Alex Flinn

With a new Beauty and the Beast movie hitting theaters in spring 2017, it’s time to catch up on all things Beastly. Find out what it was like for the beast in Alex Flinn’s contemporary retelling of the classic tale. 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.

Beastly

A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.

Monicap

Wow. Well, what can I say? I love everything I’ve read by Alex Flinn. Admittedly, I’ve only read three books by Alex Flinn, but all three are excellent fairy tale retellings.
Omigod, I felt so sad for Kyle, even when he was completely jerktastic. I mean, look at his parental situation. It made me just want to give him a humongous hug.
And I also loved how this book portrayed one’s journey from a jerk to a nice guy. I love how it was told from his point of view. Throughout the book, you could actually see his way of thinking change. In that way, this book is similar to Drink Slay Love by Sarah Beth Durst.
I also felt Lindy just needed a hug to, for the same reason Kyle/Adrian/Alex needed one. I mean, gosh. Both of their parentals are just so, so, so… horrible. It’s so sad. 
And also, in this book, it was observed, that even if your parents don’t love you, don’t want you, don’t miss you, you do all those things for them. Because you have to. I can say right now, form firsthand experience (though my firsthand experience is less extreme then theirs) this is so true.
Next on my list by Alex Flinn: Read Cloaked and reread A Kiss in Time (I’ve read that one before, but wasn’t using goodreads at the time, so I haven’t reviewed it)
Nut I’ll get right on that, no worries!

chloe rae

I'm giving this book 2.5 stars!

This book was one of those books that I just kind of floated through. It didn't have some intense plot, or crazy developed characters. It was simple, and definitely easy to read. My friend recommended I read it because she said that the message is what really made her like this book. And I gotta say, that's what I liked most about it too. Obviously it's a book about beauty perception but it's also about falling in love. I'm not giving this book a higher rating simply because it was a little cliche or unchallenging at times that I found myself growing bored. I'd say this book is definitely geared towards the younger portion of YA readers.
Long story short, this book is fast and simple and if you go into it expecting some extravagant story, you'll be disappointed. This story is great for a by the pool read or road trip. It's light and will leave you happy. And hey, there's nothing wrong with some fluff every once in a while.

★★★★ // interesting take and twist on a classic tale.

Jacalyn Boggs

A modern-day telling of “Beauty and the Beast” in the young adult world, “Beastly” is a charming novel. It does not stray far from the original fairy tale, aside from the setting of today’s NYC.

Even though it’s another retelling of an age-old story, I still enjoyed the read. Alex Flinn truly captures what it is that draws us to the classic fairy tales, and I enjoyed that this told the side of Beast. You can enjoy watching him grow as a character over his time in beast-form. You see the struggle he goes through, abandoned by his father.

I have not yet seen the movie, though it is on my Netflix Queue. I will admit, having seen the previews of the movie, I was surprised that in the book the character is more like the Beast we know and love from the classic tales. I thought that perhaps the way the character looks in the movie previews was from Flinn’s descriptions.

The one thing I loved was Flinn’s tossing in Beast using an internet chat room to talk to other transfigured souls. It threw in an interconnecting fairy tale theme in such a modern way and I loved it. He really nailed chat lingo and put the effort into considering his characters, such as the frog prince missing letters due to his webbed froggie feet. That is the sort of finishing touch in a book that keeps me coming back to an author’s work.

I have several other Flinn novels at my disposal. They just moved up the list to try to read as the summer days draw to a close.

Lauren Hendrix

It was just like beauty and the beast except modern

Fabiola Nicole

I still can't believe how beautiful this book is. I fell in love with the movie and still am but this book has a lot more details and basically what I wanted MORE KYLE AND LINDY! ! Read it in one day and might read it again

More 

Julie Janis

Loved this modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I loved reading about one of my favorite fairy tales told in another perspective. The writing was captivating and engaging. Will read again!

Callie Anna

It was sweet! It was fluff, with a lot of unnecessary crudeness, but what can you expect?
I saw the movie first, but still enjoyed it. I looked for, and found, a lot of symbolism. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that most readers my age would not be able to distinguish or appreciate it.

Toni

I enjoyed it, but I thought the forum chats seemed kind of tacky. The story was good and I loved the characters though. I'd definitely read it again.

Lucia silva

** spoiler alert **
           A pesar de ser un tipico librito romantico y rosa me pareció bastante bueno y me tuvo atrapada los tres días que me llevó leerlo. Los sentimientos de Adrian te llegan y habla mucho de literatura clasica para fanaticos. Es un simple cuento rosa contando de una manera especial, pasable.

Morgan K

Alot better than the movie and I hope there are more

Mayra Melo

I have always been a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast. 20% of my childhood was probably spent watching the Disney movie. That's why when I heard about Beastly (the movie) I was super excited. Thought it was cute, but not very good. The script was lame. So many things didn't add up. So I though: There's a book, the idea is so good, it was just poorly exectuted on the movie, the book must be awesome.
The book was better. Definitely. But it still couldn't top the Disney movie. Not even close.
I thought the development of the love story was good. That has failed in many YA books lately. But it was just a nice story. A good, relaxing read for a day. It didn't leave me dreaming, and going back to the story in my mind. And I'm sure it won't be nearly as iconic as the Disney movie is.
Also, there were MANY things that bugged me in this book. In the end (the author's note), Alex Flinn says she wrote this book because she was "disturbed... by many inconsistencies in a tradicional tale." Really? Did she fix that? Well let's see. In Beastly there are the small, irrelevant blunders like when Kyle (the beast) says he trimmed the fur in his face to attend the bunch of doctors his father took him too. Later on he says he hasn't looked in a mirror since he was transformed. How can that be? And also, there are (in my opinion) the big blunders. Like when this doctor studies his skin tissue and finds it's indestructible. What doctor would just let that guy go and be like "Well, whatever..." None. They would want to study it further. The doctor in the book makes no sense to me.
Oh, and that last line by Kyle (or Adrian) in page 274... Authors should really try to make their characters sound less cheesy, it just ruins the moment.
But anyway. If you're a fan of Beauty and the Beast, or fairy tales and you're looking for a light, quick read, go right ahead.

Destiny J Tamayo

Rereading this I feel like it’s more of a 3.5. I wish there were more details about them getting to know each other.

Okay, so I should have realized that this would be a bunch of teenage emotions and whining when I started this book. Looking past that, it's a really neat concept and I like the idea of seeing how the beast feels in beauty and the beast, since it's usually told from the point of view of the beauty.

It was well written, I just think it got a little out of control when he changed his name to Adrian because "he was the darkness," and I literally laughed out loud at the line.

It was enjoyable, but I think that the "twist" was well seen beforehand, and that some of the ending threads were jumped over and unexplained.

Anastaciya

Want a modern version of the Beauty and the Beast? You got it! Nice, but for children...

Barbara Rosas

2.5 en realidad. Me gustó que tuviera más veracidad como en que el padre de Lindy la entrego solo para salvarse o como Kyle se comportaba en el inicio de la historia, como un popular que no sabe hacer otra cosa que arruinarle la vida a los demás.
Odió el chat, no sé porque lo detestó tanto pero no me gustó y me hubiera gustado conocer mucho más a Lindy, creo que hay muy poco de ella en la historia.
Otra cosa no me gustó es que encontré que a veces Adrián era muy romántico pero a un nivel molesto, que se enamoraba muy rápido y aunque se hubiera enamorado de verdad, que todo fue tan forzado hasta que lo logró.

Alejandra Bran

Justamente hoy (19septiembre2011) termine de leer Beastly o Bestial de Alex Flinn, un libro hermoso eh de decir, simplemente me enamore de Adrian (Kyle), aunque al principio fuera un egocéntrico, materialista superficial, extremadamente apuesto y perfecto, en mi mente deja corto a Edward Cullen (el que se describe en los libros y no es Robert Pattison) o incluso a Will Herondale (por supuesto que también estoy enamorada de él).
El libro definitivamente te provoca esa necesidad de continuar leyendo hasta que los ojos se te sequen de no parpadear, ambientado en New York, ciudad que nunca eh visitado pero espero fervientemente en visitar por que me encanta, moriría por un romance a lo NY city!, me encanta que Alex Flinn sea de esos autores que te describen la calle por la cual va caminando o la avenida por donde está la casa, me hacen sentir que puedo caminar por calles que realmente son reales.
Esas sesiones de chat con los personajes hechizados, al principio me parecieron un poco absurdas pero ya al final me terminaron agradando, la ranita, el chico oso, la dama silenciosa (mi amada sirenita), Bestia NYC y el señor Anderson (que me recuerda a matrix) fueron personajes realmente puntuales en esta historia, a pesar de lo inmaduro que podía parecer la manera de entablar conversación, todos le dejaron buenos mensajes a Kyle, me refiero a como la Sirenita le enseño como el amor podía ser tan puro de sacrificarse ella por el (estúpido) marinero que nunca la amó, y como el chico oso, le dio esperanzan de que su maldición podía ser rota algún día y con la ayuda de la persona a quien se ama. Para mí a pesar de que se presentaran de manera tacita, fueron cruciales para la trama.
Lindy por otro lado, me encanto ese personaje literario, donde su amor por los libros le llevaran horas y horas de entretenimiento, realmente es así en la vida real, un tan solo libro es capaz de marcar tu vida y hacer cambios en ella, su gusto literario tan clásico como puede demostrar su afición por Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brönte también a sido de esos libros románticos, donde la mujer es dominante no por su belleza si no por su conocimiento, eso marca la personalidad de Lindy.
¿Acaso las suertudas tienen que ser pelirrojas? Aun así me gusto que no fuera un personaje con una apariencia común y corriente, pero Kyle era rubio, me hizo recordar a Jace y Clary. Quizás era la moda de pareja en el 2007 cuando ambos libros salieron publicados.
Lo ultimo que diré y que me encanto fue como el escritor tomo características de todas las historias de la Bella y La Bestia para construir esta maravillosa y antigua historia de amor.
El romance entre Kyle y Lindy, o mas bien entre Adrian y Lindy, te hace pensar si es que realmente puedes enamorarte de una persona, solo por los sentimientos que te demuestra, siempre e sido de las que piensa que tiene que haber por lo menos una característica física que te llamé de la otra persona, no sé si estoy equivocada o no pero el hecho de que una novela te demuestre que podrías estar equivocada te pone a pensar si es real o no.
Al final es un libro que recomiendo muchísimo, es romántico con sus cosas graciosas, que te provocaran una risa en medio de un párrafo que creías que sería serio, fue totalmente disfrutado por mi persona.

Becky Clark

It was a cute retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast. It was an interesting twist in the story and I found myself likening it a lot. The links in between for different story’s like ‘princess and the frog’ ‘the little mermaid’ etc was an amazing way to link then and keep the story fresh. 

The message behind the original was well portrayed and the characters were rather enjoyable to follow. I did however take one star because at times I felt the story was slow and couldn’t really get into it at the beginning. 

Overall it was pretty good.

Lynn Braden

This is a good story. It modernizes the Beauty and the Beast story.

Amy Juniper

4.5 stars.

I really enjoyed the character development and who Adrian became at the end. He's just a teenager, I'm glad that he didn't turn into a beast forever.

Lorien O'Brien

This book was pretty good, but not great. I didn't expect it to be, but I was still a little disappointed. I do like that there was more action than the movie, especially the ending, but I prefer the maid not being Kendra, and Kyle's name being Hunter not Adrian. And him being furry is just...dumb. Sorry, it's dumb. Disney pulled it off, but I prefer what they did in the movie. (Obviously I watched the movie first, I actually had never heard of the book until just before I watched the film.) It just wasn't my thing, although I love their love story. But at times the wording was cringe worthy, and him being fuzzy...I just can't get over that. Definitely a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Sara 

LOVED IT!!! This book is an amazing retelling of beauty and the beast, and I highly recommend it to someone who loves the original fairy tale!!!!

See it through both their eyes. Beastly I am a beast. A beast. You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. 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. Lindy's Diary Diary, I am locked away . . . with no one to confi de in but you . . . and him. His fur, those claws—they caught me off guard at first, but now I'm noticing something else about him—something deeper. It's the look in his eye. It tells me he's got a secret to keep. That's okay—I've got one, too. I think I'm falling in love with him. . . . Lindy

Beastly Deluxe Edition

Milana Marie Waller

This book was really easy to read and super cute but it was pretty predictable

Beastly

Reviews