Beastly

Picture taken from Goodreads

Alex Flinn has written many YA novels though this is one of my favorites. And may I just say that I liked it and had heard of it YEARS before it became popular.

Think Beauty and the Beast in modern NYC.

Kyle Kingsbury had everything anyone could possibly want, money, looks and powerful connections through his father. He was the king of his class. Until a fateful night when after his Spring Formal he was met by a witch from his English class. 

The rest pretty much follows your basic Beauty and The Beast story line.

Let me reiterate, I discovered this years ago sitting on a shelf in the public library and I really liked the story. I reread it recently because of all the hype surrounding it due to the movie. 

The reasons I like it are because it was fresh take on the story for me. This has been a favorite fairly tale of mine and it was nice for it to be told from the Beast's point of view. Kyle was well developed and he didn't go from Beastly to Prince Charming in a single page. Flinn gave him a chance to develop at a believable pace without the story dragging. Another device I like is the structure of the narrative. The chat-rooms that the author has put in between sections of the story help to segue the different plot developments. Furthermore it has been divided into seven parts (six parts and an epilogue) which is a perfect, magical number.

I recommend this for YA readers who are looking for another more modern take on a classic fairy tale.