Beastly (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

show spoilers

• Kyle Kingsbury: before he was turned into a beast, he was the most popular, and hottest guy at his school. At a party, a witch turned him into a beast and he couldn't be a human untill he found someone to fall in love with him for looking the way he did. The witch gave him 2 years.
• Linda Owens: A mousy girl who attends Tuttle on a scholarship. Very nice, but likes to learn more things, kind of nosy.
• Kendra: A girl who wears black clothes and has a green hair. She turned out to be a witch. She also feels like she needs to teach a lesson to Kyle, because he is a beast in the inside.
• Sloane Hagen: Kyle's girlfriend. She is a typical toned, BlackBerry-wired, Evian-swigging, fake blonde, belly-pierced daughter of a CEO. She is very shallow. Only likes Kyle for his looks.
• Rob Kingsbury: Manhattan's most popular news anchor. He has a son, Kyle. He is rich and handsome and lives in a large apartment with his son and the maid, Magda. He works 24/7 and barely spends any time with his son. When he finds out about Kyle's transformation, he locks him up in a luxurious five-floor apartment because he's embarrassed of him and doesn't want anyone to know that his son is a beast.
• Will Fratalli: Kyle's blind tutor, has a pet labrador named Pilot. Over time Kyle learns to trust and befriend Will. Teaches Kyle many lessons.
• Mr. Anderson: He owns a website with all kinds of chats listed, including one about people who'd transformed into other things. Gives advice to those people.
• Magda: Kyle's maid and housekeeper before and after he is kicked out.
• Dr. Endecott: One of several doctors (unnamed) who tells Kyle there is nothing that can be done to 'cure' his condition.
• Trey Parker: Kyle's very close friend at Tuttle. Doesn't last long.
• Sullivan Clinton: One of last year's juniors.
• Graydon Hart: He is one of Kyle's friends at Tuttle. A friend who doesn't last long.
• Bronwen Kreps: The ticket seller of a Halloween school party and she was wearing a Dorothy costume.
• Brett Davis: The prince of the Tuttle's dance last year.
• Daniel Owens: Linda's father who has an addiction to drugs. Gives Linda away to Kyle.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Who dares disturb my roses?”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “A beautiful thing is precious, no matter the price. Those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy.”

  Magda

• “A beautiful thing like this rose - I almost want to eat it, to swallow it whole to replace the beauty I've lost.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Without her, I have no hope, no life. I will live in misery and die alone.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Mr. Anderson: Beast, why don't you tell us about your transformation? | BeastNYC: I don't feel like it. | Mr. Anderson: You're among friends, Beast. | Grizzlyguy: Yeah, go ahead so I can talk about the 2 girls. | BeastNYC: You know *2* girls, Prince??? Where are *you* located??? | Mr. Anderson: This isn't a dating service, Beast. | BeastNYC: Yeah, well I could use one. It's hard meeting girls when you look like Chewbacca! And I need to meet 1 to end my curse.”

• “I looked around for Kendra. I'd almost forgotten about Kendra, but my timing was, as usual, perfect because there she was, slinking into the front entrance. She wore a black and purple dress that looked like a costume for Harry Potter Goes to the Prom and she was looking for me.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “With some girls, popularity and the power that goes with it are some kind of aphrodisiac.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “There's always some risk involved when dealing with persons of the witch persuasion.”

  Grizzlyguy

• “BeastNYC: NO I DON'T! | Mr. Anderson: Shouting, Beast. If you do it again. I'll have to ask you to leave. | BeastNYC: Sorry. Caps lock got stuck. Hard typing with claws.”

• “Then I spent another half hour Googling words like beast, transformation, spell, curse--you know, just to see if this type of thing happened to anyone else outside Grimms' fairy tales or Shrek. I found the weirdest Website, run by some guy named Chris Anderson, with all kinds of chats listed, including one about people who'd transformed into other things. It was probably just some teen group, full of the type of people who liked writing Harry Potter fan fiction. Still, I planned to go back there another day.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Everyone can use a little beauty...”

  Will Fratalli

• “<You are> Like a flower, searching for sun.”

  Magda via Will Fratalli (Referring to Kyle/Adrian)

• “The roses became my life. o loved them. I didn't even mind the thorns. All living things needed protection.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “I plucked a white rose from a vine. I handed it to her <Magda>. It was hard for me to do, to pick my prizes, knowing they'd die sooner that way. But I was learning to let go. I'd let go of so much already.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Sometimes, unexpected things can happen.”

  Kendra Hilferty

• “You know I don't plan to do anything bad to her. I want to love her. ♥”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Someone beautiful could never see past my ugliness.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Sometimes it also helps to have a bit less pride.”

  Will Fratalli

• “Linda: I hate you! | Kyle/Adrian: yeah, you mentioned that. <Her words were like whips...>”

• “You shouldn't miss people who don't miss you, right?”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem. By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The rose looks, fair but fairer we it deem. For that sweet odour, which doth in it live. The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye. As the perfumed tincture of the roses, Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly. When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: But, for their virtue only is their show, The live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade; Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, When that shall vade, my verse distills your truth.”

  Sonnet Fifty-Four, William Shakespeare

• “Will: I asked what the rose symbolizes in the poem. | Kyle/Adrian: What do you think, Lindy? | Linda: I think it signifies truth. Shakespeare talks about how the rose has perfume that makes it beautiful on the inside. And the scent of the rose can last even after the bloom dies. | Kyle/Adrian: What's a canker-bloom, Will? | Will: A dog-rose. It looks like a rose, but it doesn't have the perfume. | Kyle/Adrian: So it looks good, but it's not as true? Like Lindy was saying. Just because something is beautiful doesn't mean it's good. That's his point. | Lindy: But something with inner beauty will live forever, like the scent of a rose. | Will: But does the scent of a rose live forever? | Linda: I once had a rose someone gave me. I pressed it in a book. The scent didn't last.”

• “Sarcasm is how I deal with being upset.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Every girl pretends she's a princess at one point, no matter how little her life is like that.”

  Linda Owens

• “I love this book <Jane Eyre>. I love how it shows how if two people are meant to be together, they will be, even if something separates them. That there's a magic to it. ♥”

  Linda Owens

• “Smell is the sense most connected with memory.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “It's strange, though. People make such a big deal about looks, but after a while, when you know someone, you don't even notice anymore, do you? It's just the way they look.”

  Linda Owens

• “I love you, I thought. But I didn't say it. It was not that I feared she would laugh in my face. She was far too kind for that. My fear was a greater one--that she wouldn't say it back.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Friend. The word struck me like the ax I'd used to cut up the kindling. Friend. That was all we could be.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “You can't expect me to say goodbye to you tomorrow. If I come down to say goodbye, I might not let you go.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “I walked outside into the snow. I had on only jeans and a t-shirt, and the weather was bitter, so bitter that the cold soaked to my bones in seconds, even with my extra insulation. I didn't care. I wanted to be cold because it would be something to feel, something other than this sudden emptiness and loss.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “She wanted to leave. I loved her too much to make her stay.”

  Kyle Kingsbury/Adrian King

• “Will: What was it you liked about the book? | Kyle/Adrian: Well, I'll tell you what I didn't like about it--Jane was too good. She loved Rochester, and she had nothing in the world, no family, no friends, no money. I think she should have stuck with Rochester. | Will: But he had an insane wife hidden in the attic | Kyle/Adrian: o one knew about it. And he was her true love. If you're in love like that, nothing should stand in you way. ♥”

• “Kyle/Adrian: The answer is no. No, I haven't heard from Lindy. | Will: I'm sorry, Adrian. | Kyle/Adrian: But that gets me to what I did like about the book. I liked that when Rochester and Jane were separated, he went to the window and called her name: 'Jane! Jane! Jane!' And she heard him, and even answered. That's what true love should be like--the person should be part of your soul and you should know what they're feeling all the time. ♥”

• “I'll go anywhere as long as he goes with me. ♥”

  Linda Owens

• “I'd chosen yellow ones, which I read symbolized joy, gladness, friendship, and the promise of a new beginning, and placed them inWaterford crystal vases throughout the suite.In the days she'd been there, I'd had Magda remove the yellow roses as they'd died and replace them with white ones, symbolizing purity. I hoped to replace them someday with red ones, which stood for romance.”

  Adrian

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “A beautiful thing is precious, no matter the price. Those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy.

  Highlighted by 918 Kindle customers

• You are ugly now, on the inside, where it matters most, and if you ever lost your good looks, I bet you wouldn’t be smart or strong enough to get them back. Kyle Kingsbury, you are beastly.”

  Highlighted by 633 Kindle customers

• “Those who do not know how to see the precious things in life will never be happy.”

  Highlighted by 599 Kindle customers

• “Two petals, two years to find someone willing to look beyond your hideousness and see some good in you, something to love. If you will love her in return and if she will kiss you to prove it, the spell will be lifted, and you will be your handsome self again. If not, you’ll stay a beast forever.”

  Highlighted by 589 Kindle customers

• Of course, maybe I’d end up like one of those crazy old people with, like, sixty cats. And one day, the neighbors would complain about the smell, and it would turn out I’d died and the cats had eaten me.

  Highlighted by 495 Kindle customers

• “O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour, which doth in it live.”

  Highlighted by 400 Kindle customers

• You are ugly now, on the inside, where it matters most…you are beastly.

  Highlighted by 385 Kindle customers

• Only when I heard her bedroom door open and close did I give in to my beast instincts and do a wild animal dance around the room.

  Highlighted by 369 Kindle customers

• I was just…thinking.” “That must have been quite an experience for you.”

  Highlighted by 356 Kindle customers

• “I know what an orchid is, Mr. Kyle. A proud, vain flower. But can you not see the beauty of this rose?”

  Highlighted by 338 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tuttle: It is a private school in New York City.
• Plaza: This is where the dance was held.
• Rob Kingsbury's House: It is an apartment located at Manhattan.
• Kyle Kingsbury's/Adrian King's House: It is a five-story house located at Brooklyn.
• Metro: Sneaks out a lot at night.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Comeuppance: It means well-deserved punishment.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

show spoilers

• Roses: Roses symbloise beauty, and quite possibly the beauty within! Kyle doesn't appreciate the rose beause it is 'cheap', but it might in fact end up saving him.
• Orchids: Orchids symbolize prideful vanity. They are beautiful and coveted by prebeast Kyle and Sloane, mostly for their cost.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by A Kiss in Time.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alex Flinn (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
• VOYA Editor’s Choice
• IRA/CBC Young Adults’ Choice
• New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
• Texas Lone Star Reading List
• Detroit Public Library Author Day Award
• Utah Beehive Award Master List
• Gateway Readers Award (2010: Grades 9-12)
• Volunteer State Book Award Master List
• Nevada Young Readers Award Master List
• South Dakota Young Adult Book Award Master List
• New Hampshire Isinglass Award Master List
• Woozles (Canada) Teen Battle of the Books list

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.F6395 Be 2007
• Dewey: <Fic>

Notes for Parents edit see section history

This book has some mature content, and is aimed at middle/high schoolers.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Beastly (IMDb)

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history