Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I have mixed feelings about this book. At times I felt it was beautiful and insightful, especially about how a person reacts to death, but at other times it felt melodramatic and downright silly. However, that's how teenagers are. As Uncle Mason would say, "Teenagers are so apocalyptic."

I loved the setting of the book. I loved how this little Southern town of Gatlin held so many secrets right under people noses. I loved how the history of the Castors was intertwined with the Civil War. The scenes of the Castor Library, how the Ravenwood house changed, and when the stairs whipped Ethan back. These scenes were so imaginative and I hope the movie gets them right.

This book had me reading for hours wanting to know how it ended. I read over 400 pages in a day. I was physically nervous about whether or not Lena would be claimed for the Light or the Dark. The authors Garcia and Stohl, despite the melodramatic teenage romance, are excellent stroytellers. They kept the suspense up until the very end.

But when I got to the end part of me wanted to throw the book against the wall. The ending was frustrating. Why Uncle Mason did what he did makes no sense. I suppose he was trying to protect Lena from Sarafine but it was pretty messed up. Then again all families are dysfunctional in some way. This was theirs I guess.

I have one question though and I want to read the rest of the books in the series to see if it answers my question. Considering the ending, it makes you wonder why Sarafine and Ridley ended up the way they did. I don't wonder about Larkin. He explains. It's just more fun. Sorry to be so cryptic but I don't do spoilers.

I am tempted to give it three stars because I wasn't crazy about the ending or the melodrama, but because the suspense kept me glued to the book for a almost a whole Sunday, I'll give it
Hopefully the movie is as good as the book. There's some potentially really cool scenes. (I also may have read almost the whole book in a day because I've the movie from Netflix for a week now.)

The Movie
It was so bad. I've seen some books ruined by the movie version of them but this was atrocious beyond my imagination. The actors did what they could with a horrible script. My rating