Beastly (Kendra Chronicles, #1)

by 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.

• ISBN10: 0061998664
• ISBN13: 9780061998669
• Publish Date: 22 March 2010 (first published 2 October 2007)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperTeen
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter



Beastly by Alex Flinn is a fairy tale retelling of (you've probably guessed it) Beauty and the Beast. I bought it quite awhile ago (eek! It's been 5 1/2 years!) and thanks to COYER I thought it was time for me to read it.

Alex Flinn sticks pretty close to the traditional tale. Kyle Kingsbury plays the role of Beast and Lindy fills the role of Belle. I did enjoy the story as I was reading it. Flinn does a fantastic job of convincing the reader that Kyle learns the lessons set before him. He's got a lot to learn!

Will and Magda are probably my favorite people in the story. I also really enjoyed the twist Flinn introduced for their characters.

In the warm afterglow of finishing the book I gave it 4 stars. I had enjoyed it quite a bit. Not quite 3 weeks later I sat down to review it. I couldn't remember the characters' names! I downgraded my review. I enjoyed the book in the moment but it was forgettable for me. Definitely will read more of Flinn's work though!

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

I'm a huge fan of retold fairy tales, and Alex Flinn is a well-known name in retellings, so I was excited to finally get around to Beastly and check out what "Beauty and the Beast" would look like set in modern-day New York.  While the book does have some good moments, I was ultimately disappointed.  The story has one main theme it harps on, to the detriment of character development, engaging romance, and so forth. Add awkwardly choppy prose, and there just isn't much for me to love here.

The prose irritated me from the start, but I decided to stick out the book and see if the plot would redeem it. The book opens in a chat room, with our protagonist the Beast talking to others who have gotten on the bad side of a witch's transformation. Parts of this are actually clever. The characters here have distinct voices, and the frog is terrible at typing due to his webbed feet. However, chat speak isn't my thing, and I was happy to see the whole book isn't written this way.  However, the prose of the "regular" narration is still short and choppy, the sort of thing I imagine adults write when they think "I need to write in a simple style that will appeal to teens."    I tried to ignore it, as I'm afraid to say I think most contemporary literature isn't interested in beautiful prose anyway.

Unfortunately, I never got on board with the story either.  There's having a theme and then there's repeatedly throwing the theme in reader's faces.  In Beastly,  we learn that outer beauty is meaningless; inner beauty counts.  Fair enough, but the Beast (before transformation) talks about nothing but outer beauty.  I understand. He's shallow. He's vain.  It's why he gets cursed.  But even someone obsessed with his looks and who judges other people based on their looks must have other interests, right?  Maybe sports? Or expensive cheeses? Or networking for future career opportunities?  There are a million ways a character can be "a shallow rich kid," but the Beast only talks about how ugly or beautiful people are.  It gets old really fast.  And then, of course, the theme continues to come up throughout the novel.

I might have dealt with all of this if the romance were able to save it.  After all, romance is a main draw of the fairy tale, right?  However, I felt that the pacing was off, and I never became invested in the relationship.  The girl who plays Belle in this retelling is nice, but I didn't feel sparks between her and Beast.  And there were not a lot of cute moments of their budding romance.  I simply wasn't interested in any of it.

Flinn does a good job of imagining how it would be possible for "Beauty and the Beast" to occur in modern-day New York, but that isn't enough for me to buy into the story.  With flat characters, rushed romance, and irritating prose, the book just doesn't appeal to me.  I don't think I'll be reading anything else by Alex Flinn in the near future.

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

Simply put, Beastly is dull. Worse than the movie, if you can believe that (and the movie is pretty freakin' bad). I didn't like the arrogant main character who was so far up his own arse that it hurt. I wasn't interested in his redemption story, and I am pretty sure I started skim-reading two thirds of the way through. I just couldn't do it.

[KitsuneBae]

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

Le sigh. There's a lot of telling instead of showing. The author should have spent her energy creating a lot of page time between Lindy and Kyle. I actually wondered why this book was made into a movie. Is it because of the fact that it's a retelling? My advice, the filmmakers should have their focus on Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles.

[nitzan_schwarz]

Originally posted on my blog.

Beastly is a fun, quick, enjoyable re-telling of the popular fairytale; Beauty and the Beast. Well written, with great characters and a great plot, I finished the book in one sitting and went out to recommend it to anyone who'll listen a second after.

Once upon a time, before I knew of Goodreads, I used Amazon to find new interesting books. One of the books that caught my attention was Beastly. 

The first thing that attracted me to the book was the chat forum it opens with, introducing our main character, Kyle. In this chat gather people who are "monsters". People who have been cursed, and most amusingly - people from fairytales we know; The Frog Prince, The Little Mermaid, etc. through the chat, Kyle ends up telling his story to the rest of the cursed. The chat form continues to accompany us throughout the story, and I absolutely adore it!

This story of Beauty and the Beast is set in modern times, New York City.

It's written in a way that made me believe that if witches and beasts existed, this is how things will go. Flinn just made it so real. The characters were completely believable, the setting very realistic and the plot fantastic. I was completely drawn into the book and events, to the point of picking up the book, reading for three hours and putting the book away; finished. 

I loved how the story took the guy in your school everyone pretends to like cause he's rich/hot/successful but secretly hate because he is condescending and cruel, broke him into little bits, scattered them around and left Lindy to gather only the better parts and discard the rest.

 
Kyle, as mentioned before, is that arrogant, rich, handsome guy each school (or at least each fictional school) has. He's one of those popular for his power rather than personality. He's vain, knows how he looks and doesn't have any problem with flaunting it. His idea of entertainment is to laugh at the less fortunate, look-wise and money-wise. That's how his trouble begins, by deciding to put a prank on an ugly girl called Kendra. Only Kendra's not a girl - she's a witch, and she puts a curse on him, to become as ugly outside as he is inside.

It was lovely watching Kyle change and grow throughout the story, learn the importance of being a good person, becoming someone who judges based on personality and not by how someone looks or how much money he has. Learning that nothing real comes when you buy it, that you've got to earn someone's respect and trust. Learning he can't get everything he wants, and that the heart is not for sale. I thought his growth in the story was just honestly charming.

For all his flaws, you couldn't help but love the guy at the end. 

Lindy is the normal girl - she isn't a beauty, and she most definitely isn't rich. Her father's a scumbag; one willing to sell her to Kyle in exchange of not being imprisoned. Lindy, in a way, is one of us. There is nothing extraordinary about her, aside maybe her mental strength, but she's the one who manages to save Kyle, both from his curse and himself. She's the one to teach him money and looks don't matter as long as you've got a good heart.

Add to that a cute blind teacher and a maid who sometimes speaks perfect English even though she shouldn't be able to, and you've got a great set of character that really make the book worth reading.

As for the romance, I found it lovely. It doesn't develop over night, but over a long period of time, which I adore. Instant love isn't my thing, and this ain't it. You could see the process of them falling in love and you fall together with them, and I loved it. Some parts of this book were just darn right adorable.

I ended up forcing everyone to read this recommending this book to all my friends and family, because it really is a good, quick, fun read, with a great message!


_________________________________________________________
To read a proper review for this book go to my blog; Drugs Called Books!

Old Review:
I have a confession to make: the only reason I picked this book at the beginning was because I saw the chat form it opens with.
I was flipping through Amazon in search of a potential new read when I encountered this book (be surprised, that's how I found my books when I'm either too lazy to leave the comfort of my air-conditioned room, or know there isn't anything interesting in my local bookstore at the moment [before Goodreads, of course]). When I clicked the "look inside" option, just to see what it is, I saw the chat. I found the idea so fresh and new and interesting, especially since I love chats. I thought; any book that starts like this is worth my read, and it didn't disappoint.
I loved this spin of the tale of Beauty and the Beast.
I loved how it was taken into modern times and how it was executed. The way the Flinn put it made me believe this might actually happen in real life (if witches and beast existed, which sadly reality so far proven false). The characters were so believable and the setting very real. Through the three hours of reading this story, I was completely drawn into the book and events.
I adored how flawed the main character is; how vain and condescending and cruel. And then how the story slowly breaks him to bits, scatter them around and leaves Lindy (and his curse, in a way) to gather only the better parts and discard with the rest. After all - who doesn't dig the idea of fixing the evil, bad guy? (C'mon girl, admit you do.)
Add to that the cute blind teacher and the lovely romance (Another confession: I love romance. What can I say – I'm a girl. I'm allowed to love these things), which doesn't develop over night as Disney's movies tend to put it, it was a gripping and lovely reads which I recommended to my friends and family.

[violetpeanut]

This was a very sweet retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story. Maybe not "great" literature but very enjoyable. Fans of fairy tale retellings and hopeless romantics will enjoy this.

[Jyc]

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

[Angie]

The movie was better.

[catiebug]

I don't even know what to say. Beastly was just absolutely amazing. I really wanted to read it, but once I had it in my possession, I couldn't wait.

I love how Beastly was written from Kyle/Adrian's point of view because you got to be on a more personal level. You were able to feel what he was feeling and watch him grow in to a whole knew person. He goes from being this stuck-up, full-of-himself snob to this deeply caring person who doesn't care what people think of him.

When he was the beast he saw that the people he thought were his friends really weren't and I think he didn't see it before because he was just so full of himself. This put him in a place where he no longer felt that and he got to see what it felt like to be the outsider. And I think the name changing and all was perfect because he really did become Adrian King - a whole knew person, and Kyle Kingsbury no longer existed.

Beastly definitely has a moral to it, the old cliche "Never judge a book by it's cover." Not everyone see's that and are too focused on looks, which is really said because there is someone so different and beautiful deep down.

I even loved Magda and Will. There characters were such a big part in helping him to become who he ended up being. Will couldn't see him, so he wasn't so defensive and opened up more easily because Will focused on who the person was. And he wasn't afraid to tell Kyle/Adrian what he really thought and what a jerk he was while everyone was to scared he would sick his daddy on them or something.

And Magda... I knew there was something going on there, but I never expected that. But she cared for Kyle/Adrian and was his friend even after the way he treated her.

There was a few things I didn't not expect from the ending, but it was definitely different from the Disney version of the story. This event that he kept saying was a curse ended up being a blessing and gave him a much better and happier life. He learned what love was and even friendship and that it doesn't matter what people think, you have to do what makes you happy.

This cover is beautiful, and even more so once you read the story. It's simple, but also symbolic in a way. The rose plays such a big part in Beastly and I think it says enough without there being an elaborate cover.

[boghunden]

Everybody deserves to read this awesome book!