Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in modern day New York City. Most other elements of the story closely follow the common version of the fairy tale. Kyle is your typical rich, handsome teenage boy who has everything money can buy, with the personality you would expect. He is self-absorbed, unkind, and materialistic. He plays a prank on a freaky girl at school, Stephen King's Carrie style, and ends up cursed. The freaky girl turns out to be a witch who transforms Kyle into your run of the mill beast--claws, fangs, excessive body hair, the works. He's given a magic mirror and a time limit to fall in love and seal it with a kiss or he'll remain that way forever. You can see where it goes from there.

This book came highly recommended to me by two teens who loved it and I thoroughly enjoyed Alex Flinn's other book, Breathing Underwater. This was honestly kind of a let down for me. I found the plot boring and barely changed from the familiar Disney version of the story. The story was not engaging enough to let me get over those little inconsistencies that plague any book, such as the lack of embarrassing moments that would inevitably come with a mirror that allows one to look at any person at any moment in time. I also wasn't crazy about the reader's voice in the audiobook that I listened to. He was fine when he was speaking as Kyle, but Lindy's voice was extremely jarring. Overall, this gets a 2 out of 5 from me.