Review: Beautiful Creatures

by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
publisher: Little, Brown & Co.
date of publication: December 1, 2009/September 14, 2010
format: paperback
pages: 592
source: purchased
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N

From Goodreads:

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.

What I Thought

This book has been sitting on my shelves for five months, yet I had not gotten around to reading it until very recently. I quickly found out what I had been missing out on. I could kick myself for not reading it sooner! Beautiful Creatures has many of the characteristics that I love in a book, and then some. It has a great plot, absorbing characters, frightening villains, magic, mystery, and a great Southern setting. What's not to love?

I immediately felt a connection with the two primary characters, Ethan and Lena. They had great chemistry and moving back stories, which made it extremely easy to become invested in what happened to them throughout the book. Ethan undergoes a personal renaissance when he meets Lena, while Lena learns to put herself out there a little more when she meets Ethan. They seem to bring out the best qualities in each other, which is always nice to see. The other characters were a lot of fun to read, too. From Link, Ethan's affable best friend, to Amma, the Wate family's housekeeper/mother figure, there are a lot of vivid characters to follow and learn about. I was especially intrigued by Macon and wanted to learn more about him. There definitely isn't a shortage of strong characters in this book, which is part of what makes it so absorbing.

The setting is very easy for me to relate to, as it is set in the southern U.S., namely South Carolina. While I am a Tennessean, there are many social traits and language patterns present in this story that I was able to immediately recognize. It was very easy to picture Gatlin in my head, as it sounds not unlike a combination of my hometown and the town I lived in for the first 8 years of my adult life. It came to be a little eerie at times, but was most definitely something I could relate to. In addition, some of the more Gothic settings (Ravenwood Manor, for instance), were absolutely sublime. There was so much atmosphere in this town that it felt much like stepping into the book itself at times.

Finally, the overall plot was a definite bonus. There is a great deal of lore to go along with the Casters (supernatural figures who are somewhat like witches), which went a long way toward making the book what it is. There is a lot of information, but I found that it is both fascinating and presented in such a way that it wasn't hard to keep up. The idea of the existence of supernaturals such as Casters, Incubi, and Succubi hidden under the surface of a sleepy Southern town is an intriguing one. I simply couldn't get enough and sped through the book as a result.

I feel as though I have been gushing, but I truly did enjoy everything about this book. It had such a hook on me that I promptly picked up the second installment and finished it within two days. I absolutely can not wait until the release of the third book in the series. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl are a force to be reckoned with and I can not sing the praises of this book enough. I give Beautiful Creatures 5 hoots.