Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Genre: YA Fiction
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 563
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #11
Source: Library


The Short Version:
Southern gothic supernatural story that full of interesting characters, an old curse, complicated family trees, more secrets than you think and a dog named Boo Radley.

Why I Read It:
It was Galleysmith’s talking about it on Twitter that made me add it to my TBR list, but it was many other folks talking about how much they liked it made me go ahead and request it from the library.

The Book:
Ethan Wate is sixteen and counting the days until he can get out small town Gatlin, South Carolina. Nothing ever happens there. Well that’s what Ethan thought. Then he met the new girl at school and realized that she was the girl he’d been trying desperately to save in his recurring dreams. Lena Duchannes has moved to town to live with her uncle, the mysterious and reclusive Macon Ravenwood in what is popularly known as the local haunted mansion. For a change the paranormal teen love story is told from the male character’s viewpoint. Because so much of the story revolves around a series of secrets that are revealed I’m hesitant to say much more about the plot.

My Thoughts:
This was a fun and interesting book. Lena and her family (particularly her Uncle Macon) were great characters with a variety of ‘quirks’. Ethan was a likable enough character, confused by what’s happening, but still desperate to find out what really lies behind his connection to Lena. Ethan’s great aunts are hilarious comic relief and my favorite characters after Uncle Macon and Amma (Ethan’s family housekeeper and substitute mom/grandma). Oh and Marian the librarian – also a crackup.

The setting of a small southern town is what got me most interested in this book, but other than the cliques a the local high school and the town’s Civil War era history, it’s really not as much of a setting as I’d hoped it would become as I read the book. I ended up thinking it was plenty gothic, but not necessarily plenty southern. There was slight leaning toward writing in dialect that began to distract me partway through.

The story was interesting with plenty of twists and turns some expected some not. Yes, there were things that didn’t work for me, but there was plenty that did. I enjoyed the story and will probably read more by this team of authors.

Rating 3.5/5