Ugh. I have had every intention of posting regularly this month, but life keeps on getting in the way… so without further ado, a review of a book I read over Christmas and am just now reviewing…
In Beautiful Creatures, we have Ethan, a high school student in Gatlin, South Carolina who is just trying to skate by as being normal until he can get the heck out of Dodge. But then, he keeps having these dreams about trying to save an unknown girl and when he wakes from them, he’s covered in dirt or water. The dreams are more real than he gives them credit for, it seems. Then, shockingly, there is a new girl at school– the girl from Ethan’s dreams. Lena and Ethan are drawn to one another, but face some pretty big supernatural challenges to their relationship.
So… this book’s premise sounded kind of cool. There’s some Southern Gothic-ness, some romance, some paranormal, some family secrets, yes, please, give me some of that. But this book ended up being… boring. I don’t know how I made it through 563 pages because for most of them there wasn’t much going on, unless you count endless time watching the characters conduct research that goes no where. The last few chapters were pretty exciting, but the book ends on a classic paranormal romance cliffhanger. Usually cliffhangers, even of books I’m not 100% sold on, make me want to read the next book. This time, I was just glad that the book was over. Needless to say, I won’t be finishing out the series.
I know that this has a following, but I don’t really get why. The romance wasn’t spectacular, unless you like confusing scenes about kissing leading to heart attacks (I didn’t even realize there was a heart attack until later in the book when they spelled it out for me). Ethan is the narrator, which I was looking forward to because I typically like teenage boy narrators, but this book seemed more like it was narrated by a teenage girl than a teenage boy. The book is too long and the plot paced too slowly. There are some historical flashbacks to the Civil War and that is a neat element, but they were sort of clumsily handled in terms of plot development. Overall, the book was boring and did not give me characters to love or an exciting plot to drive my interest.
If you are a big fan of paranormal romance, maybe this is for you, especially if you are eager for the upcoming movie. But I don’t even read a lot of paranormal romance and I know it can be done better, so perhaps just spare yourself the boredom.
Don't Take My Books Away 