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.
Beautiful Creatures is set in the small town of Gatlin where everything is about gossips and the memory of the Civil War. Ethan is lost in the flow after his mother’s death and hopes to leave this middle-of-no-where-town as soon as possible. He has been haunted by very weird dreams for the past weeks. Dreams of a girl he is desperately trying to save without ever succeeding and waking up soaked wet or full of mud depending on the dream. His wondering will come to an end when a new girl moves in town to live with her uncle, the town’s hermit, in his supposedly haunted manor and she will completely change his life, for better or for worse.
This book is quite thick (560ish pages) and I have to say it took me a little while to really get into the story, but once I was in though, it didn’t take long until I flipped the last page. At first everything is mysterious and fuzzy. Ethan meets this girl everyone is taking great pleasure picking on, and it won’t take long until he realize she is the girl from his dreams. They can also talk to each other with their mind but you have no idea what’s going on until page 140ish when you get to learn what Lena really is, and she’s not human. That’s when the story picked up for me. The plot took a stronger turn and characters had a mission. I enjoyed following them, learning more about this mysterious world no human is aware of along side with Ethan.
Beautiful Creatures is different from every Young Adult Paranormal I’ve read before. First because it’s from a boy point-of-view, and the mystical creatures involved are unique and intriguing. There is a lot more going on behind the scenes of this town than the little touristic country town popular for it’s reenactment of the Honey Hill Battle. You don’t get to know who are Ethan & Lena’s allies and enemies until the very end because not every secondary characters really are what they pretend to be, and some of the revelations were a shock to me.
I loved both main characters, they were both truly awesome. Sometimes weak, other times strong, they complimented each other perfectly. I also had a sweet spot for Link, his isn’t that major character but he is so charming. Ridley, Lena’s cousin made a good impression on me, there is more to her than eyes can see!
The end was fast-paced and spectacular. So much happened in so little time and I can’t wait to see the consequences to the choices that were made. Good for me, Beautiful Darkness will be out soon!
Read an excerpt (first 200 pages!)
Caster Chronicles:
Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Darkness (Oct 2010)
Book Stats:
Book Source: Personal Shelf
