Saturday, July 23, 2011

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Author(s): Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Published by: Little Brown Books for Young Reader (Dec. 1, 2009)
Genre: YA Paranormal
My Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads Description:
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.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.


My Review:
I have been wanting to read this for awhile but the sheer mass of it (around 600 pages) has, I will admit, intimidated me. Not because I don't read 600 page books, in fact I read them quite frequently, just not in the YA genre. And let's face it, the reviews on this one are hit and miss. It seems to be one of those books that you either love or you hate and I wasn't ready to hate it yet.
I have longingly looked at the cover and read the synopsis, numerous time asking myself, "Is this the day I finally crack it open?" and it just has never felt right so with a long sigh, I would pass over it and start something else, until today, well okay actually a couple of days ago but you get the point.
Today was the day I was going to start this and finish it.
So it took me a few days, because like I mentioned, it is about 600 pages long! And, well I still am not sure how I felt about it. If I am going to be honest with myself I feel a little let down about it. I was expecting....I don't know, more maybe.
It wasn't terrible, I didn't hate it but, I didn't love it either. It was just meh, for me.
The romance was sweet don't get me wrong. The characters were pretty great but the story itself seemed lacking. Maybe there wasn't enough action, maybe there wasn't enough romance or maybe, it just wasn't for me.
either way I am giving this a very neutral 3 star rating.
Will I give up on the series? No, but neither will I be picking up the other book anytime soon either. I think first books in series are always the hardest to love. I think maybe, just maybe I still need to process it all and see how I feel about it, it was after all a long book.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for an honest review on this one. I am the same way - I have the book and I long at the cover all the time and think I need to read it, but then for some reason just don't pick it up. I might have to wait until over the thanksgiving holidays or sometime when I have a good chunk of time to invest in a long book.

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  2. I think maybe I would have liked it better if I didn't have such high expectations for it. But it was a really good read and I think people should still try it and see for themselves. :)

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