Review: East by Edith Pattou

East
by Edith Pattou
YA, fairy tale
516 pages
published: 2003
4 of 5 stars

East is a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. This is my second version of this fairy tale (the first was Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George) and I really enjoyed it. It feels to me like a cold and snowy Beauty and Beast, with some evil trolls thrown in.

 My thoughts:

•  I loved how the story was told from several different points of view. The chapter titles where only the name of whose voice would be speaking. I was quite a ways into the book before the MC, Rose, started speaking, and it worked. Even the White Bear and the Troll Queen had a few chapters.
• I appreciate how in this tale, the love between Rose and the bear developed over a year's time.
• I enjoyed how the winds weren't present as characters in this version, but were represented by people with strong personality types. I loved that the Rose was helped by "real" people.
• The journey to find the white bear, because the winds weren't used, was long and grueling. It added much to Rose's character development and was fascinating.
• I liked reading about weaving.
• The superstitious mother was entertaining and infuriating.
• It was a fairly fast read with a steady moving plot.
• I compared this retelling to the other version I have read the whole time, this plot device against that plot device. I preferred some things from this one more, and some things from the other. So I say, read them both!