Customer Reviews

Beastly

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(102)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Kyle Kingsbury, you are beastly."

That's what Kendra said. Beastly. But Kyle had it all: popularity, good looks, money, and any girl he wanted. Kyle never missed an opportunity to let the inferior people know just how far beneath him they were, including his best friend, whose dad was merely a doctor. Kyle's dad was the nightly New York City news anchor. At Tuttle, an elite school for the richest of the rich, Kyle was a somebody.

Until the school dance. Until his stupid maid bought his girlfriend a rose instead of an orchid for her corsage, which Kyle tossed to a scholarship student. Until he deliberately set up Kendra to be embarrassed and humiliated when she realized that he, Prince of the dance, already had a date and never intended to be her escort.

Until Kendra appeared in his bedroom and he received his "comeuppance."

"You will know what it is like not to be beautiful, to be as ugly on the outside as on the inside..."

The clock struck midnight and Kyle was left a beast, with only a magic mirror for company.

Kyle's famous dad vows to spend whatever it takes to cure his son's affliction. When he realizes even his money isn't enough to find a cure, he banishes his son, with their maid and a tutor, to a New York brownstone.

Will Kyle ever be able to break the curse? Will he find true love's kiss or be forever doomed to roam the New York City streets in the dark of night, hidden as the beast?

BEASTLY, by Alex Flinn, is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This novel is just plain fun . Ms. Flinn creates the perfect romantic tension when Kyle finds his true love and then has to let her go. Like the fragrance of the perfect rose, BEASTLY will linger with the reader, leaving the feeling that life is indeed good long after the pages of the book have been pressed closed.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

Kyle Kingsbury is rich, good-looking, has a celebrity father, and is elected the prince of popularity at school. Influenced by his neglecting father, who teaches him that the only person who will ever love him is himself, he lives his life in an arrogant, cruel manner, getting thrills out of hurting others. When he deceives a girl at school with the sole purpose of humiliating her, and the girl (who happens to be a witch) retaliates, he finds himself under a beastly curse until he can learn to love and is loved in return.

The most interesting part of the story is the great transformation of Kyle. In the beginning he is truly selfish and vile and undergoes a substantial physical change which leads to a deeper, inward change that is believable. Lindy is not as compelling a character as I would have enjoyed. She needs more wit or cleverness to make her truly something unique. He seems to fall in lust with her more than love (thinking of running his hands over her thin dress, etc).

Warning for YA readers: There are references to sex with girlfriend at the beginning of book, alcohol use, mildly offensive language, and general sensuality.

I think I would call my reaction to this fairy tale retelling "mildly enthusiastic," though I suppose that's an oxymoron.

The story flows smoothly and believably, and does not suffer at all for being set in modern times. Too often when fairy tales are modernized, they lose a bit of their magic, but Ms. Flinn did a very good job.

Two things prevented me being wildly enthusiastic for this book. The first could have been avoided, but the second I thought Ms. Flinn handled very well. First, the transformation help group internet chat logs interspersed throughout the story were an intriguing idea, but I think overall I could have done without them.

Second, for those who, like me, read fairy tales mostly for the romantic themes, it might be hard to be entranced by the male viewpoint. Much like Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Phantom of the Opera" (with whom our beast identifies), however, you find yourself really rooting for the monster, even knowing what a jerk he was before his transformation.

I expect this story to improve with a second reading, and have decided to add it to my bookshelf.

Kyle Kingsbury is king of Tuttle Prep, maybe even his small corner of NYC. Well, prince at least. Who wouldn't vote for him? With his looks and his national newscaster dad's money, what's not to like? He's feeling pretty good about being nominated until a weird looking goth girl in the back of the class crumples the ballot and comments on how unfair it is that the pretty people get everything without even trying.

And that's not all she says. Goth girl, who's starting to look more and more like a witch to Kyle, seems to think she's got him all figured out. And she does, but it bothers him anyway. To teach her a lesson, he asks Weird Girl to the dance he already has a date (and a hot one) for. When he upstages the girl in her ugly dress, in front of everyone though, she doesn't cry or scream or run away. Instead, she points her finger and calls him just what he is--beastly.

That night, when the "witch" is waiting in his bedroom, her words become reality. Kyle Kingsbury is beastly indeed. From there, Flinn launches into a modern day take on "Beauty and the Beast." At times, it was totally out there, which was what made it great. A real fairy tale. I loved Kyle's transformation--inside and out. Another good pick from my teenage daughters.

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 retelling of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast told from the perspective of the Beast and set in modern times. Many of the classic plot points from the fairy tale were included, but in ways imaginatively redesigned for a modern setting. It was fun identifying these features and seeing how creatively the author could include them while still having them clearly resemble the fairy tale.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I didn't really connect with any of the characters and the Beast's personality transformation was a little odd (randomly breaking into 19th century phrases because he read a few classic books and became less beastly?). I guess the original fairy tale is a little creepy with the whole Beast forces girl to live with him part, but it seemed extra weird in a modern setting. The explanation the author gave for his motivation made it both less creepy and more creepy since he is trying to help her (that's good), but there's no rational reason for him forcing her to stay (kind of strange). His obsession with gardening was too forced and bordered on weird as well.

The gardening, as well as references to classic novels like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame were beyond heavy handed and made the book clunky and less enjoyable. Really, I get the message, I got the message the first twenty times it was shoved in my face in various metaphorical ways. And yet they keep coming!

I liked this book, but Flinn's other fairy tale retelling (A Kiss in Time) was much better. A movie version of Beastly will be coming out soon and I will watch it.

Like several other readers, I picked this up because of the cool cover art. The art gained one of the stars in my review; the spark of originality got the other.
The basic story is that of Beauty and the Beast-but set in modern New York. The writing flows pretty well, but heavy-handed literary references and moralization distracts from the flow. Just because you compare to the Phantom doesn't mean you are him.
The narrator, Kyle Kingsbury (the Beast), is so beastly at first that I lost interest in him. Later, I found him only less boring. The heroine, Lindy, is a 2D "every girl" character without the likability of Bella Swan or say, Ella of Frell (Ella Enchanted).
The only interesting characters were Kendra, the witch, and Will, the blind tutor to Kyle. They had personality and I would have liked to see more of them. Obviously, in a Beauty and the Beast retelling-that couldn't be. And did I mention the gooey, feel-good sappiness? Please.
If you're looking for a good retelling, read Robin McKinley. Better still, read The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Till We Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis (Cupid and Psyche).

Beastly is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast in New York City told from the point of view of the beast. The beast in this story is Kyle Kingsbury, the son of a newscaster and probably the most popular boy at his elite school. He was placed under this spell by a witch named Kendra because he couldn't look beyond people's outer appearances.

Through the course of the story, Kyle changes his name, kidnaps a girl named Lindy to live with him in his seclusion, and gradually learns to see beyond appearances and love Lindy. And fairytales are never complete without happy endings, so it's pretty easy to figure out what happens in the end.

I was a little disappointed in this novel. From reading a small excerpt, I had expected a more exciting story, but it turned out to be very predictable. The story took place over the course of two years, and it seemed rushed. It was also unrealistic how Kyle changed his ways to become considerate and giving very quickly after he transformed into a beast. It did make sense that Kyle was desperate for someone to love him so that he could reverse the spell, but it was unrealistic how Kyle just seemed to realize that he loved Lindy. The ending was a little too sweet and perfect for my taste, but I guess all fairytales have to have happy endings.

My favorite parts from this novel were the transcripts of the online chat group Kyle joined once he transformed into a beast. I enjoyed reading about the other creatures in the chat group and figuring out which fairytale they belonged to.

Overall, Beastly did not turn out to be one of my favorites. I would not recommend rushing out and buying it. [...]

4 1/2 stars.

Kyle Kingsbury is popular and gorgeous, the son of a successful television newscaster and a shoe-in for ninth-grade prom prince. His perfect life is as illusory as his beauty, however; both are no more than skin-deep. His cruelty and shallowness become very apparent to him, as does his buried unhappiness, when a witch he plays a nasty trick on, curses him with a spell that leaves him as beastly on the outside as he's learned to be on the inside.

I approached reading Beastly with a little bit of trepidation, fearing that a modern retelling of a favorite classic fairy tale might not be my cup of tea. Such a concern was unfounded, as it turned out, and I really enjoyed the story. Author Alex Finn does a very nice job developing the "beastly" Kyle and gives an explanation for his lack of compassion and kindness that the original versions of the tale never did for the prince turned beast. Although this in no way tries to pardon or justify his atrocious behavior, it does make him much more of a human, rather than fantasy, character, and even if the reader still can't always find him completely likable, it is certainly possible to imagine a child with such parentage turning out the way he did. Lindy (aka Beauty) is a much more realistic character as well, and her sympathy for Kyle is more understandable when her own family life is considered.

Adult readers may have doubts that the happily ever after will be a love that lasts a lifetime, since beauty and beast, at fifteen, are nowhere near mature commitment age in these modern times but, after all, it is still a fairy tale, meant more to impart a wise message than portray a fully true-to-life situation, so that's easy enough to overlook with high hopes and best wishes for the couple, at least if one's enough of a romantic.

An often humorous, yet still more thoughtful and definitely worthwhile, new take on the fairy tale that I'd recommend to anyone who liked the original versions.

Kyle Kingsbury is a big jerk. Of course, he doesn't know that. The most popular kid in 9th grade, the one with all the good looks and his dad's piles of cash, Kyle's got it good. Of course, the nerds and the unpopulars don't think this - and they're in the right. Kyle treats everyone with the same condescension, that whole "I'm better than you because you're not filthy rich or beautiful" deal. But one new girl, the goth girl with the weird hair and clothes, who doesn't know (apparently) that Kyle always gets his way and always looks good because of it, stands up to him.

"My dad's a network news guy. He says people shouldn't have to look at ugly people."

"Is that what you think?" She raised a dark eyebrow. "That we should all transform ourselves to be as you want us to be, Kyle Kingsbury?"

I started at my name. I was sure I'd never seen her before. But of course she knew me. Everyone did. Probably had some pathetic crush on me.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah. That's what I think. That's what I know."

She walked toward me. Her eyes were light green and her nose was long and hooked down. "Then you'd better hope you never get ugly Kyle. You are guly 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."

But when Kyle tells the goth chick he wants to go to the dance with her, as a trick to get her back for her blowout during class, she seemingly believes him. She goes to the dance, waiting for him. When Kyle smacks his real girlfriend on the lips in front of her, she stays calm but warns him. "You'll see," she says. And it's only later that night that she comes to his house and shows him what she really is - a witch. A real life, living and breathing witch with magical powers - and one who turns him into a monstrous beast. He's only got two years to find true love and kiss her, but that's not very easy when you're a hideous monster.

Told as the personal account of a beautiful boy and the beast inside, this is a story to remember. Kyle's character slowly and miraculously changes throughout the book, showing off Alex Flinn's high-flying talent. It is written well, built well, and has a wonderful ending that will leave your heart fluttering. How could you ever love Kyle Kingsbury, the biggest jerk of the century? Well...you'll see.

Favorite character: Kyle and Will tie. (Will is Kyle's blind tutor, hired by Mr. Kingsbury to privately tutor his misshapen and ugly son.)

There is no one word to describe this book; it holds heart changes and rose gardens, conviction and selfless love. Does it really get any better than that???

(This is definitely a novel for teens and older. Getting drunk is a common lifestyle for Kyle and his girlfriend, Sloane. And you can only imagine what comes afterward... Sexual implications are many, but only in the first half of the book. It is not terribly explicit, but it does show you how absolutely terrible these lifestyles are and gives you a good look at what it would be like to be Kyle...definitely not fun. Drugs are also mentioned, and there is some language.)