Beastly by Alex Flinn

     This last week I read the book that inspired the movie Beastly. At first I was a little skeptical because I like the movie but it is a little cheesy and cookie cutter, plus I'm not Vanessa Hudgens biggest fan or her acting "skill". But I was very pleasantly surprised by the book however. Yes it was still a big cheesy in parts and cookie cutterish in sections but it was still very good, especially for someone like myself that loves fairy tales. For this review of the book I'm going to break it into two parts, one for the book alone and the second for comparing the book to the movie for those that have watched movie. 
      The book is about a self-centered teenage boy who has been taught that looks and money are EVERYTHING. If you are beautiful then you can do anything. Which leads to him playing a practical joke on an "ugly" girl in his school. Unfortunately for him he finds out, too late, that this girl is a witch and she casts a spell on him that makes him a beast. He has two years to find someone he loves who loves him back, and prove it through true loves first kiss, then the spell will be broken. She also bestows to him a magic mirror that will allow him to see anybody he wants in the outside world. But still it isn't as if he can walk the streets of New York looking like a werewolf mutant. It makes it even worse when his father buys him a house away from everybody he knows, his father included, and locks him up there. His only companions are a house made who barely speaks English who has been sworn to secrecy and a blind tutor. Over the first year of his transformation he takes up a passion for reading and roses. His roses are his life, so when someone breaks into his green house and hurts his precious roses he catches the man. To save his own skin the man offers to give this beast his daughter. Shocks the beast accepts for two reasons, he actually knows the girl from his old prep school and because he is afraid that her father might make the same offer to someone worse in the future. Soon the girl arrives at the house and so begins his journey to not only get someone to love him but of falling in love himself. 
      I think the message of this book is what really catches me to the general story plot, even though I've seen and read different versions of it in the past. Today so many people look and looks and money to guide them in relationship, whether friends or romantic relationships. It is always about what the other person can do for you. This idea of loving someone for inner beauty needs to be relayed to more people as a life lesson growing up. Maybe the divorce rates wouldn't be so high and people would keep friends for longer than a few years. Relationships are no longer based on substance just temporary things like looks and money. 
      I will say the one thing that had me a little worried about this book when I first started reading it was how the author would handle the enchantress that turns him into the beast. In the Disney movie she isn't really in it, but I knew that being a modern take of the story the author could go to many places, some not too great. I will say it was done very tasteful as far as storybook witches go. The magic wasn't over the top and dark. 
     The main differences in the movie and the book were pretty big, but not completely necessary for the movie. First off was in the book the beast looked more like the Disney beast than the bald, scarred, tatooed boy that was in the movie. In the movie he could still go out without getting too many stares. In the book he was a big, furry, mixture of animals like gorilla and lion and wolf. He had huge claws and fangs and was inhumanly strong. 
     Second difference was in the movie he only had a year to find true love, while in the book he had two years. It actually makes quite a bit of difference to his development. Because he pretty much spends the whole first year in the book being angry, betrayed, unwanted, and then finding something he truly cares about. In the second year he has almost a full year to get the girl to fall in love with him, and to fall in love himself. It just seemed like a more realistic time frame for true love, at least in my opinion. 
      Third difference the beast actually wants to continue learning, which leads to his dad sending the blind tutor. In the movie he doesn't really care about learning and keeping up his education. This difference leads to quite a few things in the book. First off he isn't quite as angry toward the tutor, he reads like crazy, he learns to love roses and gardening from the tutor, and when the girl moves in with them all he, knowing from looking in the mirror, builds her a magnificent library, which leads to some of their first and more deep conversations. 
      And fourth and final big difference is that he actually keeps in contact and befriends the witch that puts the spell on him. Through the mirror he can see her, but because she is a magical being he can also talk with her. She gives him counsel and he ultimately helps release her from her own kind of prison. I think it was a nice touch of closure. In the movie they never really seem to get along and he always seems to hold some hatred for her and what she did. I think by having the closure and even comradery between the beast and the witch it shows that he actually has learned his lesson, even more so than she had hoped for. 
      Overall I would say I pretty much love this book. Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairy tale and this just made it so more so. I like how the author put a modern twist on it and did it so that it didn't ruin the innocence of the message. I would recommend this book to just about anybody who loves a good fairy tale or love story. ​

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