Beastly Review

Beastly by Alex Flinn
A beast. Not quite wolf or gorilla or dog, but a horrible new creature with fangs, claws, and hair springing from every pore. I am a walking monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. And I'll stay this way forever -- unless I can break the spell.

Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, the perfect girl, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly...beastly.

BEASTLY is a rather adorable modern retelling of the old tale, Beauty and the Beast. I watched the Disney movie just as I was in the first few chapters of the book and it was rather interesting to see the parallels. I picked it up because there's a movie coming out in March and I wanted to read the book first. (I would've gone to see the movie regardless. I mean, Alex. Pettyfer. Enough said.)

I wasn't sure about the chat room thing at the beginning. It kind of threw me off and appeared a little gimmicky. As I got farther into the story, I came to look forward to it. Though I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see what happened to one of the characters. I'm kind of hoping for a companion novel featuring her...

Will, surprisingly, was my favorite character. He wouldn't put up with any of Kyle's BS and I loved him for that. I think he's also Lumiere from the original story. Lumiere was my favorite character from the Disney movie too.

The romance itself was a little too cute for me. I wish it had been a little more modern. I'm also still a little unsure over the "girl falling in love with her kidnapper" kind of thing. Because even though she wasn't fully kidnapped, she was being held hostage like in the tale. And in this day and age it just didn't feel right.

I know that the main theme is not judging people by their looks, but we could've gone without Lindy's speech and fears at the very end. The story got the theme across perfectly.

All that being said, I still loved the story. there were a couple surprises at the end that caught me off guard that I enjoyed that I'm kicking myself now for not seeing coming. I'm still going to see the movie. From the trailers, it looks like it might be a little truer to modern times.

Overall: 8/10

Comments

Caroline Tung Richmond said…
Oh, great interview! I'm heading to the beach soon so this might be a quick and fun read. Thanks for posting this!
September 13, 2010 at 12:21 AM
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