Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures, 1) Mass Market Paperback – November 20, 2012

So, as many of you know, I'm someone who always likes to read the book before seeing the film. I picked up Beautiful Creatures the book about a week ago because I wanted to read it before I saw the film. To my surprise, it was...let's call it unconventional. First of all, the book is 563 pages long. No way my publishing company would have been cool with that! Not that I'm complaining. It was 563 pages of awesomeness, but I was kind of surprised at the length. Secondly, the narrator is a guy. Now, I keep hearing people talk about how most readers are women and therefore most readers (at least in YA) prefer a female narrator. Now, I don't necessarily share that sentiment, but I do sort of understand it. That said, some of the best YA books I've read in the past year have included male narrators. Just sayin'.Moving on.This book was great! Despite the length, it was a quick read because the writing flowed so well. Ethan Wate is a typical teenage boy who is bored with small town life and can't wait to get out of his home town and go off to see the world through college. He's smart, reads a lot (so I tend to like him) and has a typical teenage boy attitude about things. In short, he's hilarious. The one wrinkle in his life is that his mother passed away roughly a year before and since then his father has sunk into a deep depression. Luckily, he still has a housekeeper/guardian/butt kicker at home to both love and keep him in line. One of the things I loved about this story was his relationship to Amma. She's helped raise him and always been there, so he's unfailingly loyal to her. It was refreshing to read about.Lena is a pretty good heroine as well. I think some people might find her less than a strong heroine. Nothing near as bad as a certain teenaged, vampire-loving heroine, but not the strongest female lead either. But, just as Bela never bothered me because--let's face it--she's a teenager, and having been an insecure teen myself, I have a hard time judging others for it, Lena didn't bother me. She was frightened by what was happening to her, just as any human being would be, and the way her emotions lashed out with breaking glass and tornadoes more than compensated for her vulnerability.I especially loved the supporting characters in the story. They gave it so much spice! I've already mentioned Amma, but Marion the Librarian was an immediate favorite of mine (she likes awesome quotes too) and Uncle Macon was an enigma wrapped in an educated European gentleman. I wish we'd have been able to see more of him.And then there was Ethan's best friend, Link. He was hysterical! He always had something awesome to say, while still exercising best friend loyalties. I found myself smiling whenever he showed up because I knew the scene was about to get more colorful. Loved him!So Ethan meets and is drawn to Lena, who is a Caster (pretty much a witch) but there's a whole complicated bit about whether her powers will be claimed for good or evil, who her family really is, and whether or not she has a choice in her own future. Add in tons of drama, an eccentric family, a gossipy small town, and plenty of teenaged angst, and you have a pretty great story.If I had any complaints, it would be that the ending was so fast-paced, had so much action (if you can complain about that) that I wish that maybe at some point it could have slowed down and had just a little more explanation. But it was a minor thing. At no point did I feel confused. I just wanted some things clarified. Maybe I'm slow on the uptake. It left me wanting just enough to be excited to read book 2.Anyway, overall this is a fantastic read! It's full of fun characters, intense plots, and pretty sweet good-vs.-evil show downs. Want to do me a favor? Go out and read this book! Then email so we can discuss! 'Cause, you know, it was awesome! :D

Beautiful Creatures was quite the little curiosity for me. I went into it with a bit of skepticism, assuming that it would be an immature and semi-poorly written piece of young adult fiction. As I began reading the first page of the novel, I was ready and awaiting the lackluster characters and a clichéd predictable plot, but it never came. Instead I was given fantastic writing, a unique exhibition of characters, and a seemingly original plot that kept me wholeheartedly enchanted from beginning to end!Let’s begin with the writing, which tends to be my biggest issue with the young adult genre. Most of the titles from this particular section are pieced together with such terrible word usage that I can physically feel my IQ starting to take a dip. It really makes me sad because the premise underneath the slaughtered sentences are really quite fascinating concepts. So when I saw that this book (the series in its entirety actually) was composed by TWO beings instead of one, naturally the fear of disappointment was eminent, however. Not once during my experience with this novel did I ever reach a point where I could distinguish that there were two people behind its creation. The writing is just that impeccable. When I began my Beautiful Creatures adventure, I ended up reading over one-hundred pages without a single ounce of hesitation. One moment I’m on the very first page and the next I’m about one-fifth of the way finished. Each sentence, whether it was laced with descriptions of atmosphere, personality, appearances, etc., was so properly constructed that it lulled me in and kept me attached until the grumblings of a hungry stomach could stand to be ignored no longer.The second aspect to completely waylay my expectations are the characters themselves. Again, most of the YA books under my Read belt tend to have such hollow and irritatingly immature personalities that it makes for an excruciating effort to finish the books. The people introduced in Beautiful Creatures were a lot more relatable thus making them more believable as actual adolescents in the modern time period. Yes, you do have those characters that you just want to smack upside the head with the darn book, but it’s not every character, especially not the main ones, which makes a huge difference to whether the reading experience will be pleasant or repellent.You usually see two characters that are complete opposites coming together for a common interest—whether love, revenge, greed, or whatever else comes to mind. But in Beautiful Creatures you have two unique people wanting very certain experiences out of life coming together to realize that what they want is nothing compared to what they already have. This makes for a very enrapturing notion of acceptance, which is a huge underlying theme within the novel. This theme spills over onto the rest of the cast and really rounds off portions of the plot.Now, for the plot itself—really, bloody decent. I tend to stray from romances because, well let’s just say that personal experience has made lovey, mushy things my eternal nemesis. Be that as it may, I actually found myself giving into the warm, fuzzy feelings that invaded my heart whenever the twosome was on stage together. I’m sure that it has a lot to do with that whole relatable bit I was talking about earlier. Their attraction and their feelings for why something should, or shouldn’t happen can be viewed as occurring in real life rather easily. Even though this is a supernatural story, I really like it when an author (or authors in this case) can connect the fantasy with reality. It adds a whole new level of depth to the story that truly connects the reader to the book (at least in my crazy way of thinking it does).Relatability aside, I just really enjoyed how dark Beautiful Creatures is. It’s very gothic and mesmerizing. It’s eerie yet elegant, despairing yet delightful. The story unfolds, one chapter at a time, with such a fluid pace that you get swept away in the beauty and emotions without completely realizing that you’re reading a book. At times, I felt I was watching a film in my mind, one that I had no freaking clue as to how it would end (or if I really wanted it to end). Nothing is choppy, or brusque. There are no surprises in the plot that genuinely don’t belong. Everything fits together so neatly like a large puzzle and the finished product leaves you feeling immensely satisfied, albeit slightly bittersweet.I’m picking up the second installment within the day and am keen on finishing the series before the month ends. Four and a half thunderstorms outta five for sure!

Great book bought it as a replacement for my other one as someone lost it.. good book just needed it to complet my series.

È scritto in inglese.

Few books have been able to mix goth romance and magic with the everyday life of Southern life. The first-person narrative shows us the mind of a young teen, living his teenage troubles, until the world he knew collapses after the arrival of Lena Duchannes.This novel is so deliciously written, with such a magnificent plot, it becomes nearly impossible to put it aside.

Loved the book. It's one of my favourites. The books has been tampered with a little. But after all It's a good purchase.

It was along time since I bought this product and I totally forgot about it.Thank you very much