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Book Review of Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures, Bk 1)

Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures, Bk 1)
nantuckerin avatar reviewed on + 158 more book reviews


The biggest thrill of Beautiful Creatures was discovering that the fantastic new book I'd just read was actually the debut of a fantastic new series! Bonus!

That said, Beautiful Creatures is probably one of the most exciting series premieres I've read in a long time. It takes some time to figure out exactly what is going on in Gatlin, and how main character Ethan Wate is involved, but once the story gets moving, I found the book to be impossible to put down. And honestly, in a genre where a book's cover and title often leave little to the imagination, it was a joy to have to read and unravel the mystery to figure out exactly what the book was about.

In Beautiful Creatures, we meet Ethan and his close circle of friends and family. He's lived in the sleepy Southern town of Gatlin his whole life, and his family tree is deeply rooted in the community (like almost everyone else that lives there.) So, it's more than novel when a new girl shows up at school. It's even more novel that she lives in Ravenwood Manor with her reclusive uncle and drives a hearse to school. The fact that she's beautiful, and somehow different, is just icing on the cake.

Ethan is struggling with changes to his family after the recent death of his mother, and his father's increasingly strange and antisocial behaviors. He still has Amma, his long-time nanny/housekeeper to care for him, but misses the way his life used to be. He deals with Amma's strange charms and superstitions because they're part of her eccentric charm, but doesn't believe in them himself. However, as strange dreams begin to plague him, and otherworldly occurances he can't explain seem to draw him closer and closer to the new girl, Ethan is forced to take stock of his life and open his eyes to possibilities he never before imagined.

Authors Garcia and Stohl have a great budding series on their hands, and I can't wait to see what develops as we learn more about the history of Gatlin and the people who live there. I've recommended this series to many people, and will continue to do so, because it's too good not to share. I can't wait to see what develops in Beautiful Darkness, the next book in the series.