No. of pages: 300
Rating: 5/10
Synopsis: I am a beast.
A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. 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.
Review: Kyle Kingsbury is handsome, rich and has a perfect life as the king of his highschool. But then he decides to play a cruel prank on Kendra Hilferty, a new girl who Kyle deems fat and ugly. But it's Kyle that gets the surprise when Kendra turns out to be a witch, and puts a spell on Kyle, so that he will be as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside. Kyle must find true love within two years, or be forever stuck as the beast, but can he do it...?
I have to admit, I feel quite torn about this book. I did read it in one sitting, and it was a quick, easy read and it was entertaining enough that I wanted to carry on reading it, but there were quite a few things I disliked about the book. Firstly, it's cheesy, and I really mean cheesy, and I found myself cringing at sections of the book, because it was just too much. Secondly, the author kept dropping brand names, which annoyed me because it was just totally unnecessary, it just seemed like she was trying too hard to show how hip and cool she was. The whole book just seemed so unrealistic to me. I know it's meant to be based on a fairytale, but it's meant to be a modern retelling set in the real world, so it ended up just being very silly. For people wanting to read a Beauty & the Beast style story, I'd point them in the direction of Robin McKinley's Beauty, which I thought was a great story and far better than this.
