Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly

by Alex Flinn

This was a very modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast. At first, I was having a hard time figuring that out, but as the book went on the similarities became more apparent.

In the beginning, Kyle is a typical stuck-up high school jock, except multiplied by a million. His attitude was so bad, I finally realized why some people can't stand to read a book because of the main character. Kyle was beyond rude; he made me thankful that my high school isn't filled with kids like him. Believe me, he was bad.

After he does something truly horrible to some "loser" at school, the "loser" turns out to be a witch, who turns him into a beast. But he gives him a chance to fix it. If Kyle could find a girl to love, who could love him, and have her kiss him as a beast, then he would be back to how he was. But, if that didn't happen after two years, then he would stay like that forever.

The story is very fast-paced, and filled with likeable characters who help Kyle on his journey to becoming better. This was a true fairy tale, in that it has a happy ending, but the book was done pretty well to keep the reader interested. I'll admit, it was a tad predictable, but not so bad that it took away from the quality of the book. Overall, I'd say Alex Flinn did a great job with making this retelling modern and fun.