Title: Beastly: Lindy’s Diary
Series: Kendra Chronicles #0.5
Author: Alex Flinn
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Harper Teen
Date of Publication: January 31st, 2012
ISBN:  9780062117427
Goodreads

My Rating:

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Blurb

See the #1 New York Times bestselling story Beastly through Lindy’s eyes! This is her diary, kept while living in captivity with the beast. Lindy’s Diary captures all the romance and edgy mystery of the original!

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“I can see into his soul, and it is beautiful.”

My Review

Beastly is told from Kyle’s point of view, so the characterization is strongly one-sided in that story. While his character is perfectly elaborated in Beastly, I missed Lindy’s viewpoint, her thoughts and feelings.

Lindy’s Diary fills this gap and fairly successfully balances the characterization.

Her perspective is really lovely, with more romance, more sweet episodes, more books, and more roses. I mentioned in my review of Beastly that if I were Lindy I would appreciate Adrian’s efforts. Well, she did. Books and roses charmed not only me, but Lindy as well.

I was a prisoner, but the prison library was excellent.
On one table in the corner, I found an e-reader with a note that said, “In case I forgot anything.”
I don’t like to think I can be bought, but if I could, this guy definitely knew the currency. Roses and books—I could survive in these rooms forever. 

You can witness as she changes her mind about Adrian and slowly falls in love. She repeatedly observes how much they are alike, even at the beginning, when she talks about Kyle.

He was so opposite the way I was, so full of life and energy, and yet, I knew he and I were alike deep down. Deep down, we were both lonely. He was just better at hiding it. (May 23)

 It’s intriguing. I’ve always felt like a freak myself. (July 13)

We were the same, motherless, fatherless, both freaks in our own way. We were the same. I was here because I was meant to be. (July 23)

After all, aren’t we both equally strange, equally damaged?
The only difference is, my damage is inside. (December 30)

It reveals that she had a crush on Kyle in school, but as the story progresses, she mentions Kyle less and less frequently. Her thoughts revolve around Adrian instead.

You come to know Lindy’s personality and family background, but her father’s drug-addiction and her abandonment by him could have been portrayed in a more detailed way, with implied moral lessons, because shouting in my face direct sentences like “ADDICTION IS NOT SEXY!”  in all capital letters is really unsettling.
Furthermore, while I love literary references in Beastly, here I find them too much.

Lindy is forced to grow up prematurely, but she is still a 16-year-old girl. Her character is credible, appropriate for her age. It is so typical and sweet when she refuses Adrian’s invitation for dinner, and then she is wondering about why he doesn’t ask her again.

I sort of wish Adrian would ask me to come out again. (July 22)

My favorite parts are the Christmas episodes and the play in the leaves.

Leaves. Hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of them, brown and yellow and red and orange, in bright piles on the concrete floor. Some were so high they almost covered the rosebushes. (October 25)

Lindy’s Diary is the number 0.5 in the Kendra Chronicles series, so it comes before Beastly. I think reading after that is also okay, because it highlights the missing points.

See my favorite quotes on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina. 

Title: Beastly
Series: Kendra Chronicles #1
Author: Alex Flinn
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Harper Teen
Date of Publication: December 29th, 2009
ISBN:  9780061998669
Goodreads

My Rating:

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Blurb

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.

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“Magic. It was magic, and the magic is called love.”

My Review

Beastly is a heartwarming, wonderful retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It is a very delightful read, with the chat sessions, the modern-day setting, the wide range of emotions, lots of references to classics, and tons of roses. It is just perfect. I expected a fairy tale retold, and I’m not disappointed.

The story deals with important issues, such as inner values over appearance, abandoned children, parent-child relationships, friendship, empathy, patience, and love.

The story is told from Kyle’s (a.k.a. Adrian’s) point of view. His character is credibly drawn. Kyle’s alteration to Adrian mirrors the five stages of struggle when you experience a significant loss (The Five Stages of Grief theory by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross):

• denial: “Hallucination, hallucination. This type of thing didn’t happen to real people. I’d be fine. I had to wake up!”
• anger: “Now I looked around the room. Almost every object that could be broken was. I’d started with the mirror, for obvious reasons.”
• bargaining/negotiation: first his pathetic try with Sloan, then with doctors, finally he tries to find true love via internet. This stage could involve hope, and it appears in the novel indeed. Lindy represents hope. “I began to hope.” 
• depression and acceptance: in the case of Adrian, the fourth and fifth stages merge into one another. He wants to stay at the farmhouse on the North, because he’d lost all his hope.
• happy end is the fifth stage here (that does not exist in the Kübler-Ross model), as it is a fairy-tale, fortunately.

Kyle has to reevaluate everything he thought to be right and worth following before: his values and beliefs in life, friendship, love, his relationship with his father, and his attitude toward people as a whole.

It is a slow-paced read, because the setting spans two years. Although I usually don’t, I enjoyed every moment of that in this story. There are no surprises in the plot, but the ‘hows’ are interesting.

Lindy appears in the middle of the book. She comes from terrible family circumstances. She is a strong and courageous character, she is smart and independent.
First she is scared and angry because her father traded her to save himself.  But if I were Lindy, I would appreciate Adrian’s struggle to win her. Not the material things, but his efforts. It is so sweet as he does his best to make  her comfortable in the castle. It is clear that he doesn’t intend to hurt her.
Of course, she softens toward Adrian with time.
Sadly, Lindy’s character is not fully elaborated, so readers don’t know her point of view. Lindy’s Diary by Alex Flinn is a recommended reading to understand her thoughts and feelings.

The book is filled with references to classics, represented in an attractive way. For example, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a meaningful symbol in the book.

Some other examples:

• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
• The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

“I finished the hunchback book (everyone died), so I read The Phantom of the Opera. In the book – unlike the dorky Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version – the Phantom wasn’t some misunderstood romantic loser. He was a murderer who terrorized the opera house for years before kidnapping a young singer and trying to force her to be the love he was denied.” 

• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

“I’m in prison,” I said.
“Adrian…”
“It’s true. When you’re a kid, they tell you that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Looks don’t matter. But that’s not true. Guys like Phoebus in The Hunchback, or Dorian, or the old Kyle Kingsbury – they can be scumbags to women and still get away with it because they’re good-looking. Being ugly is a kind of prison.” 

Also mentioned:

• Shakespeare’s Sonnets, in particular the 54^th
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Dracula by Bram Stoker

I am looking forward to seeing the movie based on Beastly. After watching it, I’m going to add my thoughts about it to this review.
It stars Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens. I like this modern appearance of the Beast, with scars and tattoos. Actually, he is not really ‘ugly’ but weirdly hot…

** Update: I loved the movie too, with all the changes compared to the book. And of course, the cast is amazing! 🙂

See my favorite quotes of Beastly on my Tumblr page,
Daily Quotes by Exina.