Book Chop: Beastly

Title: Beastly
Author: Alex Flinn
Genre: YA Paranormal
Verdict: Surprisingly substantial

I heard about BEASTLY from two sources: Bree Despain mentioned it on the Writing Excuses podcast when she was a guest star, and I also saw a trailer for the movie version that looked semi-interesting. (Only when I saw that same trailer with the sound on did I realize the movie will be a turd.)

The basic pitch? It's "Beauty and the Beast," told from the beast's point of view, in high school, during modern times. In the midst of many-a-teen-crappy-romance books, this one is actually a gem. It didn't ignore the original angle of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, and stayed true enough to the bones of the story with a modern application.

Kyle Kingsbury is the head honcho hot guy at his snobby prep school, where his hot-but-stupid/mean girlfriend only wants material things to be happy. When an ugly girl confronts him in class about his disgusting obsession with style-over-substance, he hatches a plot to embarrass her in front of the whole school at a dance.

Naturally this chick turns out to be a witch, and casts a spell on Kyle, turning him into a beast. Unlike the crappy movie trailer, this doesn't give him awesome-looking tattoos and battle scars--it turns him into a fur-and-fangs monster, more reminiscent of the Disney version.

One thing I liked about Flinn's book is how thorough it was: there weren't any contrivances in getting from point A to point B. Kyle tried a LOT of things that he thought would break the spell, a lot of "cheap fixes" before admitting to himself that he had to do it the witch's way: love someone and earn her love in return. And I think she showed it in such a way that it was believable. Even better was the fact that it was short--the audiobook was less than six hours, and the narrator was good.

The format was also interesting: it starts with a chat room transcript. The room moderator is one "Mr. Andersen" (aka Hans Christian, who wrote fairy tales.) Frequent members of the chat room who show up to discuss their problems are modern versions of the Beast, the Little Mermaid, the Frog Prince, etc. While you only see Kyle in the book, you still get to learn about other people going through other love-related issues via these chats.

Unlike most teen paranormal romances, this one has something meaningful--and true--to teach about love. Flinn didn't skip that in her story just to get to the good parts. Andersen gave her the skeleton of a perfect story generations ago, and she held to that while still writing enough of it to make it her own.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, and will probably read it again. It's an entertaining book that doesn't drone on, and teaches something good to its target audience. Available in paperback.