllable vocal fry just sends me over the edge. We all must hear things differently as many seem to enjoy it...

3 people found this helpful

Numinous and engrossing.

I've been following the author since she was an artist on Lothlorien. She has never disappointed

2 people found this helpful

Brilliant. Some creepy moments.

I enjoyed the unconventional Beauty with her passion for vegetable gardening and the amiable banter she had going on with Beast. The writing is vivid and evocative, as Kingfisher/Vernon's style always is, with an ending that works for the characters.

That said, if you ever had night terrors as a child, best not to listen to this before you go to sleep. Really.

1 person found this helpful

Couldn't stop listening

I usually only listen to books while driving. The story and narration were so compelling I couldn't stop listening. Highly recommended!

1 person found this helpful

Delightful and moving

I loved this retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story in print, and it's even more delightful as an audiobook. Justine Eyre's performance enhances the text nicely.

Gardeners will understand why the scene in which (no spoilers here) they approach her garden's border brought tears to my eyes, in a good way.

More of T. Kingfisher's work as audiobooks, please!

3 people found this helpful

A Different Tale of the Beast

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reinvention of traditional stories.

What other book might you compare Bryony and Roses to and why?

Ella Enchanted would be a good comparison book for Bryony and Roses.

What about Justine Eyre’s performance did you like?

Love that British accent. Justine Eyre reads with a cultured accent that is a perfect fit for this story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, this was a book that I wanted to listen to for a bit and then digest a bit. There is a lot of imagery and mystery involved. Sometimes I had to go back and relisten to parts of it.

2 people found this helpful

Not my kind of book

First let me address the narration. Several reviews say she speaks too polished as she’s supposed to be a peasant. If you keep reading you find that she was raised and finished as a young lady and it wasn’t until later that they fell into poverty. The narration is excellent and the only saving grace as far as I’m concerned.

Several reviews said this book is creepy which appealed to me. It is not. At all. This is a more teenage version of the story we all know. With a tiny bit of PG 13 sex and some foul language thrown in. I am not against either being in literature but this was not well done in my opinion. It is poorly done historical fiction with not nearly enough nuance to put you IN the time period. Our heroine overlooks many things that seem extremely obvious and I just have no patience for that. I love a good fairy tale retelling but I want some meat to the story. This book is not it.

Unless you are a big fan of YA with a more juvenile point of view I’d recommend you skip this book and go read Naomi Novik instead. Spinning Silver is one of the best retellings I’ve ever read.