‘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.’
I’ve had Beautiful Creatures on my shelf for a few years now, and I can’t believe that it took me 4+ years to get around to reading it. ….And then managed to read said book within 10 days.
I didn’t know what to expect within the book version of Beautiful Creatures, since I had watched the movie a few years before I read the book. You may be pissed at me for watching the movie before reading the book, but I find that when I watch the movie first I get a certain impression of the story. Plus, when I watch the movie first, I don’t lean over and start telling people that “this actually happened this way, blah blah blah, in the book.”
A quote that I like from both movie and book is:
“It’s funny how you can live somewhere your whole life, but not really see it.”
Which I just find to be incredibly true, and I love that we see how this quote is impacted in both movie and book. Seeing it all play out in the book was great because it really hits home how small communities can just shun a person that they don’t like/fear.
I like how the story progressed throughout the book. The overall story moves pretty quickly since the book skips days and sometimes weeks at a time. However, the parts that we read move slowly enough where I could get my barings on things. And the details throughout this novel are great, I loved the details honestly. The book isn’t detailed to the point where I thought the book was boring, but there were enough details where I found this Caster world to be fascinating. The details create a beautifully interesting picture.
I like how the point of view in Beautiful Creatures is from Ethan. With Ethans view on things, and how he grew up, he brings a certain perspective that I don’t think we’d see from many other people in his small town of Gatlin.
All in all, I only ended up thinking that this story was interesting. Beautiful Creatures, while pleasantly detailed, nothing about Ethan’s and Lena’s story really stood out to me. I will be continuing on with the second book though, since I already have a copy.
I ended up giving Beautiful Creatures, 2.5 of 5 stars on Goodreads.
Have you read Beautiful Creatures? If you have, what did/do you think of the book? Did you continue on with the series?
Happy Reading!
Adele
P.S. I was surprised by how alike the movie is to the book. Don’t get me wrong though, I prefer the book, but the movie was enjoyable as well. And I like how around the halfway point, or just a little after that, the movie ending strays from the book ending. Both endings are interesting (though I prefer the movie ending to the actual ending).
Adele Is Reading 
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