Beastly

Book Name: Beastly

Author/s: Alex Flinn

Language English

Publisher, year: Harper Teen, 2008

Page total: 320

Date Read: August 15th 2010

Genre/s: YA, Coming of Age, Urban Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis/Description: A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever—ruined—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, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly.

First line of Book: "I could feel everyone looking at me,but i was used to it."

Review:

Beastly is basically a modern retelling of Beauty and The Beast.

I don't think I can express with words how I feel about this book. While reading it, I felt so strange, I thought "This is so good I want to read it all at once but I don't want to or it'll end to quickly". Yet, as always, I finished the book on the same day but I'll re-read it, and soon, because this is one of those stories you never read too many times, at least it's what it seems to me now.

The way it's written is quite original, because there is the normal narrative and theres the IMing, which you don't understand in the beginning but you do eventually. Here's a little excerpt:

Mr. Anderson: Hello, BeastNYC.

Mr. Anderson: Hello? I see you there, BeastNYC. Want to introduce yourself?

BeastNYC: Don't want to talk 1st...anyone else here?

This was very interesting because Kyle was not the only one with his kind of problems. Also, this helped us understand the story a little better.

At the prom, Kyle did a kindness, and that was his chance of salvation, though remote, and it really keeps the reader interested because Kyle in the beginning is selfish, self-absorbed, obnoxious, shallow - the list goes on and on - but throughout the book, Kyle grows, matures, falls in love with someone he wouldn't even fathom being with before. That's the only bad thing I have to point out, his growth, it didn't feel very real, BUT that is just because the story seems to occur in a short time period when it happens through TWO YEARS-if you think of it that way, it doesn't seem so unreal at all. But the time passage could be a little better written, you only know the time is passing because it's actually there, written.

On page six, Kendra says Kyle Kingsbury, you are beastly. For some reason, it struck me as a memorable quote. Maybe because it's where the title comes from, maybe not.

Kendra was a strangely likable character - she's a witch, after all - but she's my favorite of them all.

Now I can't wait to get my hands on Ms Flinn's other books, especially A KISS IN TIME, which is a modern retelling of The Sleeping Beauty (do I see a pattern here?)

I highly recommend BEASTLY. And the cover is right, you should "READ IT BEFORE YOU SEE IT!"

Rating: 5/5

Quotes from book:

"You shouldn't miss someone who don't miss you, right?"

"Those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy."