Beautiful Creatures Review

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Release Date: December 1st, 2009

Synopsis (from amazon.com):

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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My Review:

There are a lot of mixed reviews on this one, some hate it and some love it. I was looking for a lighter, more romancey-yet-still-fantasy read at the time I read this and that's exactly what I found. The storyline was great and besides just the story I think it nicely brought up some social commentary on judging people deemed as "outsiders." I personally really enjoyed the mystery in it that brought in a lot of questioning, the Southern atmosphere that acted as a character in itself, and of course the magical aspect. The romance between the two main characters I have to admit is kind of adorable and doesn't lack in challenges, which I appreciated. The two authors wrote so seamlessly that there was no clear separation between writing styles which I really appreciated, and is pretty difficult to pull off. There was a lot of background surrounding the characters that was, at times, a little hard to go through, because it did get boring with the huge info-dumps, but I think these were necessary to understand the whole scope of the story.

This book was turned into a movie that, shocker I know, didn't give the book justice but still contained some hilarious lines. Plus hearing all the lines in a Southern accent was endlessly amusing to me.

Final Grade: B+