By: Haley Hartwick

   We all know the classic fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast. The beautiful Belle sacrificing herself for her father, the emotions she goes through falling for the Beast, but most importantly her discovery of ‘Not judging a book by its cover’.  But we’ve never actually seen the Beast’s side of the story until Beastly. Alex Flinn (the author of Beastly) modernized this classic tale into the enchanting streets of New York City or otherwise known as Kyle Kingsbury’s playground. 

   Kyle Kingsbury is practically the celebrity of his school. He’s got the good looks, a pocketful of cash, his famous news anchor dad, and fan club of desperate girls begging on their knees. There’s nothing that could get in the way of his perfect little world, until Kendra…the overweight Goth girl in his English. He invites for her to go with him to the school dance just as a big prank for all his friends to see. Turns out though Kendra is a witch who believes Kyle deserves some pay-back. She casts a spell on him to make his as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside therefore turning him into a Beast. The deal is he has two years to find someone to love and will love him back then break the spell with true love’s kiss.

  This leaves Kyle hopeless and desperate with only a magic mirror to see the outside world. He eventually moves to a kingdom of his own, a five story apartment with his maid Magda and his blind tutor Will. While there a Druggie breaks into his garden but Kyle captures him making an offer with him. The man’s freedom for his beautiful daughter, Lindy. This may be the lucky shot for Kyle…

  Overall the book is simply amazing; it offers a different perspective not only from the Beast’s side of the story but what it would be like in a Teenager’s world. Society tends to just hang on the least important things of life like popularity, looks and money. This book really shows though that people can change for the better once they come to reality and look into the inside of people’s hearts. It shows the love inside of everyone.

  Beastly will be released as movie into Theaters March 18^th, 2011