This is the second tale I've read from the Twisted Tales series - the other being Poor Unfortunate Souls - and it's safe to say, it's going to be the last. I did enjoy this book more than Poor Unfortunate Souls, but that isn't particuarly a compliment given how awful Poor Unfortunate Souls was. I've tried to judge the book fairly and take into account that its target audience is children, but there's no escaping the fact that the books in this series are just plain bad.

The Beast Within is an almost exact re-telling of the original Disney's Beauty and the Beast but from the Beast's POV. The only real changes are the flashbacks that show how he came to be cursed and a nonsensical and shallow friendship with Gaston. It was a quick and easy read but very predictable and meaningless. It's a shame really because there was so much potential, but none of it was realised. There seems to have been little time, thought or effort put into creating or writing the story and consequently, the reader experience is hollow.