Beastly Book Review

Okay so today I finished a book called Beastly, by Alex Flinn, which is essentially about an arrogant jerk who is all about looks and beauty who learns his lesson through ticking off a witch and her casting a spell on him.

I think people who like high-school sort romances and cute stories that are plays on classic fairy tales will quite like this book, as it is a quite obvious play on Beauty and the Beast. It is quite didactic in its whole story and all, so it does have a moral and meaning.

Okay so if you are still intrigued and haven't read it, go read it now, come back and we can discuss! Bye!

**SPOILER SECTION**

So let's start with the characters.

Kyle: I normally really love the arrogant jerks in books (to some extent) so when I disliked Kyle I was pretty sure things were looking grim. He wasn't a super- endearing character, but they never are, but really, I just disliked reading from his perspective. As his character progressed, I still didn't love him, but I also didn't hate him as much. I think when he became Adrian I just wished for someone else's perspective, because he went from being so horrid and boring that I didn't like him to being so kind and boring that I didn't like him. It was disappointing, but there have been worse characters I've heard narrate. I also didn't like how he went about finding his love, and about finding Lindy. I feel like the way they did it wasn't realistic, but I'll delve into that later.

Will: I think out of all the main characters, Will was my favourite. He was smart, kind, funny and obviously the person who was there to distract us from being in Kyle's mind so much. He gave me someone else to focus on when Kyle was annoying me. I liked his character. Point done.

Lindy: Ok I know this is more my fault than anyone else. I watched the trailer for the movie before I read about Lindy's character but I had already met Kyle. So where I loved Alex Pettyfer as Kyle, I already had Kyle in my head, but where I hated Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy, I couldn't change my mind's view of her. It was pretty suckish. I also found her character not as spunky as I like female characters to be, and I know they all can't be spunky, but she was just the general stereotype of a not-spunky girl, one who reads Jane Austen and sits looking at roses. I just felt like her character could have been more fleshed out and cooler.

Magda: From the start I had a feeling Magda was a witch, or something of the like. She was weird and I didn't have that much of an opinion on her other than my initial thoughts that she was supernatural, where I was round about right.

Kendra: I really liked Kendra and I would've liked to see more of her. She had the spunk I wanted Lindy to have, and she had a cool, witchy feel which I really liked. I loved how she punished Kyle, because let's face it, he deserved it. What I didn't like was that as the book progressed, she became softer. I'm pretty sure this was done so her character could develop, but honestly, I don' think she needed to be developed. She was making the right choices, and was teaching Kyle a lesson, I don't think she needed to be developed as well. I also didn't like how she eluded to regretting cursing Kyle. He was awful! He deserved it!

So the general good/bad comments about this book.

The opening scene is set out like a chat room, where a man is talking about setting up a chat room for those who go through strange changes. Immediately, I think someone is trying to find out more about Kyle and his condition, and that cyber-safety will be an underlying issue in the book, but that was fleeting. I really love stories being set out differently, like in chat rooms or web history or diary entries. It really intrigues me. And like every other time, I loved these parts of the book. I was waiting for the chat room characters to appear in real life, to pop into Kyle's real world. I was more than sad when they didn't.

My main negative point about this whole book has to be the whole Lindy/Kyle love story.

The way he was determined to love her and vice versa, the way he kidnapped her and held her there, it just felt artificial and unrealistic. You don't just fall in love with the one person you're around a lot. It's not really realistic to find "the one" that way. I felt like Kyle was forcing himself to love her. I also felt that finding they loved one another was rushed, yet I don't think I want this book any longer. I thought that whole thing was rather messy, but I guess it can be overlooked.
Another thing that really annoyed me was the way that Kyle begun looking for girls on the internet. I don't know why, maybe it was because it was just so jerkish and horrid that he'd be thinking of using someone that way, or if it was because he was stalking girls everywhere, or if it was because he was just getting on my nerves, but it really ticked me off. In fact, let's just  say that most of the way any romance was done in this book was really disappointing for me to read.

Despite a few flaws, I think this book has taught me something as well. As I was reading it, and after Kyle became the beast, I wanted him human again, because I guess I didn't like reading about someone who wasn't at all attractive. As the story went on, I realised what I was thinking and I realised just how superficial and horrid that way of thinking was, but it's true. And I'm sure it  wasn't just me who was thinking things like that. I do think the messages and morals in this book are fantastic and I totally think it was a brilliant premise and idea to write off. However, as always, with a few tweaks, it could have been even better.

Favourite scene? My favourite scene has to be at the dance, where he gives Lindy (before he knows she's Lindy) the flower. I felt like we could see a bit of soft but still encased in jerk which is the way I love characters. I also felt like this was the only scene where Lindy had depth and made me intrigued by her character. I also liked the girl from the halloween party, she was cool. However I can't make this one of my favourite scenes because I am about to explain why it was one of my least favourite scenes.

And also the scene where Will got his sight back, that was so wonderful I was like

Least favourite scene? Where Kyle is trying to break the spell with Sloane, that was pretty bad, and also the scene where he was stalking the girls on the internet. And as mentioned earlier, the halloween party scene because he broke the cool girl's arm. That made me angry and sad and hate Kyle even more. I was like

Anyways feel free to leave your opinions about Beastly in the comments I love friendly debates :)

I hope you liked this review! I have another review I'm working on of a book I really, really love, so look forward to my rambling on about how good it was ;)

Anyways leave book recommendations or really anything in the comments with your twitter user name and I will shout you out and maybe even follow you :)

Okay so have a nice day and see you soon!

Love, Lily xoxo