Summary:
"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."
My Thoughts:
What can I say about this book? I really enjoyed that it was told from the perspective of the male. YA Literature has become chock full of books where you have a normal human female, or a female who thinks she's normal and she falls for a supernatural being male. I liked that this did the opposite, where the male is the human and the female is the one with the power. Of course, that is stretching just a little, because I think there is more to Ethan than meets the eye, but then again, that special vibe could just come from the depth of feelings shared by Lena and Ethan.
Lena was an interesting character and I very much loved her. If she had come to my school, I would have been right there with Ethan, standing up for her against the other kids who just don't like anyone who is different. And Lena is. It also took quite some time in the book before it was actually revealed that she is a Caster, her family's term for witches. Yes, it was basically assumed from some of the freaky things happening around the school and the town that Lena was a witch, but for her to actually admit it to Ethan took a long time...which makes sense because it can be hard to trust people sometimes, so I liked the realness of the situation.
Obviously, in most stories, an overall theme is light vs dark, good vs evil, and that doesn't change here. There are light Casters and dark Casters, and on her sixteenth birthday, Lena will be claimed for one side or the other, and this first novel in the series takes us right up to Lena's birthday, where she is claimed. I won't say the outcome of the event, just in case there are people like me who are coming into the series late.
There were so many great characters in the series: Ridley was sort of schemer and she used people however she wanted to and that suited her character, Macon and Amma both kept secrets from Ethan and Lena but I understood why because they were trying to help as well as protect the teens so they made good guardians of a sort, and I absolutely adored Marian the Librarian. I looked up the cast list online for the movie and I'm extremely sad that they don't have Marian in the movie. Based on the previews it looks like they basically have Amma taking up that role as well.
Still, I loved the depth and richness of Gatlin and the people who inhabit the town, and I look forward both to seeing the movie and to reading the rest of the series. Beautiful Creatures gets a magical 5/5 from me.
Lena was an interesting character and I very much loved her. If she had come to my school, I would have been right there with Ethan, standing up for her against the other kids who just don't like anyone who is different. And Lena is. It also took quite some time in the book before it was actually revealed that she is a Caster, her family's term for witches. Yes, it was basically assumed from some of the freaky things happening around the school and the town that Lena was a witch, but for her to actually admit it to Ethan took a long time...which makes sense because it can be hard to trust people sometimes, so I liked the realness of the situation.
Obviously, in most stories, an overall theme is light vs dark, good vs evil, and that doesn't change here. There are light Casters and dark Casters, and on her sixteenth birthday, Lena will be claimed for one side or the other, and this first novel in the series takes us right up to Lena's birthday, where she is claimed. I won't say the outcome of the event, just in case there are people like me who are coming into the series late.
There were so many great characters in the series: Ridley was sort of schemer and she used people however she wanted to and that suited her character, Macon and Amma both kept secrets from Ethan and Lena but I understood why because they were trying to help as well as protect the teens so they made good guardians of a sort, and I absolutely adored Marian the Librarian. I looked up the cast list online for the movie and I'm extremely sad that they don't have Marian in the movie. Based on the previews it looks like they basically have Amma taking up that role as well.
Still, I loved the depth and richness of Gatlin and the people who inhabit the town, and I look forward both to seeing the movie and to reading the rest of the series. Beautiful Creatures gets a magical 5/5 from me.
Beautiful Creatures at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beautiful-creatures-kami-garcia/1100163906?ean=9780316231657
Beautiful Creatures at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Creatures-Kami-Garcia/dp/0316231673/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358131206&sr=1-2&keywords=Beautiful+Creatures
Other Readings:
Let's see, right now I'm re-reading Pride and Prejudice because Jane Austen is great to read and I read her books sometimes every year. I'm also getting ready to dive into Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. I have heard amazing things about the book online, and I admit that I'm really curious to see what all the fuss is about, especially since the book apparently has an ending that has readers going crazy and begging for the next one.
No comments:
Post a Comment