Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia Review

 

Fiction

563 pages

In Ethan Wate's hometown there lies the darkest of secrets . . There is a girl. Slowly, she pulled the hood from her head . . . Green eyes, black hair. Lena Duchannes. There is a curse. On the Sixteenth Moon, the Sixteenth Year, the Book will take what it's been promised. And no one can stop it. In the end, there is a grave. Lena and Ethan become bound together by a deep, powerful love. But Lena is cursed and on her sixteenth birthday, her fate will be decided. Ethan never even saw it coming.

Completion: A
Writing/Style: B-
Characters: B
Plot/Pacing: C-
World-building/Atmosphere: C-
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): C-

Final Grade: C+ Library Rental

     Between the Instalove, cursed love, and GOOD vs. EVIL, I went into this book pretty sure it wouldn't be one of my favorites. And, of course, I was right. However, it was popular enough to become a movie so I was intrigued enough to find out.

First, setting the story in the South was a nice, interesting choice which could have been so much more interesting if it wasn’t so stereotyped with such narrow-minded people (apparently cheerleaders are petty “sluts” everywhere in this fine country).

Second, while the dramatic and sudden nature of the main characters' relationships is cliched and annoying, they definitely feel more realistic and better matched than Edward and Bella from Twilight. I know that’s not much, but it’s something, I guess. While their relationship wasn’t believable for a lot of it, it never crossed into abusive.

Third, the side characters, for the most part, were colorful and entertaining. Amma, Macon, and Ethan’s aunts were good additions to the story instead of the complete cardboard cutouts they very easily could of been. Also, I appreciated the fact that Ethan never quite gets over his mother, who is dead, and his father, who is too distraught by his wife’s death to function. Ethan’s lonely ache for his parents and the past cling to him throughout the novel, making him sympathetic and more realistic.

Often times, the deaths of parents are just a lazy author’s excuse for a main character’s lack of parental supervision so I was glad that it added up to be more than that. Ethan’s love for books also makes sense beyond trying to make him relatable because it connects him with his dead mother who loved books.

     Now, to elaborate on what I didn’t like. As mentioned before, Ethan and Lena’s relationship is chock full of Instalove with a side order of doomed love. Massive eye roll. There’s even the obvious Leave-me-I’m-not-good-for-you conversation that always seems to happen in these kinds of stories (Mild Spoiler: this conversation made even less sense in this story because Ethan and Lena can communicate telepathically from the get go, and Ethan barely flinches at that revelation so Lena’s pushing Ethan away seems a little pointless.)

Of course, there’s all the petty high school drama with the cheerleaders and not fitting in and wanting to go to the school dance. Basically, all the fundamental pitfalls of cliched YA. I guess the thing that always kept me one step back from falling into the plot was the whole GOOD vs. EVIL thing which bugged me the most.

The reason why this never works for me as a storyline is that you can’t quantify evil-ness or good-ness. I don’t believe someone could be all evil and can only do evil actions. Humans are more complex than that. Macon and Ridley are more complex than that.

Lena and her family are witches essentially even though in this story they are referred to as casters. Most casters get to pick when they are 16 if they want to be good or evil, but Lena’s family is cursed with not being able to choose. But here’s the thing: why would anyone choose evil? What’s the benefit of going dark? This is NEVER explained.

Now, for those of you who have read the book, yes, yes, I know it is explained why Lena would go dark, but never why any ordinary caster would choose to go dark. Also, the evil people aren’t that evil to be honest. So…they wreck prom? They give people surprise parties? They like lollipops and wear revealing clothing? Oh boy, am I terrified. Also, I would imagine that the isolation and neglect these people experience from their family when they are cast out for “going dark” explains their behavior more than any magical reason.

     It’s a pity because this book could have been so much more if it hadn’t rested on tropes and cliches. I saw glimpses of potential that were overwhelmed by slogs of purple prose and forced drama. In the end, this book is pretty harmless. While it could be a bit frustrating or boring at times, it was never painstakingly horrible. Back in my middle school days, I might have even liked it. Who knows. As it is, I would say give it a pass unless you have some free time at a library.