Beastly by Alex Flinn

Genre: YA Romance, Modern Fairy Tale
Pages: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen (October 1, 2007)

I am a beast.

A beast!

Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright. 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.

** SPOILERS MAY BE IN HERE… BEWARE **


I am a sucker for a good retelling. I have had this one on my shelf and wanted to wait until closer to movie time to read it because I love to compare movies and books… we all know the books are better- most of the time. I will get onto that later though.


I love the plot behind the book and how the Kyle is portrayed.


He is arrogant.
He is a jerk.
He gets what he deserves.


Enter the witch. Someone has to put him in his place, right? There are many modern retellings that have taken the story and twisted it. I was really hoping that the author was going to do that here- make him not the hairy, scary beast but one who became ugly or the “nerd” or something more modern. That wasn’t the case. I was able to get over it though because the plot was very well written and there were some crazy things going on. I loved getting the “beasts” side of things and getting into his psyche.



He went through a major transformation internally thanks to Lindy. By the end of the story he is a new person and I enjoyed seeing him change and learn from his sentencing of beastliness. The ending, however, was my downfall. I felt like it was rushed and slapped together to fill the pages. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I was looking forward to an ending that matched the rest of the book and I don’t feel that it did. Overall, it was a great read and I cannot wait to see the movie adaptation.


There are obviously going to be differences in this movie based on the previews (hairy man vs. veiny man) but I think it is going to be great!

In case you haven't seen it, here is the trailer for Beastly which hits theater's Friday March 4, 2011!!