Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is set in fictional Gatlin, South Carolina. The novel is told by protagonist Ethan Wate who lives with his writer father and housekeeper Amma who is “more like [Ethan’s] grandmother.”[2] The story begins on the first day of Ethan’s sophomore year when he wakes up from a recurring dream he’s been having about a girl he doesn’t know. That morning he finds a “creepy- almost hypnotic,” [3] song called Sixteen Moons on his iPod and also notices the smell of rosemary and lemon. At school Ethan find out there is a new girl this year which is surprisingly because Gatlin “hadn’t had a new girl in school since the 3rd grade,”[4] the new girl is “old man Ravenwood’s niece.” [5] Macon Melchizedek Ravenwood is the town shut in and is often compared to the character Boo Radley from To Kill A Mocking Bird in the novel. Ethan later hears Lena playing Sixteen Moons in band. When Ethan drives her home he almost runs over Lena who is standing on the road in the middle of the storm looking for someone to help with her broken down car. When Ethan notices she smells like lemon and rosemary he realized that Lena is the girl from his dreams. He soon learns that Lena is a Caster, a person who can use magic, and that on her sixteenth birthday she will be claimed for either Light or Dark. Ethan tries to find a way to save Lena from going Dark and solve the mystery of how he is connected to Lena. At the same time Lena is trying to handle the whole town turning against her “we don’t take kind to strangers [in Gatlin].”(Garcia 123) Lena and Ethan discover that they are connected through years of Gatlin and Caster history.

I liked this book. It was interesting, the paranormal aspects were fairly unique, and I love a story with a long family history like this one has. But I just liked it. It never grabbed me and demanded that I keep reading. I think, mostly, this was because the pacing was off. There was too much time during the story when I was relaxed and not worried about whether the characters were going to get out of trouble. Sure, there were intense moments when I was glued to the pages, but then things slowed down too much and I was lulled into a strange sense of security. This made it too easy to set the book down. Beautiful Creatures is a good story. I think it could have been great if it had been shorter, which would have increased the tension and kept the reader glued to the pages through the whole story. Or, at least, if it had a bit more depth to it with the characters and setting. Overall, the only thing that really set it apart was the paranormal aspect, which was really interesting and unique. Unfortunately, it's not enough.