Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Re-read? Probably bits and pieces before the next book. Definitely.

Recommend? This is definitely one of my favorite 2009 releases.

Release Date: December 1st, 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown
Pages: 576

Synopsis:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

My Thoughts:

Beautiful Creatures was a surprisingly quick read, despite it's size. I found myself engrossed in Ethan and Lena's world-- a world where anything can go wrong, and most likely will.

First off, I LOVE how the book was told from Ethan's POV, rather then Lena's. This is what separates the book right off from most other paranormal love stories. Reading Ethan's raw emotions really made this story real to me. It was what kept the pages turning. While I do love reading from the girl's POV, this was a change that I really needed. Something refreshing, yet familiar all at the same time.

I loved the whole aspect of the Casters. Growing up reading Harry Potter, I have always wished for magical powers. Though, the Caster powers are not something you deal with lightly. Every Caster has a different gift and with the gift, there always seems to be a cost. Again, no light wand waving in this book. I loved reading about the different gifts and what they do. I also really liked how they actually had consequences (sort of) with their gifts, like Aunt Del.

I wish I could have learned a bit more about Uncle Macon. He is such an interesting character and I wanted the book to go a little more thorough into his backstory, but alas, he is and always will be a man of secrets. Which I like as well-- Keeps me up at night.

I have barely anything to complain about in this book, but something very minor touched a raw nerve. Part of dear Gatlin's backstory deals a lot with the Civil War. Well, they also mention Civil War reenacting quite a bit. While most of the fun making made me laugh, I felt they showed only one side of reenacting-- the spectators view. It makes me sad to think that there are people who believe that keeping history alive is something foolish southern people do for the amusement of their selves and spectators. I won't chastise Ethan or Lena for thinking the way they do about the war (because maybe if I grew up with it all around me, I would be annoyed as well), but I just want people to know that we're out there camping in cold weather for a reason folks-- and it's not because we have nothing else to do. Again, this is just a personal thought. Even with this, Beautiful Creatures is one of my favorite books of 2009.

Beautiful Creatures was a heart wrenching story and I cannot wait to read more from Kami and Margie in the future!

You can find my interview with them: Here.

Details:

Cover: 5.0
Plot: 5.0
Characters: 4.0
Writing: 4.0