Rating: 
Summary: One of Tepper's best yet
Review: One of the qualities I really enjoy about Tepper is that she refuses to be pigeonholed into a single genre - flitting between fantasy and science fiction when you're not looking. The book explores issues of beauty, age, and industrialism all in the confines of the classic fairy tale (although by the time the book is finished you'll hardly recognize it). More importantly, it's a very engrossing read
Rating:
Summary: beauty haunts you forever!
Review: please, please read this book! it does start off slow, but once Beauty begins her journey it really sucks the reader in! I am 17, and usually don't enjoy fantasy novels, but rank this along with L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Mitchelle's Gone with the Wind!
Rating:
Summary: The best retelling ever!
Review: Retellings of fairy tales are usually scant improvement on
the original. Not so here - the Ingram blurb on this title
doesn't begin to do it justice. Tepper is a master of
storytelling, revealing the importance of beauty to human
existence in a straightforward, no-holds-barred style. I
am always impressed with Tepper's novels, and this one is
definitely one of her best.
Rating: 
Summary: Sheri has a really awesome writing skill but...
Review: Sheri has a way of making the characters come to life and you fell like you are there experiencing what Beauty experienced. I am disappointed though, that she had to go into some much detail with Jaybee raping her and her making love to Edward and Giles. Also I did not like the language she used and some of the things that she wrote go against everything I have ever been taught. Yet, I liked how she put all these fairy tales into one person and therefore I read on despite everything else.
Rating:
Summary: not her strongest work
Review: Sheri S. Tepper is a magnificent writter, though I do not feel this was one of her best works. Through reading Beauty, I found some wonderful quotes, but I felt the storyline was weak. I liked how she intertwined fairytales with one another, but I feel that the book could have been stronger if Beauty had not traveled to the future. I understand the feeling Sheri Tepper was trying to create and the message she was trying to send about our society, but it was the way she made everything go into action that made me dislike this particular part of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fairy Tale With A Difference
Review: Tepper's version of the "real life" events that inspired numerous fairy tales (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) was certainly an interesting book, if ultimately anticlimactic. Tepper follows the title character, the half-fairy Beauty, through the events of her life as told by the main character herself through a journal.I have to admit, I am finding writing this review a bit difficult. Beauty was an odd story. For about the first half of the book I didn't much care for the way Tepper had chosen to write this book...from the point of view of the journal. But then that grew on me and I could see that it had advantages...the point of view gave me, the reader, the best possible vantage point from which to best understand Beauty's rather disjointed life. The worlds Tepper draws in this book are a bit lopsided. Some of them are drawn beautifully, while others lack much substance. Chinanga, especially, is wonderfully drawn...while the 14th and 15th centuries lack much depth -- with the possible exception of Westfaire. (There is an irony in all of this, but one that I cannot reveal for fear of giving too much of the book away.) The characterizations in this book weren't the best. While I understood the overall motives of the characters; I found that the motives of individual events of many of the characters were somewhat unclear...especially towards the end (Carabosse in particular). The exception to this would be the main character, Beauty. At each step along the way I understood how she felt, and if I had been placed in her circumstances I would have reacted as she had, felt what she did. Beauty is the reason I'm giving this book four stars instead of three. She makes this book stand out more than it would have otherwise. An apt comparison might be an above-average performance in an only average film. Tepper's Beauty is a rather poetic, if at times unidealistic, work of fiction. Though in the end, Tepper does manage to portray an overall sense of idealism in some of humanity, if not all. This book is recommended to those interested in unusual fairy tales, those with a penchant for Irish lore, or just those interested in a book that is a bit tough to sum up once one has turned the last page, read the last word.
Rating:
Summary: A Fairy Tale With A Difference
Review: Tepper's version of the "real life" events that inspired numerous fairy tales (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) was certainly an interesting book, if ultimately anticlimactic. Tepper follows the title character, the half-fairy Beauty, through the events of her life as told by the main character herself through a journal. I have to admit, I am finding writing this review a bit difficult. Beauty was an odd story. For about the first half of the book I didn't much care for the way Tepper had chosen to write this book...from the point of view of the journal. But then that grew on me and I could see that it had advantages...the point of view gave me, the reader, the best possible vantage point from which to best understand Beauty's rather disjointed life. The worlds Tepper draws in this book are a bit lopsided. Some of them are drawn beautifully, while others lack much substance. Chinanga, especially, is wonderfully drawn...while the 14th and 15th centuries lack much depth -- with the possible exception of Westfaire. (There is an irony in all of this, but one that I cannot reveal for fear of giving too much of the book away.) The characterizations in this book weren't the best. While I understood the overall motives of the characters; I found that the motives of individual events of many of the characters were somewhat unclear...especially towards the end (Carabosse in particular). The exception to this would be the main character, Beauty. At each step along the way I understood how she felt, and if I had been placed in her circumstances I would have reacted as she had, felt what she did. Beauty is the reason I'm giving this book four stars instead of three. She makes this book stand out more than it would have otherwise. An apt comparison might be an above-average performance in an only average film. Tepper's Beauty is a rather poetic, if at times unidealistic, work of fiction. Though in the end, Tepper does manage to portray an overall sense of idealism in some of humanity, if not all. This book is recommended to those interested in unusual fairy tales, those with a penchant for Irish lore, or just those interested in a book that is a bit tough to sum up once one has turned the last page, read the last word.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty,Nature, will sleep in our hearts,till love wakes it.
Review: The book is a marvel, the message is, the end of magic has happened almost completely and the end of nature (beauty) is near, very very near. She tells it in the form of a story. What each of us know is happening, to the whole earth, and she lays the blame where it belongs. The earth is almost dead, and will die. Yet she leaves us with a knowing, that deep within the soul of all creatures (Beauty, Nature) is sleeping. Sometime, somewhere, maby hundreds, or even thousands of years from now all will awaken, to live again, maybe this time with love. Susan J Ayers
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy, Fairytale, Sci-fi, Mystery..which do you prefer?
Review: The classic tale of Sleeping Beauty not only is retold in a new and interesting way, but is able to bring in elements of childhood, intelligence, wisdom, different lifestyles, motherhood, and of course, what fairytale would be complete without faithful love. Behind this marvelous tale are the questions of how things came to be and how they will end up in the future. The classic tale of Sleeping Beauty is merely Tepper's playground. Have fun.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful "Beauty"
Review: This book altered my perception of the world around us...a quality I love in a book. I absolutely loved this book - the re-telling of fairytales we're all familiar with was beautifully done. I recommend "Beauty" to everyone I know, whether they usually read fantasy or not.
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