REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES BY MARGARET STOHL AND KAMI GARCIA.

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Series: Caster Chronicles #1
Edition: Paperback
Publication: December 1st 2009 by Little, Brown and Company
Source: Bought from National BookStore
Pages: 563
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Urban Fantasy

Synopsis:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
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.

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*SOME SPOILERS, I GUESS*

I decided to join Lost at Midnight's Beautiful Creatures Series Challenge because it is one of the books I really look forward to reading and it will be adapted on to a movie next year. Reading it along with beautiful book bloggers is just the perfect way to start this series.

Ethan Wate is a sixteen-year-old high school student who lives in old and stuck-up Gaitlin Country. He wants to soon go some place else and see the world his books took him to because his live has been the same. Just before the school year starts, he's been plagued with dreams about a girl that he's trying to save. He thinks its only a dream until she sees her at school. The girl is the county's most terrifying shutin's niece and everyone thinks she doesn't belong there at all. Everyone hates Lena Duchannes, except Ethan. After all, they've been dreaming the same weird dream and they're determined to find out what it is all about.

Garcia and Stohl sure did a great job with this heart-stopping debut novel. Gaitlyn County, though just within South Carolina, seemed to be a very remote place in a different dimension. The people are too traditional and technology is low. People are afraid of things unusual for their taste. If there are places existing like that, I'm just not sure if I'd even visit one. It is place where you would literally feel you don't belong.

I like the plot. It involves magic yet the originality of the Casters are striking. Garcia and Stohl gave a refreshing touch to something I've always known since I was a child. I never could have imagined that such creativity would work with a genre as sensitive as magic. One wrong magical move and it could ruin a potential novel. But this one, I admit, is brilliant. The romance part did take time to develop which I truly loved and it is another book that has been narrated by the male protagonist. I loved how Gaitlyn County stayed intact as a community and how each and everyone treats one another a family. Though of course, there are some points I just couldn't agree on. Like how the phrase "around here" pops up every other page. It was tolerable at first but when you read a book as thick as this (five hundred pages), it becomes annoying. Then those unnecessary parts like the Reenactment of the War for instance. The narrator is a male and too many words from a guy just isn't convincing. Lastly, when I reached the last two hundred pages, I felt like dropping it. It just keeps on dragging and dragging as if the story would no longer finish. At some point, I got bored but finished it anyway.

Lena Duchannes isn't my favorite character. Her lack of enthusiam, her pessimism and childish attitude didn't really get my approval. I wish she would be better in Beautiful Darkness. Her boyfriend Ethan Wate, though only sixteen, showed sincerity, determination and compassion all through out the novel. He handled everything pretty well and I am impressed because he felt scared not only for the powers the Casters has been showing him but also Macon. Macon Ravenwood isn't someone I have expected him to be. True enough, first impressions never last. He took me by surprise. His character was a little mysterious at first but he gave so much to the extent of leaving a reader in pain. I would really love to see him more and I hope there would be a miracle in the sequel. I am still a little perplexed about his story and Sarafina, Larkin and Hunting made me wonder what happened to them. They just showed up from nowhere and eventually were gone again in an instant. I've really been confused about their motives. Am thankful to Amma and Marian Ashcrof. They've added glimmer to the novel! I loved Amma's sarcasm and Marian's perkiness and kindness! I am definitely stoked to read more of them!

The novel is five hundred sixty three pages long. The plot is fresh yet somehow complex. A lot of words had been used yet nothing really happened. I mean, I've been waiting for Lena to be claimed after all the things they've been through only to be disappointed. What occurred mostly were back-tracking, too much details, too slow, too many unnecessary sub-stories and just few actions. But I loved the plot and its rawness. It is very dark, magical and perfectly romantic.

My review may have been a mayhem, but am basing my rating on the plot itself and not the part where I got bored. A novel with a strong plot and heart-stopping twists deserves love and praises! Am really really looking forward to reading Beautiful Darkness!

"The right thing and the easy thing are never the same."