Book review of Beautiful Creatures: Caster Chronicles 1, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Beautiful Creatures: Caster Chronicles 1, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - 3 out of 5 moons.
I liked this book. The paranormal aspects mixed with a long family history, a curse, and history repeating itself with a new generation were interesting. In fact it reminded me a lot of Dark Shadows or The Vampire Diaries. That is what motivated me to keep reading.
But I did have some issues with it. First off, Ethan's voice felt too feminine to me. When I first started reading, I thought the story was from Lena's perspective. It wasn't until the second chapter I realized it was Ethan telling the story. Them I had to go back and start again with that realization.
Many details, plot points, descriptions of powers are not well explained at all. What is a Natural? Also, Ethan is said to have some kind of power too, but what is it? He's not a Caster, he's a Mortal. So... what's going on with him?
I found Lena to be a bit dull. She was just a broken record, although I suppose that is just the characters discussing their problems over and over again way too much. Dragged the story somewhat.
Practically every chapter ended with the same message: "We are running out of time." Ok, I get it.
Many of the characters were not only one dimensional, but stereotypes.(i.e. Southerners are mean, old fashioned, racist, stupid and shallow. The only educated people in town are from elsewhere.)
When it came to the villain of the story, Mrs. Lincoln/Sarafine, I should have been infuriated with her but was just - eh.
I wish the story had a bit more depth to the characters. What really kept me reading was the flashbacks to the past and wanting to know more about the curse (this is the Dark Shadows fan in me), but I am not even sure the authors explained that well. For example, when Lena's ancestor claims herself and her decedents to the dark, what did she get out of it? Her lover died anyway. It was a pointless spell. Did she not do it right? Did she not understand the spell's function?
Then Lena and Ethan hunt for The Book of Moons looking for answers and loopholes, but the book is rendered useless. So much time was used pouring over the book, but did they learn anything? No.
They could have spent time in the Caster library reading other material, to find answers. Find your inner Hermione and get the answers! (The open hours and days for the Caster library was ridiculous.)
The end is a bit anti-climatic. The story revolves around the count down to Lena's 16th birthday. Will she be claimed for the light or the dark? BUT she just happens to make the moon go away, (how I don't know because it is not well explained,) causing her to not be "claimed." She has one green eye, one orange. So, is she gray?
The only clue we get is this:
Page 170, Half moon's for workin' White magic, full moon's for workin' Black. No moon is for somethin' else altogether."
What is that "somethin' else altogether" mean?
Not to end it on a negative note, here are some quotes that made me giggle:
Page 84 "Like it was triple hexed, soaked in a bucket of voodoo, and wrapped in a curse for good measure."
Page 284 “Dark Matter? Dark Fire? What is this, the Big Bang for Casters?”
Page 306 "Because you climbed in my window in the middle of the night, so either you’re some kind of vampire or a perv, or both. Which is it?"
So those are my issues with Beautiful Creatures. I liked it, but did not love it. I did buy the rest of the series on my nook for $3 each. So I will continue with this story. It just fell below my expectations.
ETA: I still have to see the movie, but I feel this review (especially the parts I bolded) expresses how I felt about the book.
Beautiful Creatures (2013) Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman
Beautiful Creatures is arriving in a marketplace full of Twilight junkies still eager for their supernatural teen-romantic fix, and the film's concept couldn't be clearer: It's Twilight with the sexes reversed. This time it's the boy who's the mortal: moody, bookish Ethan, the outsider in his sleepy small town of Gatlin, S.C., though Alden Ehrenreich plays him more like a sensitive jock on Glee. Lena (Alice Englert), the new girl at school, comes from a family of witches (or, as they're known here, Casters), and on the day she turns 16 she'll be ''claimed,'' either by the light side or (more likely, due to a family curse) the dark side.
Adapted from the popular YA novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures is lushly pictorial and not-too-badly acted. The best thing in the movie is Englert, who has a fresh, unretouched, Jane Austen-gone-goth allure. (She is also Jane Campion's daughter.) Jeremy Irons, as Lena's smoking-jacketed rotter-aristocrat uncle, and Emma Thompson, as her floridly angry mother, are like blithe spirits out of a Dark Shadows sequel you want to see. But Beautiful Creatures, more than the Twilight films, lacks danger and momentum. The audience, like Ethan, spends way too much time waiting around for Lena to learn whether she's a good girl or a bad girl. B-
I liked this book. The paranormal aspects mixed with a long family history, a curse, and history repeating itself with a new generation were interesting. In fact it reminded me a lot of Dark Shadows or The Vampire Diaries. That is what motivated me to keep reading.
But I did have some issues with it. First off, Ethan's voice felt too feminine to me. When I first started reading, I thought the story was from Lena's perspective. It wasn't until the second chapter I realized it was Ethan telling the story. Them I had to go back and start again with that realization.
Many details, plot points, descriptions of powers are not well explained at all. What is a Natural? Also, Ethan is said to have some kind of power too, but what is it? He's not a Caster, he's a Mortal. So... what's going on with him?
I found Lena to be a bit dull. She was just a broken record, although I suppose that is just the characters discussing their problems over and over again way too much. Dragged the story somewhat.
Practically every chapter ended with the same message: "We are running out of time." Ok, I get it.
Many of the characters were not only one dimensional, but stereotypes.(i.e. Southerners are mean, old fashioned, racist, stupid and shallow. The only educated people in town are from elsewhere.)
When it came to the villain of the story, Mrs. Lincoln/Sarafine, I should have been infuriated with her but was just - eh.
I wish the story had a bit more depth to the characters. What really kept me reading was the flashbacks to the past and wanting to know more about the curse (this is the Dark Shadows fan in me), but I am not even sure the authors explained that well. For example, when Lena's ancestor claims herself and her decedents to the dark, what did she get out of it? Her lover died anyway. It was a pointless spell. Did she not do it right? Did she not understand the spell's function?
Then Lena and Ethan hunt for The Book of Moons looking for answers and loopholes, but the book is rendered useless. So much time was used pouring over the book, but did they learn anything? No.
They could have spent time in the Caster library reading other material, to find answers. Find your inner Hermione and get the answers! (The open hours and days for the Caster library was ridiculous.)
The end is a bit anti-climatic. The story revolves around the count down to Lena's 16th birthday. Will she be claimed for the light or the dark? BUT she just happens to make the moon go away, (how I don't know because it is not well explained,) causing her to not be "claimed." She has one green eye, one orange. So, is she gray?
The only clue we get is this:
Page 170, Half moon's for workin' White magic, full moon's for workin' Black. No moon is for somethin' else altogether."
What is that "somethin' else altogether" mean?
Not to end it on a negative note, here are some quotes that made me giggle:
Page 84 "Like it was triple hexed, soaked in a bucket of voodoo, and wrapped in a curse for good measure."
Page 284 “Dark Matter? Dark Fire? What is this, the Big Bang for Casters?”
Page 306 "Because you climbed in my window in the middle of the night, so either you’re some kind of vampire or a perv, or both. Which is it?"
So those are my issues with Beautiful Creatures. I liked it, but did not love it. I did buy the rest of the series on my nook for $3 each. So I will continue with this story. It just fell below my expectations.
ETA: I still have to see the movie, but I feel this review (especially the parts I bolded) expresses how I felt about the book.
Beautiful Creatures (2013) Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman
Beautiful Creatures is arriving in a marketplace full of Twilight junkies still eager for their supernatural teen-romantic fix, and the film's concept couldn't be clearer: It's Twilight with the sexes reversed. This time it's the boy who's the mortal: moody, bookish Ethan, the outsider in his sleepy small town of Gatlin, S.C., though Alden Ehrenreich plays him more like a sensitive jock on Glee. Lena (Alice Englert), the new girl at school, comes from a family of witches (or, as they're known here, Casters), and on the day she turns 16 she'll be ''claimed,'' either by the light side or (more likely, due to a family curse) the dark side.
Adapted from the popular YA novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures is lushly pictorial and not-too-badly acted. The best thing in the movie is Englert, who has a fresh, unretouched, Jane Austen-gone-goth allure. (She is also Jane Campion's daughter.) Jeremy Irons, as Lena's smoking-jacketed rotter-aristocrat uncle, and Emma Thompson, as her floridly angry mother, are like blithe spirits out of a Dark Shadows sequel you want to see. But Beautiful Creatures, more than the Twilight films, lacks danger and momentum. The audience, like Ethan, spends way too much time waiting around for Lena to learn whether she's a good girl or a bad girl. B-