Today I will discuss one of my all-time favorite books: Beastly by Alex Flinn.
This book is a modern remake(retelling?) of the classic tale, Beauty and the Beast. It is set in New York City, New York, where the elite school Kyle Kingsbury, our hero, goes to is located. Kyle is the son of a news anchor, Rob Kingsbury. He is your typical beast: On the outside he is blonde, with blue eyes and charming face, but on the inside, he is cruel, selfish, and conniving. He makes fun of people who are uglier than he, and isn't affected in the least by his victims' upset faces as result of his pranks.
It isn't surprising that Kyle ends up on the ballot for homecoming royalty.When his class is voting ,however, one girl screams that the ballot is only made up of the pretty people for evil reasons. The girl, Kendra, is fat, with crocked teeth and a horned nose. She's like a witch. Kyle has never seen her before.He argues that human nature doesn't want ugly people as royalty, and maybe ugly people should become beautiful to try and make it in the world. Kendra glares at him, saying,
"...[You'd] better hope you never get ugly, Kyle. You are ugly now, on the inside, where it matters most, and if you ever lost your good looks, I bet you wouldn't be smart or strong enough to get them back. Kyle Kingsbury, you are beastly.". These words stick to him like glue for the next few days until the dance. As a joke, he fake asks Kendra to the dance, planning to dump her like a sack of hammers in front of the entire school to humiliate her.
The night of the ball, instead of the purple orchid corsage his real date had asked for, he found a single white rose, like Kendra had asked for. He tosses it to the ground, and it loses a petal. Still thinking his date might like it, he takes it with him. She throws it to the ground of the limo, and it loses yet another petal. When they finally get to the dance, Kyle eventually gives the rose to the girl taking and selling tickets, since no one else was using it.
Kyle's prank went as planned, but Kendra didn't seem hurt in the least. It was almost as if she was expecting it. She gave one final curse to Kyle and left. He didn't have any more fun the rest of the night. When he gets home, he meets Kendra, who was waiting for him.
Kendra revealed herself to be a beautiful sorceress. She curses Kyle to being a hairy beast with claws and fangs, so his outside could match the inside. For his one act of kindness, though, (giving the rose to Linda) he gets two years to fall in love(for the two petals that fell off the rose), become kind, and get the girl's love in return. Kendra leaves him her mirror, which shows him anyone he wants to see, so he won't be completely alone and possibly find someone.
His father forces his now-ugly son to move to Brooklyn, alone. His only companions are the maid and his blind tutor, none of whom can reveal Kyle, or that he is Rob Kingsbury's son. Kyle falls into depression, and at first makes no real effort to fall in love. if he finds a girl, is up for you to find out.
I found this a very interesting read. I commend Flinn for her effort to make some back-story on the beast character, Kyle/Adrian. In other versions, you may or may not get any clue as to how the beast is selfish like he is. Most times they focus on the Beauty. My only concern is that the themes are, how you say.... Suggestive. Before Kyle becomes Adrian he is also a little inappropriate... So, look out for that.
I have one question, too: Kyle joins a chat room for magically transformed teens, and I can follow the stories of all but "Grizzlyguy's". What fairytale is it supposed to me? SilentMaid was obviously The Little Mermaid, Froggie, the Frog Prince, but Grizzlyguy's? I mean, what story is it if SnowWhite isn't "*that* SnowWhite"??? Any clue? Answer appreciated! BYE!!
