Beastly by Alex Flinn

A beautifully crafted  retelling of the classic fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast. This retelling has it all, beauty, angst, love, passion, hate, realism, humor, and hate; I loved every second of it!


“Then you’d better hope you never get ugly, Kyle. You are ugly now, on the inside where it matters most, and if you ever lost your good looks, I bet you wouldn’t be smart or strong enough to get them back. Kyle 
Kingsbury, you are beastly.” (Flinn 6)


The Good

Beastly is the perfect word to describe the creature Alex Flinn (and the original fairy-tale) crafted. The novel Beastly is set in New York (much different than the distant castle we saw in the Disney retelling). Personally, I really like how the story is told from the Beasts point of view. Alex Flinn is able to create realistic and deep characters, the reader almost instantly falls in love with. Speaking of Love: Alex Flinn doesn't devote the novel to the romance; she also doesn't devote the entire novel to premarital sex which seems to accompany many teen things today. Instead of centering the important messages, and characters finding themselves around a romance she creates a romance around the messages and character development. 

The Bad
Although, I truly enjoyed Beastly there were a few issues (2) I had with the novel.
1. Flinn throws brand names around like dog owners throw sticks. An example is, 'So-and-so pressed play on her Apple 3G IPod.' instead of simply saying 'So-and-so pressed play, her favorite song blares through her speakers.' It will only take a few years before people begin to frown upon the novel for it's tech antiquity.
My biggest problem with the novel
2. The main character Kyle Kingsbury is only a 15 year old high school student! Beauty and the Beast is all about the deep, passionate, connecting love that will endure anything and everything; a fifteen year old in high school cannot even fathom this kind of love. I can understand her reason for doing this, Beastly is geared towards Young Adult readers and it makes the book more relate able.

I give this book THREE STARS

My friend and I recently ran into Alex Flinn herself at a conference we were delighted to meet her; but we think we scared her a little bit (we were very excited).