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Avg. Rating: 4.5
What a Beast!
Of all the fairy tales, my favorite has always been "Beauty and the Beast." I found this version to be fascinating because it came from the view of "the Beast" and because "Beauty" isn't the beautiful girl everyone just adores. In fact, "the Beast" is the one who starts out as the beautiful one.
Kyle Kingsbury is the newly crowned "Prince" of the Spring dance at Tuttle High School, the most elite school in New York. He's handsome, and he knows it. He's also arrogant, self-centered, selfish, mean spirited, and (as his girlfriend puts it) evil. He finds pleasure in putting people in their place, which is always below him.
Things take a drastic change when Kyle plays a mean trick on a girl at school who is truly a witch and is transformed into "the Beast." He is given 2 years to find true love and have that loved returned. The author does a wonderful job in making Kyle a believable character from today's world and leading us to thank the witch in casting the spell on the annoying Kyle. I loved seeing when characters get their cummupence.
The book only explores the side of "the Beast," which contrasts all other stories of "Beauty and the Beast" that only tell the story from Beauty's point of view. I don't mind this at all, but love the fact that the author doesn't bog the story down by explaining what's going on inside the head of "Beauty." We already have that information. I loved the development of "the Beast." We get to see why and how "the Beast" is able to change his horrible ways. It's not just all the sudden he's a changed man, but we see that development. We go from hating Kyle to rooting for him.
I only gave the story 4 stars because once "the Beast" does change, although his actions are believable, a lot of his language isn't so believable. In fact, he kinda sounds like a girl quite a lot.
All in all, a very enjoyable story, which I finished in 2 days. Will be re-reading this story again and again.
A fun retelling of a classic fairytale
I love Beauty and the Beast. I loved the Disney movie, the tv series and especially Robin McKinley's Beauty.
Even though I am 31 years old, a little older than the age group it was written for, I picked this book up simply because it was my favorite fairytale. I had my misgivings from the start. I was skeptical of how the modern setting, and a high school setting, would serve the story. And how, in a modern setting, would Beauty come to be with the Beast?
But I was most pleasantly surprised! It's not a long book, nor is it a hard read. I read it in a day while traveling, in the airport and on the plane. But I really enjoyed the book! The characters were well thought out, and 3-dimensional, which I liked. And the story being told from the side of the Beast was a nice new twist.
Yes, it had the sappy ending, but it fit the book and was picture perfect.
I really enjoyed the book and look forward to sharing it with my friends!
Beastly
A good book. Its a nice twist on the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. The writing flows nicley and its not drawn on. Flinn does a good job on creating the plot line and characters.
A Beastly Review
The modern day Beauty & the Beast story, Beastly, didn't quite quench my thirst for a good read.
Kyle is a spoiled brat in modern day America who is turned into a monster by a witch. The storyline is how Kyle has to go looking for the one girl who truly loves him and sees beyond his ugliness, before he is turned into a monster forever. However, in between him becoming a monster and finding the girl, he becomes a grumpy hermit who lives by himself with the exception of a blind teacher and a maid
For me, the story jumped around to much and was way out there. The author chooses to make the setting more modern, which is a great idea, but I think it would have been better as a more believable version of the classic fairytale.
Although the story did have it's good points I didn't feel it had enough to offer as far as fantasy fiction goes.
Twilight Series Fan
This book was fantastic. It raises emotions like the Twilight Series. It has sort of a corny ending, but the ending fit nicely with the whole story. If you don't like "feel good" movies, you may not like this book. However, I hate "feel good" movies and read this in one sitting. I found it a mix between "Mean Girls" and "Into the Woods".
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