Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Anyone who compares Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, to Twilight clearly hasn’t read all that is Beautiful Creatures. Yes, there are similarities as most supernatural genres have but that goes without saying. For one, the writing is fantastic, the characters likeable, plot twists not so predictable, and all in all I’d say Beautiful Creatures captures that magical spark of the supernatural genre without being overly clichéd. First off, a synopsis:

“Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.”

Basically, Beautiful Creatures revolves around our main protagonist (you guessed it) Ethan Wate and the ever-so mysterious Lena Duchannes. This is the first book I’ve read that delves into the teenage-romance-paranormal from a guy’s perspective rather than a girl’s. Something I thought would be un-relatable and brash but ended up being quite compassionate and insightful.

Ethan’s outlook on life at 16 is utterly spot on for any teenager bitten by the wanderlust bug and his urge to get out of the godforsaken, small town of Gatlin has that same honest yearning that anyone could relate too. Beautiful Creatures is the first installment to the series that consists of 4 books altogether.

One draw back to this being the first of the series was the pacing. At first reading I found the day-to-day ramblings of Ethan too trite and mundane. This caused me to lose interest within the span of the first 10 chapters but luckily that’s when it really picked up story-wise! Introducing new characters and our second lead protagonist Lena whom was seriously nothing but a mystery.

Also, the accompanying characters though interesting were not quite fleshed out at first, characters such as Emily – the cheerleading goody-good girl seemed just as shallow as the ones you meet in real life with little depth until further reading but if you tough it out you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the quick wit and gothic backdrop of this supernatural tale. I was thoroughly gripping the pages of this book and devouring chapters towards the end.

I do love the joint writing styles of both authors. It gave each chapter a new feel that was refreshing. Some would debate that Beautiful Creatures isn’t anything special in its genre but I say otherwise. I feel like Beautiful Creatures is a breath of fresh air. It not only focuses more so on character development and relationships but also does so in a way where you’re rooting for the characters and actually wanting to see them succeed in their endeavors.

I should also note that if you were looking for fast-paced action you wouldn’t find it here. The action within Beautiful Creatures though there for the most part wouldn’t be enough to keep an action-junky happy but I have a feeling that this will change in the upcoming installment: Beautiful Darkness! To conclude I’d give Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, three and a half stars and I cannot wait to see how the first book transcends into movie form, which is out in theaters now.