Review - The Language of Roses

The tale of Beauty and the Beast has been interpreted multiple ways in different formats, for example the recent film Belle takes aspects of the classic tale and puts it into an internet age. The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones takes the tale in a direction that explores the aspect of what if the Beast had a sister that was also cursed.

The general premise of The Language of Roses is that Alys has taken the place of her father as punishment for trying to steal a rose. The “beast” Philippe needs the power of love to lift his and his sister Grace’s curse. Alys is taken care of, however doesn’t love Philippe. The Disney kid in me sees the immediate parallels between Belle and Maurice, but again, there are several differences. There are a lot more female-led characters, along with Philippe’s sister Grace (who also reminds me of Elsa from Frozen), Alys has two sisters, and you meet other female characters along the way.

It’s almost unfair of me to have a baseline in the back of my head because Heather Rose Jones twists the story and by the halfway point, Langage is a completely different story from the Disney interpretation. When Alys finds the titular Language of Roses the story really takes off into interesting directions introducing a non-verbal communication and messages via dreams. The realm that was created sparked my motivation to continue reading. Heather Rose Jones uses the English language in such a creative and descriptive way, that even sometimes I was left confused. I will shout out that I loved the description of the night sky as, "Pearl studded velvet black.”

I caught a minor tinge that the two men included were generally perceived as bad, whereas the women made the better decisions. Philippe was providing, but did nothing to really to Alys’ liking. Her father also gave me these vibes like women were more property, especially when the idea of having brothers was brought up. He also has a bit of ignorance, whether that’s due to Alys’ hesitations or his own personal twisting of narratives. I understand that this book has a queer undertone with lesbian emphasis, as a male, I’m rolling my eyes in embarrassment to both male characters.

On a technical level, this book’s chapters jump between first and third person. When I read the book, I’d read a few chapters and came back to it in a few days. Because of the structure, I’d forget who was narrating or which character I was following. Generally it was Alys, but sometimes we followed Grace, sometimes we followed other characters that I don’t want to spoil. The Language of Roses also follows a lot of female characters and once in a while I was stuck playing the pronoun game where I didn’t know who “she” was referring to. 

The complexity of the characters and the book is both it’s advantage and disadvantage. The flowery language of the book is interesting, but if you weren’t a person who loved European mythologies with fairies, you may be confused. It took me a bit to realize what a “palanquin” was. 

I’m fairly new to the concept of Aroace (which means aromantic asexual). One of my favorite YouTube Animators, Jaiden Animations, just made a video explaining her being Aroace. She does a better job explaining it than I ever will. I can see a character like Alys being Aroace, but I’m not the one in charge of labeling people. That being said, if you are Aroace, you may see a little bit of yourself in Alys, which can help you create your own path to your identity.

Overall, I think The Language of Roses has an audience out there that will love this book. Fairy Tail European setting with Magic and Mystery following Alys. For me, the language barrier of the book and the constant changing between first and third person between chapters made this book difficult to read.

Grade: C

A big thank you goes out to NetGalley and Queen of Swords Press for giving me the chance to read this ARC!

The Language of Roses is available on Amazon, both in Kindle and Physical forms.