Beautiful Creature by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
4:07 PM
Pages: 563
Publisher: Little Brown and Co.
ISBN13: 9780316042673
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Review by Phil
Seeing as this is my first book review on this blog, I am going to try really hard to get it right.
Summary: Ethan Wate is a 16 year old southern boy living in the small town of Gatlin. Nothing ever changes in Gatlin and Ethan is bored of his life, and the only thing keeping him going are the scary realistic dreams he has been having lately about a faceless girl. He only has to wait two more years until he can go to some college very far away and say goodbye to Gatlin forever. But all of this changes when Lena Duchannes comes into town. Niece of the town shut out ,Macon Ravenwood, Lena struggles fitting in at her new school, and after one day where a classroom window shatters and everyone blames the new girl, things are not looking up for Lena. Feeling bad for Lena, Ethan takes a liking to her and they create a strong friendship and later blossoms into a touching romance. But things are not as they seem with Lena Duchannes as Ethan soon realizes, and he discovers another world within our own that will forever change both his and Lena’s lives forever.
My thoughts:
Now going into this book I was very skeptical, when I had originally read the synopsis I had a feeling like it was just going to be like every other paranormal romance out there, and I also thought it was a werewolf book (an immediate turn-off). But after years, and I literally mean years (3 to be exact), I re-read the synopsis, watched some reviews on youtube, took a liking to the storyline, and ended up picking up the boxset (17.95 on Barnes and Noble YO!)
And after buying it in little to no time at all I actually picked it up. The beginning I would love to say wasn’t slow, but it was. I had a very hard time getting used to the local tongue of the book as well as the writing style in general, but after about page 50 I fell in love. The southern-magic world that Garcia and Stohl create is awe-inspiring and really took hold of my mind. Through their words I felt like I actually knew Gatlin and had been there, rather then just reading about it. I could picture Ravenwood Manor in my mind so vividly even though its appearance changed every chapter.
Not only was the setting great, but the characters as well. Being a guy who reads mostly YA, it is very hard to come across a male POV book, and it is even harder to come across a good one! This was a good one. To put it simply Ethan wasn’t a perverted idiot. In most YA a male protagonist is usually portrayed as sex hungry and impulsive, which hate to break it to you isn’t really how we are, well most of us anyway. Ethan’s character is what I loved most about the book because he was REAL. He was kind and caring, and really cared for Lena and his family. Also I think his reaction to the whole Caster world was exactly how a REAL person would have reacted, terrified with a little bit of composure for the girlfriend.
Not only Ethan but Lena, Amma, Macon, and Ridley were also great characters! Lena brought an amount of emotion to this novel that I haven’t seen in YA in a really long time. Amma was the comic relief, Macon was the intimidating mentor, and Ridley was only the beginning of the evil that I assume will come from Sarafine in the later books.
The only problem I had with this book was that it was a BEAST! Like super duper long! Long books are a HUGE turn-off for me as well as a lot of readers, which was just another reason why I was originally turned off by this book. But take it from me, do not let this books size intimidate you, it is phenomenal.
4/5 Stars!
And after buying it in little to no time at all I actually picked it up. The beginning I would love to say wasn’t slow, but it was. I had a very hard time getting used to the local tongue of the book as well as the writing style in general, but after about page 50 I fell in love. The southern-magic world that Garcia and Stohl create is awe-inspiring and really took hold of my mind. Through their words I felt like I actually knew Gatlin and had been there, rather then just reading about it. I could picture Ravenwood Manor in my mind so vividly even though its appearance changed every chapter.
Not only was the setting great, but the characters as well. Being a guy who reads mostly YA, it is very hard to come across a male POV book, and it is even harder to come across a good one! This was a good one. To put it simply Ethan wasn’t a perverted idiot. In most YA a male protagonist is usually portrayed as sex hungry and impulsive, which hate to break it to you isn’t really how we are, well most of us anyway. Ethan’s character is what I loved most about the book because he was REAL. He was kind and caring, and really cared for Lena and his family. Also I think his reaction to the whole Caster world was exactly how a REAL person would have reacted, terrified with a little bit of composure for the girlfriend.
Not only Ethan but Lena, Amma, Macon, and Ridley were also great characters! Lena brought an amount of emotion to this novel that I haven’t seen in YA in a really long time. Amma was the comic relief, Macon was the intimidating mentor, and Ridley was only the beginning of the evil that I assume will come from Sarafine in the later books.
The only problem I had with this book was that it was a BEAST! Like super duper long! Long books are a HUGE turn-off for me as well as a lot of readers, which was just another reason why I was originally turned off by this book. But take it from me, do not let this books size intimidate you, it is phenomenal.
4/5 Stars!
♚♚♚♚♔
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1 comments
Nice review! I need to read this like now. But I kind of put it off because of it size.
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