This retelling of a classic tale is magical. It flips the original Beauty and the Beast trope on its head and the gender swap makes for a truly intriguing story.

For fans of any fairy tale revisions, this is one I recommend.

I always love a fairy tail retelling. Especially beauty and the beast.

I loved that this was gender swapped and not quite what you’d typically expect. It was a little confusing at first, but overall I enjoyed it and would read more by this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scholastic for providing me with an eARC of Beastly Beauty in exchange for my honest review!

I'm always in the mood for a fairy tale retelling, and we get an enjoyable one here in the form of Beastly Beauty, which draws gender-swapped inspiration from Beauty and the Beast. I've seen all the cliches in this subgenre by now, so I'm not really surprised by a lot of what this book deploys. But that doesn't stop it from enthralling me right from the start and getting me invested in the characters and the romance that gradually builds up between Beau and Arabella. It does offer some subversive writing, though, via its new incarnation of the classic curse from Beauty and the Beast, and I definitely admire that. Sure, there are points where I feel like this aspect of the narrative could have been fleshed out more deeply in order to explain things better. The rushed climax stands out as a nitpick, too. But still, the book's intriguing interpretation of the curse effectively enhances the general tale as it navigates the importance of taking care of your own heart, being fully connected with your emotions, and maintaining optimism in the face of despair.

Overall, I'm officially rating Beastly Beauty 3.75 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding up to 4 stars. Now that I've had a good time with this book, I'm interested in checking out more of Jennifer Donnelly's work down the line.

Jennifer Donnelly's 'Beastly Beauty' reimagines the classic 'Beauty and the Beast' tale with a gender-reversed twist, introducing readers to Beau, a thief driven by love for his brother and a desire for redemption. As Beau stumbles upon a mysterious castle filled with secrets, he forms an unlikely alliance with Arabella, the enigmatic inhabitant, leading to a journey of self-discovery and unexpected romance.

Donnelly's skillful storytelling and compelling characters make this a captivating read, blending mystery, romance, and themes of self-acceptance seamlessly. With its rich symbolism and poignant narrative, 'Beastly Beauty' is sure to enchant fans of dark fairy tale retellings and leave them eagerly anticipating Donnelly's next midnight tale.

3.5 stars rounded up because I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast.

I love Beauty and the Beast and I've read a number of retellings and adaptations, but this was a version unlike any I've read before. First, there is a gender swap and "Beauty" is Beau, a handsome rogue and a thief, forced into his life of crime by many circumstances not completely in his control. "Beast" is Arabella, a duke's daughter and one who has been cursed to become the beast at night. This story definitely fell into the category of "dark" as Bella was surrounded by these creepy court women with strange names (you'll find out what their names mean later in the book). I believe that Beau was a sympathetic character from the start, partly because you learn fairly early on why he is such a good thief, and what drives him. Bella was portrayed as cold at the beginning, but as the story unfolds, you start to learn why she is the way she is. What was very different about this version from previous versions that I've read was what/who turned out to be the source of the curse. The story was honestly confusing at first, because there were jumps in time and the changing point of view left me wondering what was going on. I don't want to say more because it might spoil the story for people. But it took me more than half the book to start figuring things out. Despite the confusion, I ended up really liking this story and I appreciated the psychological complexities the author wove into the book.

If you are a fan of the author or of Beauty and the Beast, you should give this version a try. It was a bit more of a gothic mystery than it was your typical fairytale and I definitely enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on. The author has written another Beauty and the Beast retelling geared towards middle school children, and this makes me want to check that out for what should be a very different tale.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was given this book by the publisher in return for an honest review.

Here we have a twist on the Beauty and the Beast retelling. Our male MC is the beauty and the female MC is our beast (but only after midnight). Though our Beast were not cursed for the same reasons.

We have an interesting mostly human court (some were cursed but not in the traditional tale way). Even more interesting is the Queen's Court. I found their names to be genius. You'll figure it out too when you read it.

Our MC Beau a thief gets himself trapped in a cursed castle after barley escaping capture from his previous escapades with a team who abandons him after the drawbridge crumbles while they make their getaway.

Sadly the castle is at the end of its curse life cycle and our Bell (Beau) is completely unaware. No one knows how they were drawn into the castle and there's a lot of mistrust.

Can a thief save a Kingdom? You'll have to read to find out if this is a happily ever after or not!

4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Beau, a thief, finds himself trapped in a castle that he and his gang find themselves in after trying to escape a heist. Beau quickly learns that the castle is haunted every night by a beast.

This was an interesting re-telling of Beauty and the Beast but was a little confusing at first. I wish that we had learned about the curse earlier in the novel (rather than at 70%) and I think the suspense and story could have still developed in many of the ways it did. I thought Despair's court was a unique take on the emotions Arabella was trapped by, but did not feel like their names needed to be anagrams - just call them what they were. Overall, I thought it was engaging, but I just felt the sequencing was a little off.

A cute gender swap of beauty and the beast. The ladies of the court were a little on the nose at times but I really enjoyed the resolution. I felt the dialogue style was a little inconsistent between older style and modern but the story was pretty interesting. Thank you Scholastic and NetGalley for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

I am a sucker for a fairytale retelling, and with the roles being reversed it was very intriguing. However it didn’t feel like quite like a beauty and beast retelling as she wasn’t really a beast, and I didn’t really see where the beast part was. The story and writing was very well written and beside that I did somewhat enjoy the read.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic Press for a digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I am a huge fan of fairytale retellings, so this immediately caught my eye. It took me a while to get into, but the simple fact that it was a complete reimagining of Beauty and the Beast kept me reading. I am glad that I did, although there were moments where I was completely confused.

The beginning of the story focuses on Beau and the band of theives that he runs with. Beau, of course, is the Belle in this retelling, but he has a lot of baggage of his own. When the thieves enter what turns out to be a haunted castle, Beau winds up trapped inside as everyone else gets away. He is desperate to get out to try and save his younger brother who is sick and at a convent somewhere. As a thief, he figures there is always some manner of escape, just find the right key, find the hidden door or tunnel, he can make it work. But that is before he realizes just how mysterious this castle is.

The lady of the house is Arabella. She is surrounded by the strangest ladies maids with truly bizarre names. They are hateful and cruel and yet Arabella doesn't seem to notice and/or mind. The house staff are more normal, but undeniably secretive. Beau starts to pick apart pieces to understand some of what is going on, especially after coming in contact with a magic mirror that shows Arabella's past. The key takeaway is that she was a headstrong and intelligent young girl, brilliant when it came to buiding things. But she lived in a time when those traits were considered undesirable and she needed to be the perfect female specimen and marry the right man. Something happened and she has now been cursed to this castle for 100 years, which of course is coming close to its end.

The biggest differences between this story and the traditional Beauty and the Beast are that 1) she is not always in beast form 2) the things that made her "beastly" were things that in modern society are more mysogynistic ideas towards women and 3) the person who cursed her. The story dragged for a long time and then picked up as Beau and Lady Arabella actually interacted with each other. Interesting premise, just didn't sing for me.

Thank you so for this opportunity to read it, but unfortunately, I had to DNF it was not the best with its writing style and not really explaining the story in the beginning on how she became I thought that Mafi would’ve been the first chapter and it was not in the characters just seeing boring.

I really enjoyed book 1 and 2. I was so excited to read this one.

After starting the book I found there were differences in the writing. Like how the plot was unfolding and I struggled so hard to keep reading it. There was also this weird bold font that would pop up out of no where and it truly didn’t make sense. Leaving me confused and constantly questioning what was going on. I do like this author but this book just didn’t do it for me.

A truly unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I enjoyed the gender-bent aspect and the magic system.

I loved the banter between the two leads, and how they both grew as characters together. Was a bit confused by some of the world building- like the exact origin of the curse and such. But overall I enjoyed the originality of this re-telling.

I received an advanced copy of Beastly Beauty from the publisher through Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Beauty and the Beast was one of the stories that got me into fairy tales. I can't say that I enjoy every retelling of it, but Beastly Beauty was a fun ride.

I'll admit that this fell on the younger side of young adult stories, but I ended up enjoying that aspect. Whether intentional or not, the simplicity of this story was what kept me reading. I'm a huge fan of world-building, but there was little to none here, and it only worked because that wasn't the focus of the story. Beastly Beauty is, in its simplest form, a story about its characters. Though the plot is there, its characters pull the story along. Would I have liked more depth? Probably. But this story reads like a rollercoaster: there and done in a moment, but oh so fun. It was quick, snappy, and to the point, and after having read some particularly meandering stories, this was the recharge I needed. Not every story needs to be a harsh look at the reality of life, and that reminder is why I think I enjoyed this story so much.

Now, that's not to say that there wasn't some depth. It came out through the characters, particularly their backstories. Did I love Arabella and Beau? No. But they were good, flawed characters, and that's what shone through. The secondary characters were just as flawed, and I appreciated knowing their backstories as well. I feel like it gets forgotten in most Beauty and the Beast retellings, but the people living in the palace with the beast are just as cursed. That didn't happen here. The secondary characters had their motivations and weren't just background characters. They played wonderful roles with exciting personalities that were refreshing to see.

As fun as the story was, a couple of things kept me from loving it. I did not enjoy the romance. It was much too rushed. One second, they don't like each other, and the next, they profess their love that I had no idea had developed. On top of that, the conclusion didn't have nearly the emotional impact that it could have. Lastly, the curse and how it happened were extremely confusing, and there was an aspect of it that made no sense other than adding the "beastly" part everyone looks for in these stories. This story had a very interesting curse that I felt was more than enough, and the addition didn't further anything and felt thrown in because it was expected.

Overall, I really enjoyed Beastly Beauty. This is a great place to start if you're looking for a quick, fun retelling.

cute story, but the writing was too on the nose in terms of the message the author was trying to get across. the magic system was extremely underdeveloped with every aspect feeling very slapdash and poorly explained… very meh overall.

As you might have guessed, Beastly Beauty is a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, and author Jennifer Donnelly definitely has made the story her own. In this version, the roles are reversed, and the reason for the curse has less to do with selfishness and arrogance and more to do with sexism and societal expectations.

Main characters Beau and Arabella are complex and well-realized. As are secondary characters, who all have motives of their own.

Beastly Beauty is not just a fairy tale retelling. It’s also a mystery and romance. At its heart, it’s a story of relationships and how those relationships can dictate actions that impact those around us.

Donnelly expertly sets the scene, bringing the castle and all its mysterious inhabitants to life. Though the story moves quickly, it feels a little too long in places. That said, it’s an intriguing take on a classic tale.

This book unfortunately failed on pretty much every cylinder. The “beastly” aspect in Arabella’s character was profoundly disjointed, feeling like it was split between a physical and an emotional embodiment. Beau’s character felt flat outside of his care for his brother, and he had an air of arrogance that was excused away by his being a thief but on page just made him unlikeable. The romance between the two characters fell incredibly flat for me, largely because they don’t actually spend that much time together, so the novel oscillates between no chemistry and insta-love, which is bad on both ends of the spectrum. Lastly, I am all for a bit of trickery and linguistic fun, but the anagrams of words for the “characters” that were embodiments of Arabella’s emotions made me actually black out, I was so profoundly irritated by it. It felt juvenile, which in itself isn’t the worst thing in the world, but for a YA novel, it pulled the energy of the book far towards middle grade, and I just kept wondering “could Donnelly really not do better than this???” This is to say nothing of the fact that the logistics of the ending made no sense to me at all, so I found myself largely disappointed by what was supposed to be a gender-bent Beauty and the Beast, but in actuality only seemed to retain like 15% of the bones of the story. There was a lot of potential here, but unfortunately, it just fell short for me. 2⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

So listen, I loved the idea of this story. A gender swapped beauty and the beast with Alice in Wonderland Flare. ✨️ The plot was pretty steady, and the placing worked out okay. There were a few instances in which I found myself trying to figure out the POV, so I found the authors interior formatting to be not my favorite with the chapters in chapters. But my biggest problem here was that I liked the side characters more than I liked the main characters. I'm still pretty new to fantasy, so I won't comment on some of my confusion as that's probably my bad.

But I will add to the formatting, the "FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY" brokenly stamped on lines really bothered my adhd brain
It took me FOREVER to get through the epilogue for that reason. I used to work for several authors and understand the importance of it. But why not randomly place the line "for review purposes only" in one line on random pages....?

Thank you to Scholastic Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. Yes, this is a gender flipped Beauty and the Beast and yes, it does end up having the main character save themselves. Get past the use of tropes and enjoy this. Arabella was well-defined and it took me a bit to really understand the court surrounding her and their purpose but it was well done. I was very happy with the ending and I did enjoy reading this and how it redefined the story. This is another great example for showing women that they should not give in to expectations and be as bold as they can be. Do not hold yourself back as you are so much more than those who try to bring you down. I give this 4 stars.

Beastly Beauty is a twist on the classic where the beast is now a woman.
There are a lot of differences between this one and the classic tale. Ariabella is the beast, but her story is very sad and honestly, I don't feel like she should have been cursed in the first place. She wasn't a bad person, but she was just very outspoken in a time that was looked down on,
The story overall was slow moving until about sixty percent in, I didn't hate the story line, but I didn't love it either. Beau was pretty annoying to me. And I think he overreacted once he saw what happened to Aribella and how she was cursed. I did like some of the new twists that happen to curse. This wasn't really about a person being cruel which was a nice breath of fresh air. Overall, it was a pretty good book.