Review: Beautiful Creatures

Book: Beautiful Creatures

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Release Date: December 1, 2009

Publisher: Little, Brown Books

Pages: 563

Source: bought from Chapters

Stars: 3/5

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 then 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.

(summary taken from Goodreads)

MY THOUGHTS: 

First off, let me just say that the cover is gorgeous. Beautiful, dark and gothic, it describes the contents of the book perfectly!

I have mixed feelings about Beautiful Creatures, but for the most part, I really like it! Told from sixteen-year-old Ethan Wate's point of view, it's both refreshing and somewhat strange to be in a boy's mind. The coolest part is getting a snippet of how a regular guy thinks when an eccentric new girl moves to town — except that Ethan isn't really a regular guy.

My favourite thing about this book is the atmospheric setting. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl describe the rich, gothic environment so perfectly that I want to pack up and move there, even though Ethan is more than ready to move far, far away. Gatlin County exactly the kind of small, dark town that I love to read about.

But it's the characters and plot that make this book. Each and every individual that the authors create is complex, original, and easy to adore... or easy to hate. They all have so many sides that it's effortless to connect with them. And the plot, so deliberately crafted, is something striking on its own.

Although the writing is a little hard to get into at first, Beautiful Creatures is an awesome paranormal debut novel about a girl and a boy and a curse that takes my breath away. I'm definitely going to be reading the next installments of this series.

I'm also really excited that there's going to be a movie! :) 

BUY or BORROW?: Owning this book is far from a bad thing!

-Mimi