Though New York is not said to be the most average town, I think we would all agree heads would turn if a big, hairy beast were seen walking down the street. What does this mean for the once handsome, 14 year old boy, Kyle Kingston? For who, in his "old life", as he like to call it, heads would turn for his beauty rather than his beastliness? Once immensely popular and highly coveted by every girl in school, being a beast is not only strange but a revelation. His father, a rich New York prime time newscaster, has shut Kyle up in a five story mansion with a blind tutor, a maid, and empty promises to visit. He and Kyle have gone to every doctor looking for a cure, but when nothing was found, Mr. Kingston wanted nothing more to do with his son, not that he was close to him before. He did not want his now ugly son ruining his reputation, because coming to him, looks made you in this world.
This was Kyle’s attitude towards life early in the story, as well. This made him treat not so good looking people very badly. Now you might be wondering how Kyle got this way. Would you believe me if I told you a goth witch did this to him to show him how ugly he was on the inside? What if I told you he only had two years to find his true love and only her kiss could reverse the curse? Is this story starting to sound familiar? Probably since most have heard the story of Beauty and the Beast or seen the Disney movie based on that story. As you may have guessed, a bookish young girl now enters the life of our beastly hero.

Though there have been many versions of this story made, Beastly captures the timeless story in a modern world similar to ours, to show us the relevance of it in our society, though it relies heavily on magic. It shows the reader how people are so preoccupied with the latest technology and fashions that they forget to account for people’s feelings. Too preoccupied trying to out doing one another, and to gain attention, to think about the pain they are causing. Yet it shows that true love ignores all those things. It digs deep into conflicts and problems in the world today, making the reader think, while still keeping them thoroughly entertained and distracted from their own lives, just as you count on a novel to do. Will the beast get his kiss? Find out when you read this modern rendition of the classic story by Alex Flinn about a conceited boy finding out for the first time about loneliness and being and outcast, and a girl who finds a world she has only read about in the books she has always cherished. Always thinking it is a world away from her life, but finding out it is only across the street.