Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl Review #26

Authors; Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 576
Rating:
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere. 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.

So I decided that I'm going to split this review in half, in two categories: 1) What I liked, What's Good about, ect 2) What I didn't really like.

The Good Part :)

The characters, the story/plot, the idea, everything. I loved everything. The only complaints are, you'll see later. If you read The Story Siren's review site, then you'll know that once she wrote that she doesn't exactly know why she likes something, she just does. This is the same thing, I can't pinpoint why I exactly like this book. But I can tell you that my top two, absolute favorites, books of 2009 are Hush Hush and Beautiful Creatures. I also really related to both Ethan & Lena in the story. Maybe more Lena than Ethan, but still it was nice. It was nice to relate to a character whose going through a problem that similar to yours *not identical of course* and by the end of the book, the reader doesn't feel not alone. The ending will definitely leave people wanting more, and people will be happy to know that there is a sequel on it's way :) Do I recommend this book? Absolutely!!! It's fast paste and you'll never have the feeling of not continuing to read it because it keeps you guessing and wanting more. Also the plot twist was, in my opinion, brillant/wonderful. I never saw it coming. Teen Vogue was comparing this to having Twilight-like buzz, but for anyone who hates Twilight don't let that scare you off. This book is NOTHING like Twilight, and in my opinion it's the most original book I've ever read. But I still recommend this book to everyone,even Twilight-likers or Twilight Haters.
**SPOILER**: At the end of the book, Kami & Margaret do something that is quite interesting. The whole book is in Ethan's POV, but at the end when Ethan is unconscious instead of going into a new chapter they turn to Lena's POV. That's right we get a few pages of Lena's POV. And in my opinion, I really liked that and thought it was sort of cool idea. I would really like if Kami & Margaret would rewrite Beautiful Creatures and put it in Lena's POV. I mean, you know how Stephanie Meyer was going to write that book of Twilight in Edward's POV? I would really like to see that done with Lena's POV. Because half way through Beautiful Creatures, while Ethan was narrating, I was wondering what Lena was doing.

What I didn't like

What I didn't like about, Beautiful Creatures, was at times it felt a bit to rushed in describing things. Like one thing would happen, and then the next and you would have to reread that part to get your mind processing it. Another thing was at times, stuff would randomly pop up that was never mentioned before and your like: What? Like a good example of this is in the first chapter *I believe*. Ethan wakes up and he finds out that his window is open and he has mud/dirt in his bed and his Ipod is playing a song he doesn't recognize. I would of enjoyed it more, if there had been mention of this before, because you kind of loose the emotion that it's trying to portray. In my honest opinion, the only chapter I felt was really rushed was the first chapter. There was a few others, but not as bad as the first. I think I would of enjoy it more if it slowed down a bit.

It all sums up to!!

A really good book and a amazing start at, what looks like, a wonderful series. The whole Ethan/Lena relationship reminded me a lot of Romeo/Juliet, which was nice because my favorite Shakespeare play was Romeo And Juliet.
Also in other news, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES HAS THE RIGHTS FOR BECOMING A MOVIE!!! YIPEEE!!! READ HERE!! This new has made me very happy!!!