3/3.5 stars.

This wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be. It began dark and gothic and I thought were headed for perhaps a fantasy realism story, however it just turned into a teen contemporary.

I liked some of the characters and felt that Ava had depth and layers to her. There was a haunting sad undertone to the whole story that I appreciated and had hoped was going to be the main theme of the story.

The small nods to Beauty and the Beast are subtle and infrequent, so I'm not sure it can be fully classed as a re-imagined version.

Overall if you love teen romances with happy endings, this may be for you.

The Beasts of Bellevue by Grace Chen was a cute new take on an old story. A flipped script of Beauty and the Beast where Ava is the one locked away with only a compact mirror to communicate through. However, The Beasts of Bellevue left a lot to be desired. I felt like the story was too short for what she was trying to get across. Lacking any depth of emotion and too neatly wrapped up in too few pages.

There were a lot of details and descriptions in this book; however, none of them advanced the plot or helped connect the dots for the reader. The storyline never entered the realm of believability (the most high-profile teenager in an insane asylum walks out the front door, gets picked up by two brothers she's been talking to online, and hides out in their house without their mother finding out, and somehow registers for high school with no parent signature or ID???), and I couldn't connect to any of the characters.

I usually love a good Beauty And the Beast story. Usually. But this... This was neither good nor much Beauty and the Beast. I don't even know how I managed to read this book when I wanted to skim it after 23%. There are Wattpad Stories better than that book and I have never read a good story on Wattpad. For all I know, this book could have been a Wattpad story.
The characters were so clichéd and so unlikeable, the writing was absolutely juvenile, even for a YA/Teens book and I felt myself cringe slightly at every smily. There was nothing about this characters to make them unique - especially Taylor and Alec could have been replaced by literally ANY jock/fangirl in the literary world.
This book was so not for me. I don't know why I even gave it a try, I actually should have known it wouldn't be for me. I wante do read something more out of my comfort zone, but sadly this book drove me right back there...
I am still grateful to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy.

i appreciated how different this was as a fairy tale retelling, I really liked the twist and enjoyed reading this book. It kept the magic of the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and I look forward to more from the author.

The description for this book sounded great, and the cover seemed appealing. I wanted to like this book so much, but I just didn’t.

The writing wasn’t great. Also, I had an issue with how desperate for Alec all of the girls were. Even with Ava, we meet her and she happens to see Alec who she thinks is cute. It made me start with finding her annoying rather than caring about her. I wish we had gotten some backstory first.

This was a swing and a miss for me. There’s a reader for every book though, and I’m sure this will be for some people. It won’t be at the top of my recommendations though.

I wanted to like the book, characters, and story but I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel for the characters, they didn’t develop well throughout the book, and the storyline was a bit all over the place.

The Beast of Bellevue by Grace Chen, 255 pages. Reading Harbor, 2020. $12.
Language: PG13 (12 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Having spent the last eight years in an asylum, Ava yearns for her freedom -- freedom to go outside, freedom to go to high school, freedom to make friends. Dylan Albright just wants someone to see him for him and not because he is the brother of Alec the soccer star. When Ava and Dylan connect online, it seems like everything they want is within reach; if only their secrets weren’t blocking the way.
As a clever retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I enjoyed reading this book; I like how there isn’t one beast and one beauty, and, instead, Chen highlights how we can all be a little bit of both. On the technical side, I had a hard time following some of the point of view shifts that would happen randomly -- sometimes within a paragraph. Furthermore, while the ending neatly and cheesy-ly wrapped up all the loose ends, I also got the impression that Chen didn’t really know how to write an ending, which made for a lackluster conclusion to a fun story.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Thank you for providing the arc in exchange for review.

Ava has been institutionalised for almost half her life. Feeling very isolated, she starts speaking to 'Alec' online. What Ava doesn't know is that she's actually speaking to Alec's brother, Dylan who has started a money making scheme to keep their family afloat.

The cover led me to believe this was going to be a more introspective story about an isolated girl. It's more like a teen movie, where nothing feels all that realistic. The writing was fairly basic and the character development was outright stated instead of naturally developing. There were several plots that felt out of place and like they go nowhere, as well as a lot of coincidences that nobody ever mentions how wild they are. If I hadn't known it was meant to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling, I never would have guessed. While this wasn't for me at all, I do think that a much younger audience might enjoy it, in the 12-14 year old range.

I noticed this book because of the beautiful cover and interesting synopsis. Needless to say I was more than dissapointed.
The book is about a girl called Ava who is stuck in a mental asylum since she was 9 years old. She has a interesting device that her grandpa left her, which is kinda like a computer. With this said device she starts to communicate with the brothers Dylan and Alec. It is kinda described as being inspired by Beauty and the Beast.
So let's start with the only good point that I have. It's fast to read.
Then let's come to the bad parts:
1. Writing is worse than in a Wattpad Fanfiction
2. The character are flat and fell lifeless
3. The message of the book doesn't deliver
4. The relationships are just badly developed
5. So many gaps and plot holes
And many many more

In conclusion I would say don't waste your time on this book. It's starts of pretty mediocre and gets worse.

The Beast of Bellevue is a good example of why you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Because the cover is what attracted me in the first place - it's gorgeous. Unfortunately, what was under the cover, not so much.

I really wanted to love this book. The premise sounded promising - a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. But instead of a beast, we get to meet Ava, a young girl locked in a mental institute with no contact with the outside. All she has is a Mirror, a new technological wonder that allows her to see outside the world. Through this Mirror, she meets two brothers, Alec and Dylan, which, of course, leads to a love triangle. It sounded like a fun, interesting story.

Unfortunately, the writing itself was pretty bad. The style itself was sloppy, there were so many gaps in the story, bits of information were strewn about without it making any sense or adding to the story, the time-line made no sense at times, there were so many small (and a few bigger) inconsistencies, the characters felt flat and sometimes had the weirdest change-of-hearts or motivations to do anything, and there were a lot of weird story lines suddenly added in the last few chapters that added nothing to the overall story.

I can see this was a passion project, there was a lot of love put into this, but it was a struggle for me to get through.

The Beast of Bellevue is a very interesting take on the fairytale Beauty and The Beast. Instead of the beast being trapped in a castle, it’s sweet Ava, who is actually a beauty who’s been treated like a beast by her family, trapped in a mental institution. Thanks to her grandfather, Ava is still able to reach the outside world where she meets brothers Alec and Dylan, who set out to rescue her. This was pretty decent paced story, I adored Ava and disliked her family for the way they treated her. I also loved Dylan and Alex but I think I was more team Alec then Dylan.

I really liked. this book and how the plot moved and I think it had an interesting concept with dynamic characters