Beautiful Creatures Review

Some of my favorite praise for Beautiful Creatures:

"Gorgeously crafted, atmospheric, and original. I devoured it" -Melissa Marr

"Like a thick, hot Carolina Summer, this story seeps into you until it's all you can think about." -Carrie Ryan

Ethan Wate is a boy who lives in a small southern town, called Gatlin. He has grown up there, and knows as well as anybody that new people are rarely welcomed by the town; and so the conflict begins.
Macon Ravenwood; known as the town shut-in; has a niece named Lena who moves to town to live with him in his estate. Not only is she shunned by the town for being the new girl, she is also shunned for being different. But to Ethan Wate, different may just be what he is looking for.
Strange forces seem to draw the two together, things that neither of them can understand.
Ethan soon learns that Lena is different in many other ways than just looks, and he soon learns a secret that could change his life forever.
Instead of running in the other direction, and treating Lena as if she was a classified freak, Ethan finds himself caught in the middle of it all. When they then find a locket that seems to unlock dark secrets of the past, neither Lena nor Ethan could imagine what thier lives are about to become.

I gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I found that whenever I put the book down, I found myself thinking about when I could pick it up again. I was so engrossed in the story, and even though it was sort of a chunky book, I had no trouble getting through it. I loved the many references to To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved the southern charm; although I must say at first the heavy southern dialouge was a BIT distracting at first, but only grew on me as the story continued.
I will go ahead and tell you a little about the characters and what I thought of them.

Ethan Wate was a great character, don't get me wrong; but I find myself struggling to describe him. I feel as though there could have been a little bit more character development with him. With that aside, he is still a very likable main character.

Lena was my favorite character in the book. I loved her differences from the "ordinary" girls in this town. I loved her attitude in the book, and her relationship with Ethan felt genuine.

Amma was the authority figure in Ethan's life since his mother passed, and she was a very strong character. Southern and stubborn are the first two words that come to my mind when I think of Amma.

Macon Ravenwood was a great character as well. He was very mysterious, and you find yourself constantly questioning the ability to trust him.

Link is Ethan's best friend. While ast first he turns his nose up at Lena like the rest of thier friends, he soon accepts her and her friendship/romance with Ethan. I do like Link...I actually wanted more of him in the story, but because he wasn't a main character I am at a loss to truly decide wether I loved him or not.

Marian was the town librarian, and also a close friend to Ethans mother. I can't talk too much about her without giving anything away, but she was a very calm, soothing character; sort of the voice of reason in the story. She was my second favorite character, and I genuinley loved and trusted her from the start.

Ethan's father was a character we didn't see alot, he was also a shut-in like Macon, but he wasn't just shut in from the town...he shut himself away from Ethan as well. Ever since Ethan's mother died, he locks himself away in his office writing all night and sleeping all day. There isn't much to say about him because he very scarcely appeared at all.

So as you can see, I have close to nothing negative to say about this book. I liked it A LOT, and consider it a favorite. I am thoroughly looking forward to continuing with the series.
Reviews will be coming soon for the next 2 books in the series:

Beautiful Darkness

Beautiful Chaos

The fourth book is Untitled, and is expected to release sometime in 2012.