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Beauty and the Beast is amongst our best-known fairytales, enduring and enchanting in equal measure. But beneath its romantic exterior lurks a darker story, one that various writers have explored over the years. For the first episode of 2020, we are joined by bestselling author, Brigid Kemmerer, whose newest book, A Heart So Fierce and Broken, is published this month and continues the story begun in A Curse So Dark and Lonely.
We asked Brigid why Beauty and the Beast remains popular despite its problematic elements, and how she chose to reinvent the tale for a modern YA audience. Listen on for a discussion about male vulnerability, portrayals of disability in fantasy writing, and a pretty damn cute mum talk at the end 😉
Mentioned in this episode:
- Is Beauty and the Beast About Stockholm Syndrome?
- Strange Magic: George Lucas’ Quietly Revolutionary Take On Love
- Courtney Milan
- Alisha Rai
Brigid Kemmerer is the author of A Curse So Dark and Lonely, the CILIP Carnegie Medal-nominated, More Than We Can Tell and the Zoella and Friends Book Club-pick, Letters to the Lost. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, though her parents quickly moved her all over the United States, from the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the lakeside in Cleveland, Ohio, and several stops in between, eventually settling near Annapolis, Maryland.
