Continuing on with my #booksthatmademe series, here’s the first book I ever read by an author who ended up being a huge influence on me: BEAUTY, by Robin McKinley. . I first discovered this book in my middle school library, and since “Beauty and the Beast” had always been one of my favorite fairy tales, I figured I’d give it a try. But I was unprepared for the magic McKinley wove over me, not only with her gorgeous writing style but by taking a story I thought I knew inside and out, and telling it back to me in a whole new way. . BEAUTY was the first fairy tale retelling I ever read that didn’t just expand on the old story but dared to alter and add to it in some surprisingly radical ways. Beauty not actually being beautiful or elegant, but a plain bookworm? Her sisters being loving and generous instead of selfish and vain? Subplots involving brand-new characters interacting with the old ones? Who knew you could change so much about “Beauty and the Beast” while still preserving and respecting all the things I’d loved most about the story in the first place? . The next McKinley book to make a big impression on me was THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE, her collection of short stories. Again, I was entranced by her lovely turns of phrase, her liberal use of semicolons (a habit I picked up immediately in my own writing, even though it took me a while to learn how to use them the right way), and her rich fantastical imagination. She was one of the first authors who made me think about my own writing style and what I wanted it to be like — and for most of my teens and well into my twenties, my answer was emphatically, “I want to write like HER.” . Q: Of all the authors you’ve read, whose writing style do you enjoy most? If you’re a writer, which authors had the biggest influence on your own prose style? . . . #beautyandthebeast #fairytaleretelling #robinmckinley #bookstagram #books #bibliophile #igreads #bookish #booklover #booknerd #reading #readingaddict #yabooks #booksofinsta #mybookfeatures #alwaysreading #ilovereading #booksofinstagram #writinginfluences https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Sd7PdgRhs/?igshid=6m2xd97n7ctq
