Beastly

Beastly by Alex Flinn

I love fairytale retellings!  Beastly is a Beauty And The Beast from the viewpoint of the Beast.

Kyle is a rich fifteen year old attending a private school in NYC.  His father anchors the news and his mother left them when Kyle was little. 

Kyle is one of the biggest jerks I have ever read about.  He has an entitled outlook on life.  He cares only for appearance.  Kyle decides to play a prank on a new girl at school because he thinks she is ugly and probably not rich.  He asks her to homecoming.  Then he stands her up.  When he returns home after a night of partying and sex (at the age of fifteen) the girl/witch is waiting for him.  The witch tells Kyle that she is going to make his outside match his inside and before he knows it, he is a beast.  He is given two years to find a girl that will fall in love with him and kiss him despite his appearance.

This could have been a great book.  It is based on one of my favorite fairytales.  Instead it was teen smut.  I don't care if anyone thinks that it should be normal for a CHILD in ninth grade to have various sex partners, shack ups, their own limo, alchohol and all name brand clothing.  It isn't normal and shouldn't be portrayed that way.
The book would have been more credible had it contained characters that were at least in their twenties.  What does a child know about true love, having a woman in his bed, etc..........   Uh, nothing.
Each section of the book was prefaced with a chat room session.  It was lame.  I can see that it may have appealed to a very young teen, but it will really date the book in about no time.

And if we are lucky...............they just might make this trash heap into a movie.  I hope the screen writer does a better job than the author.

Rating 2  I will admit that even though this book should not be read by a young teen and therefore is really geared to NOBODY......I was still marginally entertained.
Rating R Teen sex.........young teen.