Beautiful Creatures
Publication Date: December 1, 2009
Pages: 563
I just spent seventeen hours of my life with Lena Duchannes and Ethan Carter Wate in Gatlin County. By seventeen hours, I mean that I listened to the audiobook version of this novel while I was on the treadmill. It was certainly a good way to pass the time!
Ethan has lived in Gatlin all of his life. He has gone to school with the same group of kids all of his life. When new girl, Lena Duchannes shows up at school one day, the entire town is buzzing, just not the school. Not only does Lena dress differently than the rest of the town, she is Macon Ravenwood's niece. Ravenwood has been the town recluse for as long as anyone can remember and while being his niece scares off a lot of people, it does not scare off Ethan. For some reason he is inexplicably drawn to Lena and he soon starts to learn that she is a special young woman. She has powers and abilities that are very different and opens Ethan up to a whole world right there in Gatlin that he knew nothing about. Will their true love be able to overcome the powers trying to rip them apart?
I always enjoy listening to audiobooks because I feel like I can really get into the heads of the main characters and I know that I won't miss any little detail by glossing over or reading too fast like I sometimes do with print. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this YA novel was told from Ethan's perspective. It seems like most YA novels I read are told in a female voice. We do get to hear from Lena, but it is only briefly and only at the end of the novel. I enjoyed the quirky cast of characters that populated not only Gatlin, but Lena's family. It really gave the whole novel a real dark, Gothic feel. I am looking forward to seeing the movie, just because I am curious as to how true to the novel it stayed. Has anyone out there seen the movie yet?
Bottom line, while I enjoyed
Beautiful Creatures it did not "hook" me the way other YA novels have. I suspect it is only because I listened to the book at 30-45 minute intervals. I did purchase the rest of the books in e-book form a couple weeks ago (Amazon had them for dirt cheap) so I will likely stay with Lena and Ethan. Even if it takes me years to read them all. :)
I have heard so many great things about this one and the movie preview looked good so I added it to my shelf the other day too. I recently read Dead to You by Lisa McMann and thought to myself afterwards that I wanted to find more YA novels written in the male perspective. Well, guess now I know I've got one more on my shelf! =]
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