Beautiful Creatures
Mar 10, 2010
Beautiful Creatures
Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 576 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (December 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316042676
ISBN-13: 978-0316042673
Ethan hated small town life. He'd lived in the same town all his life. He never left to go anywhere exciting or different. He was a Sophomore in high school and ever since last year, when his mother died suddenly in a car accident and his father locked himself away in his study to hide from life, Ethan had become determined to leave this town as soon as he could.
Then a new girl started school. Not just a new girl, but one who was dark and mysterious and moved in with her creepy uncle in the old Ravenwood mansion on the hill. The uncle had not been seen in town in decades and there were many stories about the family - scary stories. Lena certainly didn't act or look like the other girls.
Ethan is mesmerized by Lena and her differences to what he's known all his life. Then the weird things start happening and his high school friends turn against Lena and her family. Will Ethan turn with them, or try to get to know Lena more and perhaps alienate himself from the town, and even his own nanny, who warns him away from that particular family?
When I first picked up this book I was astounded at the size of it, considering that it's a Young Adult novel and many people believe they have the attention span of gnats. But I'm glad there are authors and publishers out there who realize they read too, and if it's a good book, they stick with it.
I haven't read a lot of Young Adult fiction, but this was a good story - not so much into fantasy that the reader loses interest or so into youth angst that an adult can't keep reading. The teens have their normal issues, none that label them as bad kids, and ones that even an adult can relate to or remember from their youth.
I was interested all the way through and the book did leave enough wiggle room for a sequel.... which I would happily read.
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