A modern-day take on the "Beauty and the Beast" tale where a New York teen is transformed into a hideous monster in order to find true love.REVIEW:
The reason I read this book was because of the movie. The thing is that I read the book first, so my review is going to be based only on the impressions of the book. If I wanted I could tell you the differences between the book and the movie, but there are many and I would destroy your whole opinion.
The book is really good with great descriptions of the city and the places as well as Kyle's life and feelings before and after his transformation. This change made him another person and you can clearly see those differences thoughout the book. You can see how his opinion is changing on many matters and how he reacts when he finds out what his friends were actually feeling for him.
Being written in the first person, you only know what Kyle is thinking and feeling, but the author had a nice way to describe the other characters as well through Kyle, so you have a nice image of them too. As I said there are many differences between the book and the movie, but that doesn't mean that it's less romantic. Surpricingly, I had the same feelings on both. They both left me with a fairytale-like feeling. As the original fairytale, this book makes you consider that the outside of a person is not the same as the inside. Also, the book was really helpful in order to understand some parts of the film.
Bottom line, I recommend you the book. I started it with some boredsome,but after the first pages it captured me and didn't released me before finishing it.
Beauty and the Beast was my fairy tale as a kid; I am very much interested in reading Beastly simple because it's the retelling. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteI still need to read this one. Vanessa Hudgens is not in, so only for that will be better XD
ReplyDeleteKiddin...i mostly want to read to see more of Kyle's thoughts. The best thing with 1st person POV, is that you get to know the chars more something that you are missing with the movies.
I saw the movie first before reading the book. And yes there are lots of differences. I love the book better than the movie. I also write a comparison between the book & the movie in my site.
ReplyDeletethat book sounds really interesting! maybe i'll give it a try
ReplyDelete"Beastly" is a perfect word to describe this novel-and not in the new youth lingo for "awesome" either. It's kept alive by paper thin, two dimensional characters who don't make it from the ink into the imagination.
ReplyDeleteKyle Kingsbury, the protagonist, begins as nothing more than a hormonal teenager with a twisted view on love and beauty. And throughout the novel, nothing changes. There's very little in the way of character development, though he does reach several small epiphanies that make no impact on the actual story. Though he may become "a beast", Kyle is still fixated on his appearance and the only change he undergoes is the switch from priding success to good looks to blaming failure for ugliness.