Alex Flinn

Read from January 21 to 22, 2011

Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies and I've often been a fan of remixing fairy tales. I love this version because it's from the Beast's POV, rather than the Beauty's. It gives you an opportunity to know the back story - the reason this creature exists and how he's changed since the transformation. To break up the narrative, there are these cute chat room therapy sessions with other transformed folks - a frog, a mermaid, a bear. Great book show more and even though I knew what was going to happen, I still cried. (I'm a sucker for a book that brings me to tears.)

As far as the upcoming movie with Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer, I'm not buying it. First of all, they changed what the Beast looks like. He's not a Beast in the movie, he's just got some crazy looking tattoos. I think it's much more difficult to fall in love with a dude covered in fur than a guy that has some tattoos. And they changed the reason that he built the greenhouse. They tried to make more Twilight than an adaptation of the book. However, I'm judging it based on the trailer, I'll have to wait to see the movie (and I will see it because of NPH) to really give a proper opinion. (Though the trailer makes it sound like they changed A LOT.) show less

Having succumbed to all the hype around this book, and then discovered there was a movie coming out starring the delectable Alex Pettyfer (oh, and being a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast, of course!), I couldn't wait to get stuck in when a lazy day off presented itself. So yesterday I threw on my comfiest sweats, cooked me a pizza, and settled in for the ride.

I wasn't disappointed. This clever modern retelling of the much-loved classic story is told from the viewpoint of Kyle Kingsbury, a show more teen playboy with a rich daddy and a bad attitude. When the spring dance comes around, his cruel plan to humiliate the strange, 'ugly' Kendra goes horribly awry when she reveals herself to be a beautiful witch and curses him into ugliness, turning him into a furry half-man, half-beast. Thanks to a small kindness he showed to another girl just before his transformation, she offers him a small chance to break the curse - he will have two years in which to learn his lesson and find true love, or he will remain this way forever.

In some ways this reminded me of Jasper Fforde's 'Nursery Crime' series. It has been very well thought out, balancing the modern with the traditional in a fun, seamless way. All the elements you would expect are there - the rose, the mirror, the lonely house, the girl coming to stay, the loyal servants, the first dance, the sad parting... But at the same time, this is a thoroughly modern interpretation. The girl's father is a drug dealer who exchanges his daughter for his life when he breaks into the house, and Kyle finds support through an online chatroom for transformed humans (including 'Froggie', who hates living in a pond because his stuff keeps floating away, and 'SilentMaid', who is considering selling her soul to a sea witch for the love of a sailor...).

Kyle reinvents himself as 'Adrian King' and leaves his unsympathetic friends and father behind, instead depending on his housekeeper Magda and blind tutor Will to help him through his ordeal. He develops a passion for roses and for books, anything to get him through the long days imprisoned in his New York house. He is a very engaging character, quickly establishing himself as a sympathetic figure and becoming more and more likeable as the book goes on. I was aching for him to win the girl's heart and break the spell! *sigh*

So, yes, as you can probably tell, I really enjoyed it. There were one or two moments where it dragged a bit - hence four stars instead of five - but for the most part it was a well-paced read, with characters I could root for, some thought-provoking messages about looks, life and love, and that all-important happy ending. And just in case that wasn't enough, Flinn closes the book with a brief jaunt through the various reincarnations of this tale over the ages, including a few more modern versions to add to my list... Recommended. show less

This modern, urban update to the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" has a lot of teen appeal. Flinn takes a new perspective -- that of the Beast -- and runs with it, from the beginning (pre-Beast, when our hero is the hottest guy at an exclusive NYC prep school) to the happy ending (not much of a spoiler, if you've read the fairy tale in any version, to say that the Beast gets both the girl and an important lesson).

I was surprised at times how faithful Flinn was to many of the aspects of the show more traditional story. Issues of freedom and abduction, which many modern YA retellings have a tendency to soften, are fully explored here. I like many of Flinn's plausible details -- including the Brooklyn greenhouse that stands in for the magic, all-season garden and the blind tutor instead of invisible or transformed servants. There are a couple of things, however, that seem unnecessary here -- for example, the chapters are divided by chat transcripts from an online transformation support group, which is a clever nod to omnipresent technology, but seems too artificial as the novel progresses, occasionally feeling like an all-too-convenient window to possible companion novels. A certain twist at the end (which I will not spoil) also seems a little forced.

Overall, this is a good read, especially for teens who have read the original fairy tale but not too many urban revisions of it. As far as quality goes, Robin McKinley's versions ('Beauty' and 'Rose Daughter') and short stories by the likes of Angela Carter, Tanith Lee, and others are both more elegant and more consistent, but this novel has a good measure of fun that makes it appealing. It's worth the time and may be a good gateway book to other, stronger fairy tale revisions (some of which Flinn even lists in her end notes, an addition that I found thoughtful). show less

A few months ago, I discovered Alex Flinn. Apparently, she's written a bunch of books, but I had never heard of her for whatever reason. I read A Kiss in Time a few months ago and found it charming, so I grabbed Cloaked off the shelf at the library while wandering amidst a sea of YA paranormal romance.

Cloaked is the story of Johnny Marco, a sixteen year-old kid who puts in sixteen hour days at his mom's shoe repair shop at a swanky hotel in Florida. Mom works two jobs to stay poor while show more Johnny upsells wealthy businessmen who have Shoe Emergencies. The height of Johnny's social excitement is digging up new shoe-related quotes with his best friend, Meg, whose family owns a bakery across the street. Then one day, a princess comes to town and a few weeks later, stumbles in drunk with a broken shoe and a request: please find my brother, who has been turned into a frog, and I'll pay you megabucks and marry you.

So Johnny's off on an adventure through a couple of Grimm's minor fairy tales, armed with special earbuds that let him hear animals, a sense of honor, and a magic cloak powered by wishes. Through it all, he wonders if he can marry a princess for her cash. Many madcap shenanigans later, he gets a different happy ending than he anticipated, and one that's much more satisfactory from a reader's standpoint.

Here's the thing I really love about Alex Flinn's books so far: her protagonists have life goals. They tend to have a sense of purpose and a very specific desire to do something outside the mainstream. In A Kiss in Time, the protagonist wanted very much to be a landscape architect. In Cloaked, Johnny designed shoes. He spent a good portion of the novel wondering how he could convince Princess Victoriana to be a spokesperson for his shoes. I love YA novels in which the heroes have an aspiration, bonus points if it's more specific than to read a lot of Jane Austen and date a special snowflake.

I also love that these goals are not typical "boy" goals, centered around making tons of money and defeating something or someone in the process. The audience for Flinn's books is going to be largely female, and I can't help but think that it's good for them to see a male character headed toward an artsy profession which may challenge their gender conception. Girls can be real estate sharks and guys can be designers. It's refreshing to see.

Basically, I sat down and read this book in one sitting. It was fun, and I'd recommend it for sure. show less