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Loading... Beautiful Creatures (edition 2009)by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl
Work detailsBeautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
Beautiful Creatures is a book for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. The heroine of the story, Lena, has powers she doesn't understand and often cannot control. She's very beautiful, but doesn't fit in anywhere. Her presence is especially suspicious in a town where nothing ever changes and anyone different is immediately suspect. There were elements of the storytelling that I enjoyed very much, although I can't say that anything really took me by surprise. The authors borrowed from the formula that is selling many a YA paranormal love story these days. Boy meets girl. Girl or boy is very different. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl must fight against evil powers and find a way to be together despite the fact that one is a normal human and one is not. Sound familiar? Also, one scene in the book could have been taken right out of Stephen King's Carrie. Even so, the formula works, the writing was good though it dragged in some places, and the main characters were well-drawn. The secondary characters were stereotypical and underdeveloped, but such was the case in the Twilight series and look how well it did. There are four books in the Caster Chronicles, and I plan to read them all. Mostly I'm interested in following the relationship of Lena and Ethan to its conclusion. What can I say? The story may be formulaic, but it's still enjoyable. (  ) TheLoopyLibrarian | May 15, 2013 |  Like another of the reviewers of this book, I am not a 'teen romance' fan. Most are, I find, smarmy and unreadable. This, however, is another animal entirely. Well written, well developed, and with an extremely well created backstory, 'Beautiful Creatures' kept me riveted. Especially, I must say, because the audio I listened to was masterfully done. Including sound effects and music in this audio edition of the book created an atmosphere that drew me in, kept me enthralled, and gave the whole book a tone, a flavour if you will, that took this haunting novel into a whole new atmosphere. I would highly recommend the [...] edition - even if you have read the book, the audio version will open you up to whole new possibilities within the 'covers'. "There are only two kinds of people in our town - The Stupid, and The Stuck." Small towns, especially small towns in the South, can be many things. Open and accepting, giving and warm. Or insular, inbred, and with a degree of self-satisfied pomposity, for all their tiny minds and vicious ways, as any rabid jackal pack. This small town is, indeed, a poster child for insular, self congratulatory ignorance, where an education makes you an outsider, and anything 'different' brands you a rouge and an outcast. The characterizations are marvelous - never 'over the top' but certainly indicative of the human condition. The cheating and lying, the petty, and not so petty, hatreds are all spot-on. Ah, yes, it did indeed bring back memories! Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King, Jr. The development of the Casters is not only beautifully written, it is original. The development of the Duchannes', and the Ravenwoods, reeks of the age and truth of history. Of the dichotomy of good and evil, of black and white, and the billions of shades between. They speak of truth, of the truth of time and space, and all those quiet and unknown things which live in those quiet corners of the human psyche. All in all, a rich and satisfying read - though I do agree that the ending left me somewhat at a loss, as others have stated. I will be glad to visit this world again, and will if these ladies are going to write another book. I look forward to learning more of the Ravenwoods and Duichannes', and, of course, Ethen, his wonderfully wacky aunts, and the loving, and mysterious, Ahma. Another thing I loved about the book - the strong women characters, both historically and in the modern story line. There is, of course, the romantic aspect of the story, which is very strongly written, but it isn't actually the most important part of the story, in my eyes. The strength of the relationship between Ethan and Lena is stronger than just a 'romance'. It twines back through history, the beginning of the story rooted in the history of the South, the history of magic, and the strength of a young girl forced to make an incredibly difficult choice. Overall, quite satisfying. Now, if someone would just point me to the music - it is absolutely haunting, and I would love to add it to my library! (  ) Leiahc | May 4, 2013 | The wife one of my friends really likes this series, and that's how I found out about it. This was before the movie, and generally I'm pretty clueless when it comes to what's popular and making the rounds in the world of young adult fiction unless it walks right up and smacks me in the face, so the only thing I knew about Beautiful Creatures at the time was that it's "like Twlight, but with witches". After having read this, I can see why. Our narrator and protagonist Ethan Wate has spent his whole life in the quiet southern town of Gatlin, just itching for the day he can pack up and leave it all behind. Everything changes, however, when Lena Duchannes arrives and turns his world upside down. There's something strange and magical about beautiful Lena, and even though she is shunned by the townspeople and all the other kids at school, Ethan finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. Right there, you already have the bulk of your usual young adult paranormal romance tropes: a new girl, a small town, a tale of undying love between two teenagers that transcends all differences even when it seems like the whole world is trying to keep them apart. It's not like I expected anything different when I signed up for this, so I have to say the book did a good job in delivering everything it was meant to, and I can see why it's so popular in its genre. But even putting aside the clichés, there were a few things that bothered me, which is why I gave it an average rating. First of all, despite the book reading like your typical YA paranormal romance, I do have to give my kudos to the authors for trying to do a couple things differently. Attempts to break the mold or shake things up should always be applauded; the problem, however, is whether or not these decisions paid off. Of course, the biggie is the male point-of-view. It's very rare to see this these days, considering the vast majority of readers of this genre are female. There's a fine balance to strike when telling a story from the perspective of a teenage boy, because you want your target audience to relate to him but at the same time he has to be realistic. Thing is, I don't think the book managed to find this balance. Ethan Wate simply doesn't act or sound believable as a high school sophomore male; instead, he reads more like what a teenage girl would want their high school sophomore boyfriend to act and sound like. It's especially obvious when you consider Ethan is the only character who seems different in a book otherwise filled with blatant stereotypes. I thought the southern setting was kind of neat, but of course it had to be filled with every shameless cliché, including the town being full of ignorant, prejudiced and backwards-thinking people -- oh, except for Ethan and his learned family, because they're special. The high school also embodies every cliquey convention you can think of, mostly boiling down to the shallow jocks and cheerleaders who torment Lena for being an outsider. It's a wonder how Ethan lived his whole life in this context yet managed to rise above all that (but of course he does, he's perfect!), the guy sounds like a friggin' old man next to all his peers. The second issue is the book's length. For the first installment in a new young adult series, deciding to make it almost 600 pages was probably a risky choice. It would be one thing if you had a big story to tell and lots to write about, but it's quite another when a quarter of the book is given to tedious back-and-forth and other such filler. I started getting the urge to skim around the halfway mark, and kept feeling like this until almost the very end when interesting things finally started to happen. My biggest problem with the book, however, is probably Lena. In a word, she is infuriating. When she's not flying into histrionics, she's depressing with her insecurity and defeatist attitude. The things she says! "It's no use", "It's always going to be this way", "Nothing we ever do is going to matter", "You'll only make things worse" and other insufferable gems like that seem to be all she can add to conversations. Ethan, bless your heart for caring, but since you're so perfect and special, you really ought to find a girl who can actually stand up for herself. Someone who won't give up before it's even started. Honestly, if a character doesn't even have the backbone to fight for the very things she so desperately wants, then why should I as the reader care enough to root for her? ( ) stefferoo | May 3, 2013 | This a really good book. Finally a heroine that isn't a complete weakling! Lena is conflicted and struggling with her identity, but at the same time she is an individual who is willing to stand against the nasty popular crowd. I love the fact that she can and does use her powers to get even with the bratty cheerleaders! Also she DOESN'T go all doe-eyed and stupid for her boyfriend Ethan. She is strong yet feminine and in touch with her power as a blossoming woman. LOVE IT! ( ) hazysaffron | Apr 27, 2013 | Such a beautiful, wonderous story! I want to learn a lot more about Ethan and Lena! And I really like how they stuck together, no matter what. ( ) Lexxie | Apr 23, 2013 |
 The intensity of Ethan and Lena's need to be together is palpable, the detailed descriptions create a vivid, authentic world, and the allure of this story is the power of love. The satisfying conclusion is sure to lead directly into a sequel. Give this to fans of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" (Little, Brown, 2005) or HBO's "True Blood" series and they will devour all 600-plus pages of this teen Gothic romance.  The 600-plus pages could have been cut to make a tighter, better story. Despite the bulk, there’s plenty teens will like: romance, magic, hauntings, and the promise of more to come. Is contained in
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Amazon Exclusive Interview with Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Authors of Beautiful Creatures
Margie: The best way to describe our writing process is like a running stitch. We don't write separate chapters, or characters. We pass the draft back and forth constantly, and we actually write over each other's work, until we get to the point where we truly don't know who has written what.
Kami: By the end of the book, we don't even know. The classic example is when I said, "Marg, I really hate that line. It has to go." And she said, "Cut it. You wrote it."
Margie: I think we were friends for so long before we were writing partners that there was an unusual amount of trust from the start.
Kami: It's about respect. And it helps that we can't remember when who wrote the bad line.
Margie: We save our big fights for the important things, like the lack of ice in my house or how cold our office is. And why none of my YouTube videos are as popular as the one of Kami's three-fingered typing…okay, that one is understandable, given the page count for "Beautiful Creatures."
Kami: What can I say? I was saving the other seven fingers for the sequel.
What kinds of books do you like to read?Kami: I read almost exclusively Young Adult fiction, with some Middle Grade fiction thrown in for good measure. As a Reading Specialist, I work with children and teens in grades K-12, so basically I read what they read.
Margie: When I write it comes from the same place as when I read: wanting to hang out with fictional characters in fictional worlds. I identify more as a reader than a writer; I just have to write it first so I can read it.
What books/authors have inspired you?Kami: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories" by Flannery O'Connor, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury and "The Witching Hour" by Anne Rice. I also love Pablo Neruda.
Margie: I think Harper Lee is the greatest writer alive today. Eudora Welty is my other Southern writer kindred; I was obsessed with her in grad school. Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne Jones made me love fantasy, and my favorite poets are Emily Dickinson (at Amherst College, I even lived on her street) and Stevie Smith.
Did you set out to write fiction for young adults? Why?Kami: We actually wrote "Beautiful Creatures" on a dare from some of the teen readers in our lives.
Margie: Not so much readers as bosses.
Kami: Looking back, we wrote it sort of like the serialized fiction of Charles Dickens, turning in pages to our teen readers every week.
Margie: And by week she means day.
Kami: When we were getting texts in the middle of the night from teens demanding more pages, we knew we had to finish.
Margie: As it says in our acknowledgements, their asking what happened next changed what happened next. Teens are so authentic. That's probably why we love YA. Even when it's fantasy, it's the emotional truth.
A lot of us voracious readers like to cast a book after reading it. Did you guys have a shared view of who your characters are? Did each of you take a different character to develop, or did you share every aspect?Kami: We've never cast our characters, but we definitely know what they look like. Sometimes we see actors in magazines and say, "Lena just wore that!"
Margie: We create all our characters together, but after a point they became as real as any of the other people we know. We forget they're not.
Kami: I never thought of it like that. I guess we do spend all our time talking about imaginary people. Margie: So long as it's not to them…
Did you always plan to start the book with Ethan's story? Why?Kami: We knew before we started that we wanted to write from a boy's point of view. Margie and I both have brothers—-six, between us-—so it wasn't a stretch. It's an interesting experience to fall in love with the guy telling the story rather than the guy the story is about.
Margie: We do kind of love Ethan, so we wanted there to be more to him than just the boy from boy meets girl.
Kami: He's the guy who stands by you at all costs and accepts you for who you are, even if you aren't quite sure who that is.
What is on your nightstand now?Kami: I have a huge stack, but here are ones at the top: "Mama Dip's Kitchen," a cookbook by Mildred Council, "The Demon's Lexicon" by Sarah Rees Brennan, "Shadowed Summer" by Saundra Mitchell, "Rampant" by Diana Peterfreund, and an Advanced Reader Copy of "Sisters Red" by Jackson Pearce.
Margie: I have Robin McKinley's "Beauty," Maggie Stiefvater's "Ballad," Kristen Cashore's "Fire," Libba Bray's "Going Bovine," and "Everything Is Fine" by AnnDee Ellis. And now I'm mad because I know a) Kami stole my "Rampant" and b) didn't tell me she has "Sisters Red"!
What is your idea of comfort reading?Kami: If given the choice, I'll always reach for a paranormal romance or an urban fantasy. I also re-read my favorite books over and over.
Margie: It's all comfort reading to me. I sleep with books in my bed. Like a dog, only without the shedding and the smelling.
Have you written the next book already? What's next for Lena and Ethan?Margie: We are revising the next book now. I don't want to give too much away, but summer in Gatlin isn't always a vacation.
Kami: I would describe book two as intense and emotional. For Ethan and Lena, the stakes are even higher.
Margie: That's true. Book two involves true love, broken hearts, the Seventeenth Moon, and cream-of-grief casseroles…
Kami: Gatlin at it's finest!
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:48:54 -0500)
In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.… (more)
Kami Garcia is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
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Two editions of this book were published by Audible.com.
Penguin AustraliaTwo editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.
Editions: 0141326085, 0141346140
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