Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn is a modern re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast - I'm sure the title sort of gave it away. It is also one of the best Beauty and the Beast re-telling I've read since Robin McKinley's Beauty and Rose Daughter. 

The beast in this re-telling is a spoiled rich son of a famous TV anchor and the beauty is an intelligent poor girl from a rough neighborhood. For anyone who watches Korean dramas, this is a rather typical set up for a fairy-tale story of romance and love conquering all. But Flinn's writing takes this cliched story to another level which makes Beastly a stand-out novel from all of the other fairy tales being revamped out there. Also, this time the story is from the Beast's point of view and not Beauty's, which is a nice twist.

The best thing about Beastly is that the Beast's change from a spoiled, rich boy to a humble and thoughtful human being is natural and believable. The reader is absolutely convinced that the Beast is a better person by the end of the novel. This was done rather well for a short, young adult novel, which is why I was so impressed with it. It did not take the Beast 500 pages to become a better person but it did not feel rushed either.

The one complaint I have about Beastly is how two-dimensional Beauty was. Yes, the book is about the Beast - he's the narrator - but at the same time it was disappointing how bland Beauty was. She's neither spunky nor fun or amusing. Instead, she's boring and something of a crybaby. While I wasn't expecting her to be amazing, she wasn't very impressive.

Otherwise, Beastly is a touching and romantic book - or at least the Beast is romantic - to read that tugged at the heartstrings. There's also a movie based on this book being released in July of this year, so that's something to look forward to while reading this novel.