Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Published: 2009
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Series: The Caster Chronicles #1
563 pages (hardcover)
This is one of those books that had quite a bit of hype surrounding it, but ultimately didn’t really live up to expectations. It’s not terrible — it’s quite okay, in my opinion — but it fell a bit short of what I thought I was going to experience in this novel.
The main character is Ethan Wate, a boy living in a small Southern US town, the kind of town that’s proud of all its townspeople being descendants of someone or another from the Mayflower and don’t take too kindly to outsiders (unless they’re tourists). His dad has been a hermit in the study since their mom died, and Ethan is finding his semi-popular status at school tiring to keep up. He can’t wait to move out of here.
That is, until a very mysterious girl named Lena moves into town. Ethan already knew her before he officially met her. He’s seen her in his very real dreams, and it becomes apparent that she’s been having the same dreams as him. They become drawn to one another and fall in love. However, their relationship is extremely strained, not just because the entire town wants Lena to move away, not because by associating with her Ethan lost his ‘status’ at school and not because his Amma and Lena’s uncle want them to stay away from another … but also because Lena is a Caster, a person with supernatural powers. In fact, she comes from a family of casters where everyone has a unique supernatural gift (think Twilight’s Cullen family). And with her 16th birthday coming up, Lena’s going to be Claimed, but by Light or by Dark, nobody knows.
As I was reading, it felt to me that this book was published to profit off of the current popularity of YA paranormal romances. It just has a plot that feels rather formulaic, something similar that I’ve read in other YA paranormal romances. You know, new student in town falls in love with someone from a small town, but can’t be together for some supernatural reason. And of course, it’s a series, likely with 3 or 4 installments, I’m guessing. Beautiful Creatures does handle this formulaic plot better than most; I’d say out of all the YA paranormal romances using this formulaic plot, Beautiful Creatures is probably one of the better books out there.
The characters are generally pretty likeable (except the characters you’re supposed to hate, heh) though not necessarily all believable. I don’t know, I just feel most authors are out of touch with what high school students are really like, and they draw up stereotyped high school settings and characters instead. Still, I don’t find that a huge deal in this book. I surprised myself when I found myself actually enjoying Lena and Ethan’s relationship, though I have a hunch most people will find their true love unconvincing. Which is kind of true, but I don’t know, I still kind of liked it for some odd reason. It was kind of sweet, though it was awkwardly rushed (as in, BAM, they just randomly realized they’re in love one day), but I think that since the book is told in first person through Ethan’s eyes, it was a bit refreshing reading a YA paranormal romance through a male character’s perspective. Come to think of it, there aren’t very many YA romances told through a guy’s point of view … this may be a rare book, in that case! Hahaha. (Kidding, let me know if there are others though)!
The ending, to me, was a big let down. I was not impressed with the ending. Loose ends everywhere, so many things unexplained. It was undramatic, not climatic and left little to zero satisfaction in me as a reader. I mean, I know, there’s going to be a sequel, but that’s no reason to make the first book so incomplete. For example, what is up with Ethan’s mom and how did she know all this stuff? Where the heck did Sarafina disappear to at the end after trying to kill a bunch of people? Did she just … leave the scene? Sure, you can explain those things in book two … but really, these are the sort of things that should be explained in book one where it is more appropriate to do so.
I know it sounds like I’m bashing the book, and I guess I am a little bit, but overall, I did enjoy it, albeit mildly. I mean, I was by no means addicted to it, and it was not really a page-turner, but it was alright. A decent read, though unnecessarily lengthy for its story. I can see myself reading the rest of the series presently, but I’m not going to be actively on the look out for a copy. If I see one at the library, then I see it; otherwise, I don’t think this book left much of an impression on me. (As a side note, I love, love, love the cover. I think it’s gorgeous).
My Rating: 2/5
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