Beastly by Alex Flinn is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast told from the beast's perspective, in this case one Kyle Kingsbury. In the beginning of the book, Kyle is not at all a likeable character, self-centred and egotistical. After his transformation into a beast by a witch whom he played a cruel joke on, more than his physical appearance changes: he matures and becomes a better person. While I enjoyed watching Kyle grow as a character throughout the book, I found that Flinn's characterization of him and other characters were at times cliched and two dimensional. The "Belle" character is played by Lindy, an average and bookish girl at Kyle's school whom he had never paid much attention to before. I've always adored Belle as a character and Lindy had a few moments in the book that endeared her to me but ultimately I never really felt a connection to her. I did however enjoy Will, Kyle's blind tutor, as a character very much. 
 Beauty and the Beast is probably my favourite fairy tale of all time so it goes without saying that I enjoyed the premise and plot of the book. However, I couldn't help but be hopeful that there would be a divergence from the plot just because the story was so predictable. Thinking about this now I realize that this is unfair of me to want this. After all, this is a retelling of another story, but I was at least pleased that there was a fairly significant plot twist right at the end that I hadn't seen coming. Won't tell you what though, obviously :). 
 What I enjoyed most about the book was the little intermissions in the plot where the Beast takes part in an online help chat group called "Unexpected Change," along with The Little Mermaid and the frog from The Princess and the Frog. Very amusing. 
 In short: Beastly by Alex Flinn was a fun retelling of Beauty and the Beast but I felt I couldn't connect to many of the characters whom at times seemed too cliched.