Some loves are meant to be…
others are cursed.
There were no surprises
in Gatlin County.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn’t have
been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end,
there was a grave.

It’s hard to figure out what makes a book a winner in a reader’s eyes. For me it must have a wonderful setting and well-rounded interesting characters. But most importantly is the writing, where an author has a way at using words where they come off the pages.
Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl have done all these things with
Beautiful Creatures, an atmospheric gothic small town story that showcases a tender and sweet romance, and the inner realms of magic. The undercurrents of social acceptance is discussed in length and how small minds can bring forth so much damage to a community that refuses to grow, where they continue to live in their own small world.
Beautiful Creatures takes on the topic of bigotry, but not through race or religion but in regards to those who use magic and are so different from the norm, where it frightens a select group of misinformed and small thinking people. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is very much discussed in this book and used as an example, perhaps a bit too strongly. But anyone who has read To Kill a Mockingbird understands why that book and the message it portrays is so very important and makes the reader aware of both the light and darkness that resides in all our souls.
This idea of light and dark is the main focus in
Beautiful Creatures. Nothing is gray, but very much black and white and told from the point of view from Ethan Wate, a sixteen- year old who lives with his father in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina. Ethan’s father is a writer who locks himself up in his study for days on end. Not only to write his literary masterpiece, but to hide from Ethan and the loss of Ethan’s mother who only just died in a car accident. Because of Ethan’s parents influence, he enjoys reading and not just comic books but literary classics such as Cather in the Rye and Slaughterhouse-Five.
Ethan has learned early on that there are two types of people in Gaitlin, as his father states- “
The ones who are bound to stay or too dumb to go. Everyone else finds a way out.” Ethan wants a way out. He has little over two more years until he can leave Gatlin. He’s sick of the people that live there; those that live in the past still, where the remnants of the Civil War are alive and well. There are no surprises in Gatlin that is until a new resident arrives. Her name is Lena Duchannes and the one Ethan has been waiting all his life for. Ethan has been having strange dreams about a mysterious girl and coincidently it is Lena, the niece of Old Man Macon Ravenwood, a recluse who makes, “Boo Radley look like a social butterfly”. Macon lives in a run-down plantation, one of the oldest in town. The student’s at Ethan’s high school decide early on that Lena is a freak because of her family ties. The boys think Lena is beautiful and mysterious, but because a few of Ethan’s female classmates, who are blonde haired, tanned and a fashionable, treat Lena as an outcast because she wears long dresses, black Converse sneakers and has dark curls. Both her parents are dead and she also drives the family hearse. Ethan is smitten the moment he sees her because of the connection they have.
Around the time Lena arrives, strange things start to happen. A song about sixteen moons and sixteen years plays on Ethan’s IPOD, one he has never heard of and vanishes as soon as he listens to it. The weather becomes unpredictable and whenever Lena is in a room the windows shatter. Lena soon has a reputation of being a witch and Ethan wants to get to the heart of the matter and find out who Lena is and why he can’t get her out of his mind. Ethan is much like a dog after a bone and tries to befriend Lena, even though she warns him to stay away. What these two don’t know is they both have a bond and need each other. They find out that their ancestors are responsible for a curse, and because of that Lena doesn’t have much time. Lena comes from a line of powerful relatives. She is known as a Caster, a gifted individual who has powers. Her Uncle Macon, as well as her grandmother and cousins do also. Lena feels she is living on borrowed time because in less than six months she turns sixteen and on her sixteenth birthday she will be claimed, where her fate is chosen and she will either become dark or light. That means Lena’s free will has been taken from her. She’s not meant to live among mortals and that means Ethan. If Lena goes dark, just like her cousin Ridley, she must leave her home and family because bad things will continue to happen if she remains.
Time is of the essence and Ethan won’t let Lena go. He will find a way to stop fate and figure out a way to make sure Lena doesn’t go dark. They must find a book of magic, the answer to breaking a one-hundred fifty year old curse, and stop the Gatlin community at large from their vendetta they have against Lena. There are many dark forces at play and lines will be drawn. And Ethan’s love for Lena may not be strong enough to save her.
Kami and Margaret deserve many accolades for penning such a tale like
Beautiful Creatures. At over six-hundred pages this is a long, rich story that may seem slow moving, but it does fit the tone of the way of life in the south. Magic, love and suspense are all combined to create a tension filled world with very unique and eccentric characters.
Ethan and Lena are lovely together and I really couldn’t find any fault with their relationship and feelings for one another. Ethan may seem a bit too good to be true, but he has a great voice and the reader can see things perfectly through his eyes even though his actual physical description is a bit vague. Ethan may seem to be a typical teenage with ripped jeans, t-shirts, messy room, and love of basketball but underneath is the heart of a poet, a mature person who has grown old before his time because of his environment and lack of parental guidance. Ethan does has a grandmother type in his life, his housekeeper the mystical Amma, but Ethan’s father is a very pale and lacking character, unlike Lena’s family who comes across much like the Addams Family.
Because of these eccentric relatives of Lena’s to the opinions and ideas of the Gatlin people, I felt at times it was a bit too much and overwhelming. Ethan’s best friend Wesley “Link” Lincoln has a mother who should be a force to be reckoned with but is a bit too cartoonish, much like mustached twirling like villain. The reason for Mrs. Lincoln’s annoying personality is unveiled at the end but at that point I wanted to push her off a cliff. Also, the last fifty pages or so became a whirlwind reading experience. My head starting spinning from all the action occurring.
Beautiful Creatures would have been a near perfect read for me if not for the final fight for Lena’s life.
Even thought I felt the actions of some of the characters too comical and the message of social acceptance and harmony Kami and Margaret were trying to get across was a bit too strong a times,
Beautiful Creatures is an incredible book. Lessons are learned within these pages and that simple message that love conquers all rings true. The power of love and hope is very much a universal belief in life and in
Beautiful Creatures. This is one book that goes in my top 10 for 2009 (
Little Brown and Company)
Final Grade: A-.