Review: Beastly by Alex Flinn

Title: Beastly -Deluxe Edition

Author: Alex Flinn

Release Date: January 31st, 2012

Published by: Harper Teen

Read: May 13th, 2012

Pages: 512-paperback

Description:

I am a beast.

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.

What I thought:

This Edition of the book is longer than the original Beastly release, because it also has Lindy’s Diary at the end of it, as well as a couple little extras.

Also, while I did watch the movie version of this before reading the book, I much prefer this book! It’s a better story, a lot was changed of course.

The story starts out with Kyle, the guy who has it all: A rich dad, and good looks. But at home, his father is never really there, always too busy with his work. He raised Kyle to believe that pretty people have and deserve everything, and to not treat ugly people the same.

With this attitude, Kyle pissed off Kendra, one of his gothic classmates who is actually a witch. She tries to give him a chance at the school dance, but he messes up that too by insulting her. When he arrives home, she is in his room and places him under a curse, to become the beast that he truly is inside, with fur and fangs and claws. But she does give him one bit of hope. Because he treated one normal girl at the dance kindly by giving her a rose (rejected by his blonde date at the time), he has a chance to break this curse. He has two years to find someone to love him, and love her back. While dealing with this, and his father abandoning him in another new house with only a housekeeper and tutor, he decides to change his name to Adrian.

He is almost losing hope, when after a year has passed and no one has entered his life, he gets the opportunity to have Lindy stay at his house. He does his best to be nice to her, even though at the beginning she feels like she is a prisoner who was kidnapped. What happens to them though, you will have to read to find out!

I absolutely loved this book, especially since it is based on the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast, which was my favourite Disney movie ever. The little moments they had together, as they got closer were so cute, and I was definitely rooting for Adrian!

Another awesome thing about this edition of the book, is the additional diary of Lindy after the main story. Getting to see things through her eyes was the perfect thing after reading the original story.

I definitely recommend this for those who love a modern fairy-tale book with romance.