Books on the Bay

Publisher's Description:

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.

My Review:

Ethan is just a normal semi-popular high school student in Gatlin until Lena Duchannes both metaphorically and literally storms her way into town. Like any teenage girl about to turn 16, she comes with her own troubles, oh yeah, and there's that whole dormant-magical-powers-that-are-claimed-for-good-or-evil-on-the-sixteenth-birthday thing. I really enjoyed the different narrator, and while some of the story was cute, it wasn't the best YA novel I've read recently, most of it is fairly trite, but the main character makes it an enjoyable read.

I picked up Beautiful Creatures mostly because I saw the movie preview and I really love to have read a book before it's on the big screen.

The book is narrated by a high school guy - a big change from most of young adult books that are either told from the third person or a girl's point of view. Ethan's refreshing voice was probably my favorite thing about the entire novel. There were parts of the book I really liked. I thought the authors wove in the magical world and the ordinary world was particularly unique and I also really loved the Southern flare given to the small town setting and their history. (Much of the novel's backstory occurs during the Civil War actually.)

That said, the downsides almost outweighed the positives. I thought significant parts of it were trite. Same popular boy falls in love with unpopular girl plot line that I think most readers are weary of. There were certain parts of the "magic" involved that made me roll my eyes and I was less than satisfied by the ending. (I haven't read the sequel yet though!) I think I would probably give it about 3.5 stars if half-stars were a think in the book-rating world. To me it didn't come anywhere near Harry Potter or the Hunger Games, and I'm surprised it was picked to be made into a movie, but it was a pretty good escape from reality for a while.