Beastly by Alex Flinn

This story is basically a modern re-telling of the good old Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, most commonly known as a Disney movie. The story is told from the beast's perspective and is interesting in that it gives a background to the beast. This beast starts out as a handsome teenager by the name of Kyle Kingsley. He's essentially your average, run of the mill 'popular' jerk. A witch notices his jerkly ways and curses him to be as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside--giving him two years to find someone to love him and break the spell with a kiss. Of course, he has to love her too. 

Something I really enjoy about the book is that the girl isn't a total pansy--not that Belle is a complete pansy. I mean, at least she is intelligent. But she's still kind of pansyish... Anyway, that was nice. Also, the author included some very cute interludes in the form of a cursed fairy tale character chat room. I found it absolutely charming. Beastly is particularly effective at conveying the message behind the original story (you know, the whole don't be a jerk just because you're pretty message), at least compared to the Disney version, because it's told from the beast's perspective. I don't have anything in the way of criticism so if you like these sorts of spin off stories, then go for it.