Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

First thing I noticed with this book is that it seemed a bit long so I had my reservations already before I started reading it.

The novel is set in the small town of Gatlin.  It's the type of town wherein families have stayed there for generations.  Where people are in each other's business.  Where everyone knows you're secret.

I guess when you have lived all your life in a small town such as Gatlin, you would want to travel and explore the world outside of your little town and Ethan did that with the books that he reads.   He put up a map on his wall and whenever, during his readings, he would encounter a place that he would want to travel to he would mark it on the map.  Every so often, he would link the marks kinda like mapping out his road trip supposing that he leaves Gatlin.

The novel is full of interesting characters, one of them is Amma.  She's the one who basically raised Ethan.  She's really more of a grandmother than a housekeeper to Ethan and his family.  Amma likes to answer the crossword, it's her thing.  She's also a tarot card reader and a respected one at that.  She would never give you a clear or straight answer.

Another is Wesley Lincoln or Link.  He and Ethan have been friends since they were in kindergarten when he gave Ethan half of his Twinkie.  It was later on that Ethan discovered that it dropped on the floor (hahaha!).  Link is kinda a rockstar (at least, that's what he thinks).  He plans to make it big in New York after high school.

Then there's Macon Ravenwood.  He has been compared to Boo Radley of To Kill a Mockingbird.  Actually, Ethan said that "Old Man Ravenwood made Boo Radley look like a social butterfly."  He would be what one would call "the town shut-in."

And of course, Lena.  She's the new girl in town.  The niece of Old Man Ravenwood.  She's different, well different from the other girls in Ethan's school.  She seems smart.  She likes to read too.

The story is interesting, it's a forbidden love kind of story with witches and ghosts and magic on the side.  It is narrated from the point of view of Ethan.  It starts when he was having these dreams that seems so real, he would wake up and would find dirt under his fingernails just as he dreamed.  He can't recall the dream exactly except that both he and this girl were falling and he couldn't hold on despite of him wanting to hold on to something.  And Ethan is starting to feel something for this girl in his dreams, "kind of like love before first sight."

It turns out that the girl that Ethan has been dreaming about is Lena!  Something magical (or weird) is happening between Ethan and Lena.  They have thing connection.  First they are sharing the same dreams.  Then there's this song that only Ethan apparently hears and it has something to do with Lena.  He and Lena can communicate telepathically.  And then there's this locket that they found which seems to magically transport them to a time in past and witness the tragic love story of their ancestors.

Honestly, there's nothing much that I like about this book.  I found it too long, maybe too verbose.  In my opinion, some parts of the book are not really needed to build the story or it could have been written in another way.  I finished the book because I wanted to know what happens, since I already started it.  Plus I thought it has its redeeming qualities (I was wrong).

Well, there is something that I like about the novel.  I liked how it defined and classified Casters (which is their term for spell casters or witches).  There are Dark Casters and Light Casters and each Caster has an ability that is particular to him or her.  Like a Palimpsest is someone who reads time; a Siren has the Power of Persuasion; or a Thaumaturge is a healer.

I will be reading the next book.  I'm just curious what happens next.  But if I still don't get hooked, that will be the last book of the series that I am going to read.

You couldn't take two roads.  And once you were on one, there was no going back. - Ethan

Rating: 2 of 5 STARS