Beastly (Beastly, #1) in Into the Forest

Jan 13, 2011 Cara rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, fantasy, fairy-tales, male-protagonist, books-made-into-movies

So this book has been around for awhile and my sister actually had read it when it first came out and when I asked her how she liked it she said, "It was interesting but kind of cheesy with the internal dialogue. It was eh." But then I saw the movie trailer so of course I had to read the book and see what the deal was. This always happen to me, I think, It's going to be made into a movie? Oh I gotta read that. Then I whip my head around and see I do the same thing like everyone else! Final verd So this book has been around for awhile and my sister actually had read it when it first came out and when I asked her how she liked it she said, "It was interesting but kind of cheesy with the internal dialogue. It was eh." But then I saw the movie trailer so of course I had to read the book and see what the deal was. This always happen to me, I think, It's going to be made into a movie? Oh I gotta read that. Then I whip my head around and see I do the same thing like everyone else! Final verdict: I'm definitely more romantic than my sister is.

Kyle Kingsbury seems to have everything and anything you would want. He's good-looking, dad is loaded, and is envied by his peers. With his sense of entitlement he doesn't mind gloating and shining his ego on others, and he might as well crush other people's self-esteem while he's at it. Well karma (or in this case magic) will not let him get away so easily with that. He makes the mistake of blowing a girl off, and pays dearly for that mistake. Kyle gets turned into an actual beast and he has two years from the date to find true love. Someone has to love him, and more importantly he has to love them back. But is there anyone really out there who can love a beast?

No wonder Kendra, the witch who places the curse, gave him two years because Kyle has a lot of things to sort through. He reacts how you would expect, devastated (I would be pretty bummed too, everyone is at least a little vain) and he has to figure out who he is without his looks. He had wrapped up his worth with his appearance and so it comes as quite a shock when that's stripped from him. I loved the side characters of the blind tutor and housekeeper. They keep him from going insane. I enjoyed seeing Kyle's character arc (who later renames himself Adrian), and just how much his perspective shifts. I wish I had copied down the quote, but I really liked the line that Lindy says. The basic gist was that once you know someone you see past their looks. It's like their looks is not what you first see, it's who they are that comes out more. I believe that's true. You do start seeing people for who they are, and not what they look like. Key message in this book.

It was a bit painful to see how "out of touch" Kyle was, but it does portray his desperation well. I rolled my eyes a couple of times when I saw references to Shakespeare, but people who read books love to hear about people who love to read books. Jane Eyre makes quite a presence here as well, and I thought the loose correlation between the two stories was interesting. Despite a bit of cheesiness I thoroughly enjoyed reading how Kyle changes to Adrian, and how beauty is more than skin deep.

Extra note: This has almost nothing to do with the book, but every time I would see the word beastly I would think about how for awhile people would say that to substitute cool or awesome. You know, like say this book was beastly!

And for those of you who didn't know they made a movie of the book! ...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Literary Ames rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-in-2010, i-heart-the-cover-art, 1st-in-series, series-abandoned, fairy-tales, young-adult, stage-and-screen, stand-alone, do-not-own

Beastly is a modern teenage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast told from the Beast's point of view. This tale is of Kyle who pre-transformation was a shallow, popular and very mean 16 year old and his growth afterwards as Adrian the Beast.

As the Beast he goes into deep philosophical thought over the meaning of beauty and truth, and finally learns to appreciate the simple things in life that he formerly took for granted. He becomes thoughtful and caring when he realises that he needs those Beastly is a modern teenage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast told from the Beast's point of view. This tale is of Kyle who pre-transformation was a shallow, popular and very mean 16 year old and his growth afterwards as Adrian the Beast.

As the Beast he goes into deep philosophical thought over the meaning of beauty and truth, and finally learns to appreciate the simple things in life that he formerly took for granted. He becomes thoughtful and caring when he realises that he needs those around him, giving them the respect they deserve but also looks back at the person he was and the people he once chose to spend time with, deciding they never were his friends.

He uncovers the true people behind their online personnas which is a lesson to everyone especially the YA audience this is aimed at, that the nice 18 year old you met online could easily be a 12 year old school girl, a thirty year old cop or even a 50 year old man!

I love the cold reality of this book. The desperation of Kyle/Adrian's situation is fully realised when his thoughts turn to very dark possibilities. His father's selfishness and utter abandonment of his son even before his transformation and Lindy's father's drug habit and the lengths he goes to, to feed it are all very realistic.

I also loved the literary references and how they tied into Adrian's situation like The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, The Phantom of the Opera and The Picture of Dorian Gray as well as Lindy's favourite Jane Eyre. I chuckled when I read the reference to the movie The Princess Bride -one of my favourites!

After all my praise you're probably wondering what the reason is behind my two-star rating, which would be Adrian's developing love for Lindy. I didn't believe it. They seemed more like friends. I couldn't believe that their love would be enduring. After a gritty beginning, Adrian suddenly became very sappy and using the corny language from Lindy's favourite books. Considering that the relationship is a big part of this fairy tale, I found it lacking and extremely disappointing. ...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Lacey Louwagie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: youngadultfantasy, retelling, fairy-tales, fantasy, youngadult, romance

The promotional materials I'd read about this book made a point of stressing that "this wasn't a fairy tale," and so, although I knew it was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I expected the connection to be a little more tenuous than it actually was. Instead, it's more-or-less a by-the-book retelling with the main element of newness coming from it being set in modern New York City. But even with this premise, the vehicle of the spell, the transformation, and the story are surprisingly traditi The promotional materials I'd read about this book made a point of stressing that "this wasn't a fairy tale," and so, although I knew it was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I expected the connection to be a little more tenuous than it actually was. Instead, it's more-or-less a by-the-book retelling with the main element of newness coming from it being set in modern New York City. But even with this premise, the vehicle of the spell, the transformation, and the story are surprisingly traditional.

I did like that the modern setting allowed the exploration of what kind of modern teen would deserve to undergo such a curse, and I have to say, Kyle Kingsbury was certainly in need of "a lesson." Deepening the "spoiled rotten" stereotype was the fact that he lived with his dad, his mother having left when he was younger, and that his dad really idealized superficiality, so that even his relationship with his son was totally superficial. The father-son dynamic is the one bit that did make me feel sympathy toward Kyle even before he started to soften his heart. And seeing how his image-obsessed father dealt with his transformation also added a new element to the B&B story.

Perhaps it's this dynamic that made the first half of the story more enjoyable to me than the second half, which became much more traditional. The love story is sweet, but the love interest sort of got on my nerves (although she was a really wonderful person and deserving of the good that came her way -- I think she was perhaps "too good" and too innocent, which is why I'd have trouble being friends with her.) I liked that she was a redhead, though, and that she was supposedly "plain" -- she wasn't described as beautiful until after the Beast began falling in love with her. There are times during his "courtship" that his desire for her struck me as a little creepy, and I wasn't sure if that was intentional or not. He was beastly, after all.

Oh, Alex Flinn must either love classics or think all teenagers should be reading them. She crammed so many references to classics into this book that I made a whole book display around Adrian and Lindy's reading list at the library! Another nice "gateway" book, even if it is a little fluffy. ...more

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Mar 29, 2011 Dorlana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tale

When I spotted Beastly at B&N, I grabbed it without even reading the back or the first page, which is really unusual for me. I was just so excited to read the book after I had watched the movie preview – so I guess it’s my fault that I was surprised (and disappointed) when I realized the beast in the book was a hairy, clawed, fanged beast and not the unique tattooed character in the movie.
I guess that kind of sets the tone for this review. The book was good and very suited for the original Beau ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Netanella rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, fairy-tales, paranormal-romance, young-adult

A beautiful fairy-tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast, this story hit all the right buttons for me. Although I believe this has been made into a movie, I've not seen it, so the story here is purely the author's in my mind's eye. A vain, cruel and arrogant young man, Kyle Kingsford, is cursed by a witch to become "beastly" as punishment for his evil actions against others. The curse can only be broken by the power of true love.

The story is set in modern day New York City. Our main characters a ...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Danyelle Leafty added it

Shelves: bookshelf-2011

Contains a beastly ninth grader, a witch, a transformation support group, roses, and a girl who likes to read. I loved the online support group chapters and the twist at the end. Does contain a few sexual references although nothing happens on camera, per se. Also has mild swearing.

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Apr 25, 2013 Melanti rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tales-folklore-and-mythology, 2013, e-book, library, group-reads, young-adult

Not a fan. At all.

It rather slavishly follows the plot of "Beauty and the Beast," only it changes the setting into modern NYC.

Unfortunately... when you take a story that, at its heart, is about accepting and adjusting to an arranged marriage and put it in modern times, the idea of Beauty being locked in a mansion changes from "arranged marriage" to "creepy kidnapping."

Not to mention Beast's voyeuristic mirror watching...

In theory, a version of "Beauty and the Beast" from Beast's point of view S ...more

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Jun 02, 2010 Katie J Schwartz rated it liked it

Shelves: suspend-reality, romance, young-adult-lit, old-faces-new-tales, library, fairy-tales, fey-creatures, onscreen

Honestly, this was not as good as I'd expected. I still enjoyed it, but I felt like it could've been better somehow. I thought that modernizing the story would bring something fresh to it, but it was basically the same old story, just told in a different setting. Still, it wasn't a bad book by any means, and I did enjoy reading it.

UPDATE 3/5/2011: I saw the movie today, and actually I was pleasantly surprised by it. There were changes, of course, but overall I thought it was a fairly faithful ad ...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Julia rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya, fantasy, based-on-folksong-myth

A YA modern-day retelling set mostly in New York City and a winter in the Adirondacks, or maybe Ulster County (all he identifies it with is Route 9) of “Beauty and the Beast,” from the POV of the Beast and how he got that way. Eh. This isn’t special, or different, or new.

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