Peter Beagle, the author of perhaps the best fantasy tale in the world, The Last Unicorn, called Beauty the most delightful book he had read in many years. The characterization is flattering, especially since it is really difficult to squeeze anything new out of the promoted classical plot, which everyone has used in their work - from Apuleius to the writers of our days. Not to mention the mass of popular film adaptations.

McKinley’s novel will surprise the reader in that the characters in it are similar and dissimilar to favorite characters from fairy tales and the world here is more realistic and harsher than in the story familiar from childhood, entrenched in our memory.