Beastly by Alix Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn

For sure, it’s another take on “Beauty and the Beast,” but Flinn brings something new to her story, by making the two main characters teenagers at an exclusive prep school in New York City. Junior Kyle Kingsbury is so superficial and downright mean to his fellow students, that readers won’t be too sad when a goth-looking witch turns him into a werewolf type beast. He slowly transforms into a caring, thoughtful human being with the help of his blind tutor, housekeeper, and Lindy, a scholarship student from his old school. The changes in him and his relationship with Lindy make the book hard to put down, despite the happy ending we all know is coming.

We’re posting this review again since the movie just came out a couple weeks ago.  It’s getting pretty decent feedback and below is a preview you can see from home:

Wayback Wednesday – Beastly by Alex Flinn

On Wednesday’s I thought I’d start reposting reviews of older books that our readers might not have read yet.  I thought I’d start with Beastly since this will be coming out as a new movie this coming March.  I’ve included a movie trailer at the bottom.

Beastly by Alex Flinn

For sure, it’s another take on “Beauty and the Beast,” but Flinn brings something new to her story, by making the two main characters teenagers at an exclusive prep school in New York City. Junior Kyle Kingsbury is so superficial and downright mean to his fellow students, that readers won’t be too sad when a goth-looking witch turns him into a werewolf type beast. He slowly transforms into a caring, thoughtful human being with the help of his blind tutor, housekeeper, and Lindy, a scholarship student from his old school. The changes in him and his relationship with Lindy make the book hard to put down, despite the happy ending we all know is coming.

Here’s the movie trailer you can see from home:

The Sisters Grimm

The Sisters Grimm by Micheal Buckly

What does Beauty do for a living? What’s the truth behind the Wolf? How does Mirror work? You think you know your fairy tales? Think again, with this touching, humorous book series as your guide.

For Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, life is anything but fair. For the past two years, they have been shuffled from one crazy, cruel, or just plain horrid foster family to another. For two years, they have been wards of the state. Two years ago, their parents vanished, the only clue being a blood red handprint in their abandoned car. This time, though, the State of New York is making the biggest mistake ever- sending the two girls to live with a dead woman. The girls had been told for years that Grandmother Grimm died long ago- so how can they be going to live with her?

The woman claiming to be Relda Grimm, in Sabrina’s eyes, is a nut job. She has a hundred or so locks on the door. The windows are nailed shut. Her food is odd to say the least. And then there’s the wee fact that she believes that the destruction of a local farm house was caused by a giant. And the Mayor of the aptly named town ( Ferryport Landing) is William Charming, Aka, Prince Charming. Snow White teaches Karate and kindergarten, and the three little pigs run the police department.

Daphne wants desperately to believe the old woman, but Sabrina will not allow herself to listen to these fantasies- or let anyone into her heart. But when confronted with proof that Granny Relda was telling the truth- they are the last descendants of the Brothers Grimm, Sabrina finds that she must take a stand to defeat a Giant in order to save her new family- and learn to trust herself along the way.

This is book one in the series the Fairy Tale Detectives.

Review by Naysomay

This book is available at the Berkeley Public Library.

Beastly

Beastly by Alex Flinn

For sure, it’s another take on “Beauty and the Beast,” but Flinn brings something new to her story, by making the two main characters teenagers at an exclusive prep school in New York City. Junior Kyle Kingsbury is so superficial and downright mean to his fellow students, that readers won’t be too sad when a goth-looking witch turns him into a werewolf type beast. He slowly transforms into a caring, thoughtful human being with the help of his blind tutor, housekeeper, and Lindy, a scholarship student from his old school. The changes in him and his relationship with Lindy make the book hard to put down, despite the happy ending we all know is coming.