Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
- Pub. Date:Dec 2009
- Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Format: Hardcover, 563pp
"Ethan Wate is struggling to hide his apathy for his high school "in" crowd in small town Gatlin, South Carolina, until he meets the determinedly "out" Lena Duchannes, the girl of his dreams (literally--she has been in his nightmares for months). What follows is a smart, modern fantasy--a tale of star-crossed lovers and a dark, dangerous secret. Beautiful Creatures is a delicious southern Gothic that charms you from the first page, drawing you into a dark world of magic and mystery until you emerge gasping and blinking, wondering what happened to the last few hours (and how many more you're willing to give up). To tell too much of the plot would spoil the thrill of discovery, and believe me, you will want to uncover the secrets of this richly imagined dark fantasy on your own. -"
First Sentence: "There were only two kinds of people in our town"
Review: I was ready to fall in love with Beautiful Creatures after all the "you have to read it nows" I kept getting and the continuous hype surrounding it. Instead sadly that was not the case for me. I really tried which is why even though I was ready to stop reading the book half way through I stuck to it and finished it, regardless of the fact that it took me close to two weeks to do so.
I really felt that Beautiful Creatures could have been easily cut down a couple hundred pages. There were lots of details that were pretty insignificant and thought it did nothing as far as moving the plot along. As far as the characters are concerned I didn't care for Ethan or Lena. I did not feel the supposed love between the two. Lena was just flat, I was more intrigued by her cousin Ridley. Ethan, well lets just say the narration sounded like it was from a females point of view. Which is maybe why the whole time I kept thinking gee Ethan and Lena can be best friends vs wow they are really meant for each other...etc.
What I did like was the uniqueness of the casters. I also like the fact that it was set in the south but having experienced living in the south myself for quite some time, I felt that the authors could have delved deeper about the south instead of just portraying the same old cliche.
Overall loved the concept of the casters but did not care much for the characters.
