Who: Alex Flinn What: Beastly
When: October 1st, 2007 (Movie came out March 5th, 2011)
Where: Harperteen
Why: Movie was released
How: Borrowed
I am a beast.
A beast!
Not quite wolf or
bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright. I am a
monster.
You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York
City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll, stay this way
forever ruined unless I can break the spell.
Yes, the spell, the one the
witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides
by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle
Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the
perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became
perfectly...beastly.
So I'm gonna be something special today, and that's review both the book Beastly, as well as the movie. Since I read and saw both of them in the past 2 weeks, I'm gonna have a bit of fun with this!
Book:
Beastly was a cute and quick read, with all the charm of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with a more modern tone. Now, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, so I was more than a bit excited to get this one started. Kyle (or Adrian, which you prefer) starts out as a selfish, obnoxious and arrogant character, and I kinda love the fact that while he did learn a lot by the end of the book, I felt he wasn't totally and completely free of all his flaws. Lindy, on the other hand, just didn't feel genuine to me. She was a Mary-sue with outer problems, meaning her father's drug addiction. But I didn't feel that Beastly gave Alex enough time to flesh Lindy out more. I saw all the pieces laid out for her to be a well-fleshed out character, but didn't see them put together enough for it to work.
By the middle-end of the book though, I was totally hooked. I was rooting for Kyle and Lindy the whole way, and Kyle's funny and mostly frustrated reactions to the things that happen to him kept me laughing and engaged. Also, those chats? Were fantastic. Before some chapters, Alex Flinn writes a chat room where various fairy tale characters (The Little Mermaid, the Frog Prince...etc) share their problems, including Kyle.
My rating? AHHHH-GREAT. (Also, I LOVE that she used the original version of The Little Mermaid for the chats instead of the Disney version. Not the same one people! They morphed it a lot for Disney)
Movie:
You typical cute, cheesy movie about love overcoming obstacles and such. If I hadn't read the book, I don't think it would've made much of a difference in my liking the movie. I recommend watching it, but not if you're looking from something that will blow you away. There weren't any major changes from book to movie, but small things that you'll probably catch if you've read it.
I don't really understand the point of changing his second name from Adrian to Hunter, but hey? What can you do. Vanessa actually did a really good job, as did Alex. The one thing that irked me was the fact that really, when he was a beast? He was NOT that ugly. In the book, he resembles a werewolf while in the movie, he looks like someone drew on him with gel pens then gave him a bunch of tattoos. Also, Neil Patrick Harris? LOVE him. Even though he's not really supposed to be the funny one, that's more Kyle, I liked the set up and how it panned out in the end.
Happy Reading!
-Harmony
Book:
Beastly was a cute and quick read, with all the charm of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with a more modern tone. Now, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, so I was more than a bit excited to get this one started. Kyle (or Adrian, which you prefer) starts out as a selfish, obnoxious and arrogant character, and I kinda love the fact that while he did learn a lot by the end of the book, I felt he wasn't totally and completely free of all his flaws. Lindy, on the other hand, just didn't feel genuine to me. She was a Mary-sue with outer problems, meaning her father's drug addiction. But I didn't feel that Beastly gave Alex enough time to flesh Lindy out more. I saw all the pieces laid out for her to be a well-fleshed out character, but didn't see them put together enough for it to work.
By the middle-end of the book though, I was totally hooked. I was rooting for Kyle and Lindy the whole way, and Kyle's funny and mostly frustrated reactions to the things that happen to him kept me laughing and engaged. Also, those chats? Were fantastic. Before some chapters, Alex Flinn writes a chat room where various fairy tale characters (The Little Mermaid, the Frog Prince...etc) share their problems, including Kyle.
My rating? AHHHH-GREAT. (Also, I LOVE that she used the original version of The Little Mermaid for the chats instead of the Disney version. Not the same one people! They morphed it a lot for Disney)
Movie:
You typical cute, cheesy movie about love overcoming obstacles and such. If I hadn't read the book, I don't think it would've made much of a difference in my liking the movie. I recommend watching it, but not if you're looking from something that will blow you away. There weren't any major changes from book to movie, but small things that you'll probably catch if you've read it.
I don't really understand the point of changing his second name from Adrian to Hunter, but hey? What can you do. Vanessa actually did a really good job, as did Alex. The one thing that irked me was the fact that really, when he was a beast? He was NOT that ugly. In the book, he resembles a werewolf while in the movie, he looks like someone drew on him with gel pens then gave him a bunch of tattoos. Also, Neil Patrick Harris? LOVE him. Even though he's not really supposed to be the funny one, that's more Kyle, I liked the set up and how it panned out in the end.
Happy Reading!
-Harmony
