Beastly

by Alex Flinn

Kyle Kingsbury is rich, handsome, and friends with the cool people in his exclusive private school. But weird and mysterious Goth classmate Kendra Hilferty sees through his Mr. Popular façade to what he really is; to where he’s mean—anyone who’s not beautiful is ugly, anyone who’s not someone is worthless, to where he’s cruel just for a laugh. To where he’s beastly. Kyle sees her as just another unattractive freak, but there’s more to Kendra than he thinks—like the fact that she’s a witch. On the night if the spring dance, Kyle is especially spiteful and Kendra gives him what he deserves: for the next two years he’ll be in his appropriate form of a beast—unless true love’s kiss breaks the spell.
It doesn’t take long for Kyle to realize he has to change his ways—and fast, or else he might take a turn as an outcast freak...and for the rest of his life.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Beastly, since it was nothing like the author’s previous books, but it didn’t let me down. It’s another easy-to-read, creative novel from “the queen of writing troubled yet multi-dimensional teens,” but with a new twist.
Alex Flinn cleverly weaves events from the original Beauty and the Beast story into the modern era, and gives it real emotions.