Beautiful Creatures (the book)

 Some loves are meant to be

...others are cursed.

Information: Beautiful Creatures is an American young adult novel written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, published in December of 2009 by Little, Brown.  It is also recognized as a Fantasy, paranormal romance, and (American) Southern Gothic novel.  The Mass Market book has 563 pages, Hardcover has around 600 pages.

It is the first of four books in the Caster Chronicles, has been made into a manga/comic book and has been adapted to film which will be in theaters…today.

Synopsis:  In the fictional small town of Gatlin, South Carolina, our protagonist is Ethan Wate, a sixteen year old who dreams of leaving his small town.  His mother died a year before the events in the book take place and he lives with his writer father and housekeeper Amma.   On the first day of his sophomore year in high school he meets the new girl; Lena Duchannes, who lives with her uncle, Macon Ravenwood, the town shut-in.  While her classmates’ finds her odd, freakish, and off putting, Ethan sees her as something more.  Lately he’s been having strange dreams about a girl, a girl he’s never seen.  When Ethan is driving home he almost runs over Lena, whose car has broken down.   He helps her and this leads to the beginning of a friendship.  As they become closer friends, Lena confides to Ethan that she is a “Caster”, a person who can use magic (the term “witch” is considered a stereotype and an insult).  In five months, on her sixteenth birthday, she will be claimed for the dark or light side of magic.

Pros:  

Sick and tired of vampires and werewolves?  Annoyed by adolescent, PMS-ing, teenage girls? Then Read Beautiful Creatures, a story about witches (or Casters as they prefer to be called) told through the point-of-view of a boy.  Beautiful Creatures is a southern Gothic novel; it describes the town of Gatlin right down to the roads and crumbling buildings.  The narrative voice of Ethan is refreshing and rich with detail of the town and its history.  While the book is also considered a fantasy/paranormal romance it does something that other teen paranormal-romances haven’t.  Ethan and Lena start off as friends (even though Ethan would like to become more than that) before they become an official couple. 

There are many over layering themes and comparisons to the book To Kill a Mocking Bird which is mentioned throughout Beautiful Creatures.  There are bound to be characters in the book you will love such as the Sisters: Prudence, Grace and Mercy, Ethan’s great aunts.  They provide a realistic feel and offer humor so that that the book isn’t completely dark and dry *coughTwilightcough*.

And to the School Library Journal who said,

            “…Give this to fans of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight or HBO’s True Blood series”.

You are an idiot for comparing Beautiful Creatures to Twilight and True Blood.  Yes there are some comparisons, but I wouldn’t put them in the same category.

Beautiful Creatures	Twilight	True Blood
- Romance doesn’t come until after a friendship is formed.            - POV is a boy            - Uses historic points            - Gatlin is fictional            - When the main character and love interest fight/break up there is no near suicidal moments.	- Relationship based on smell and looks and no friendship.            - POV is a girl            - Misuses history, descriptions of vampires, werewolves, Indians and locations.            - Forks is a real place.            - Promotes relationship abuse and stalking	- Main character can read minds but not a vampire’s mind.           - POV is a woman            - Bon Temps is fictional            - Gratuitous sex            - Drama for the sake of drama

Cons:  

Let me counter argue my previous argument for why Beautiful Creatures, Twilight and True Blood are different with how they are similar.

Beautiful  Creatures	Twilight	True Blood
- Set in small southern town.             -  Romance between a human and  a paranormal person (Boy and Witch)            - POV is a teenage boy            - Stereotypes	- Set in small town            - Romance between a human and  a paranormal person (Girl and Vampire)           - POV is a teenage girl           - Stereotypes	- Set in small southern town            - Romance between a human and a paranormal person (Woman and Vampire)           - POV is an early-twenties woman           - Stereotypes

There are stereotypes in Beautiful Creatures.  The preppy kids and jocks hate Lena, but the geeks and nerds are never mentioned.  Lena is the freakish girl who wears dark clothes, is pale, and avoids making friends.  Ethan, although a boy, never seems like a boy.  In other words, where are the awkward morning boners?  I’m not joking; if a paranormal romance can talk about a girl finding her sexuality then why is it hard for two female writers to come up with an idea of what puberty is like for a boy?  Maybe do some research and ask their husbands?  I understand that that isn’t what the book is about (sexuality) but how can we believe Ethan is a guy (without the name and the character stating his sex) when he doesn’t come off as one?  I’m sure there are moments when he does seem like a guy (i.e. thinking about basketball when he really wants to think about kissing Lena – or doing more with her).

Lena is also annoying at times.  I get it, you want to be normal and have friends but you can’t because in five months you could go dark and lose all of them.  Just don’t sit there and complain.  You got a friend (Ethan) and his friend (Link) and you have two younger (female) cousins that you can talk to.  Or am I the only one who counts cousins as friends?

And lastly, this can be counted as a spoiler because it gives you a hint of what’s to come in the book but it doesn’t say who it is.

Dear Garcia and Stohl, look up what the word Incubus means.  I’ll give you a hint; it is nothing like a vampire who feeds on dreams.  It’s a demon that has sex with women (sometimes men) to gain energy; they feed off of your sexual energy. 

That, dear blog readers, is my number one con with this book.

Final Verdict:

It’s a B+ if anything.  It’s different but it still feeds that paranormal romance crave everyone is in.  It does offer a fresh take where the main character is a guy and the girl is a supernatural.   It also provides companionate characters that can be realistic at times.  So if you like witches, paranormal romance, and southern Gothic novels, then read the book.  But if you’re sick and tired of this paranormal craze you can either watch the movie or pass both up. 

I love the book (all the books in the series), I want to see the movie, and will post a movie review of it next week.  There are problems with the book (see cons) but sometimes we just have to sit back and get lost in a story.  To read about an average person whose life goes from dull to exciting.  Besides, isn’t that why we read in the first place, to escape the dull and everyday life?

Signed the Carniverous Rabbit

P.s. I love the cover of this book and all the books in the seri