Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl | Rating: ★★★★☆

"Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures."

Beautiful Creatures is the first in a series of books referred to as the Caster Chronicles written by this duo and takes place in our world with a magical twist. That magical twist being Lena Duchannes (rhymes with rain!) and her families ability to cast magic as well as a curse that has caused this young girl to fear her sixteenth birthday, where she finds out once and for all if she’s to be a light or dark caster.

And if there’s anything she could do at all to change her fate.

My best friend had been trying for a long while to get me to read this novel. He’d told me immediately that I’d become obsessed with the characters, the magic — the love story. And the family elements within.

I’m not going to lie to you guys, though — while I’ve given it a high rating and will openly admit my love to it, it did take me a long time to actually get into it. It was one of those books that I kept aside and would read a few pages before putting it down; having no motivation to continue at a quicker speed. If I’m being honest with you, for one reason or another, it took me months to get into it and finish it.


Reason being? Probably the southern accents featured heavily in the book and its writing that might put you guys off of continuing. That was my biggest complaint when speaking of the novel.

I did think of it to be rather refreshing to have this sort of story, a love story in the supernatural young adult genre, to be told from the point of view of the male. Now, don’t take that statement as me saying there aren’t many novels told from a males perspective — because, obviously there are but it felt nice to read a story such as this in the head of an infatuated, and not creepy, male teenager. If that statement at all makes sense on paper. Be warned: I’m recovering from a shitty flu so I may just sound dumb.

Anyways — back on topic, Jessica.

Some spots in the novel are shaky and underdeveloped. I did feel very rushed at times while flipping through the pages in terms of a plot. While that was a problem for me at times, the story was still rather pleasing and the characters were fascinating and likeable. There’s always something appealing to me about changing your fate and that’s a theme in this novel when it comes to the female leads fate and what it’d mean to claim your own fate.

I do wish there was something else to the magic in the plot — I’d like to know more about the Casters spells and history. Having said this, I’d like to remind myself and my audience that there is more than one book in this series, therefore this may quench my taste for more on the magic.

Overall, without giving away all the plot points and twists, I’d like to recommend this book. It’s got a certain kick to it that will draw you into these characters and their lives and it’s the perfect novel to read upon the upcoming Valentine’s Day. Even though it took me a while to fully get into it, when I did: it was totally worth it.

PS - if you’ve seen the movie it’s practically nothing like the novel and both are good in their own right. So try and separate the two of them when beginning one or the other.