Beastly by Alex Flinn

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.

Beastly is a modern day fairy tale for the younger audience. I have only heard of this book in the past week because I saw a short trailer for the movie that comes out in July. I thought I would get a head start and read the book now before the popularity of it explodes at the library. I was pleasantly surprised by the book and read the book rather quickly. The main character Kyle/Adrian is one that you have a crush on but hate in high school. You think he's good looking and he knows he's good looking but doesn't care about you. Beastly is a book that really makes you think about yourself from the inside out and can change how people act around others. I thought all the characters had a great background story and didn't make me feel like I was missing anything. The author did a good job of updating the tale of Beauty and the Beast as well as bringing in other fairy tales into the mix. It reminds me of the book Into the Wild where it also brought fairy tales to life and mixed them with real life situations. Reading the book made me feel like I was actually watching the story in front of my eyes. Everything was descriptive and gave you a real picture in your head. There were only a few rare cheesy lines that I felt were out of place with the rest of the content but that did not stop me from continuing. Beastly is definitely a book I would recommend to kids, tweens and teens. It is imaginative, just the right length and good for boys and girls.