Beastly

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.

from goodreads.com

 

Beth says 4 Stars...

 

I thought this book was a lot of fun!  I'm always a sucker for a fairy tale update, so when I saw this one go on sale I bought it.  For some reason it took me months to read it, but I'm glad I finally picked it up.  I was probably a bit apprehensive after seeing stills from the movie.  The books is quite short; I read it in one sitting.  The update was done cleverly and made sense once the framework was established.  There's no way a prince could mysteriously vanish from the public consciousness in this day and age.  Making Beast one of the uber rich who in reality occupy much of the entitlement that royalty used to have was a smart move.  There weren't many twists and turns to the overall plot of the fairy tale, so no big nasty surprises.  I wish for a talking plate, though.  I did adore the little chat room dialogues that brought in snippets of other fairy tales.  The names cracked me up.

 

The characters fit in with the update of the story.  Kyle starts out like a run-of-the-mill popular pretty boy, but grows throughout the book.  Although he's the narrator, I didn't fully connect with him.  That might be because Belle is my spirit princess and I waited for this version to come along.  She's just as wonderfully bookish and smart as I expected.  The hardest part to modernize was that she is essentially kidnapped and it wasn't done as successfully as everything else.  Because of the isolation that Kyle imposes upon himself, there aren't too many supporting characters to discuss.

 

Overall I really enjoyed the book.  It's a fun, quick read perfect for a winter evening when you want something both light and dark.  Flinn made some smart choices and I look forward to reading more of her books!
ebook purchased