Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Beastly

Beastly Beastly by Alex Flinn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I decided I wasn't quite finished with Beauty and the Beast. This re-telling is told from the perspective of the Beast. But, as an added twist, it set in modern-day New York City.

Kyle Kingsbury has everything. His dad is a network news anchor, he goes to an exclusive private school, and he is incredibly good-looking. He's also a total jerk. When he meets Kendra and stands her up at the dance so he can get a laugh from all of his friends, Kendra exacts her revenge. Kyle ends up in a huge brownstone in Brooklyn, abandoned by his father and his so-called friends. His only support is a blind tutor, a housekeeper, and his dad's Amex. And he's only got two years to find true love.

I thought this book was clever and I was thoroughly entertained. I like that I got to see the progression of the Beast as a character and the author did a few fun things with the plot in this book that I wasn't expecting. I would recommend this book for high school readers and up. I didn't realize that the movie version of this book is slated to be released this summer. You can catch the trailer here.

Also reviewed by:
Have I missed yours?

Book 33 of 100 for the 100+ Reading Challenge, Book 15 of 50 for the RYOB Challenge, Book 19 of 50 for the YA Reading Challenge, Book 4 for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, Book 21 of 50 for the New Author Challenge, Book 31 of 50 for the Countdown Challenge (2007)

Source: BookMooch

6 comments:

Kathleen said...

Sounds like a fun read!

bermudaonion said...

Fairy tale re-tellings don't usually appeal to me, but this one sounds entertaining.

Shweta said...

This was entertaining as you said and also the twist used by the author was something that made it memorable.. I think Beauty And The Beast is the most widely used story for re tellings :)

Melissa said...

I'm curious about the movie, now... thanks for the heads up; I hadn't heard of it yet.

Glad you liked the book.

Tribute Books said...

Sounds good, thanks!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed the modern twist on this one. While it's not my favorite "Beauty" retelling, it was certainly entertaining and unique. I'm excited to see the movie!