Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creaturesby Kami Garcia & Margaret StohlFirst: I loved this book.Second: I thought it was going to be about faeries. I don't know why, I guess based on the title and the sort of mystery about the girl, I thought it was faeries. It's not.Third: Generally, when a book is hyped as being fantastic and a Must Read! I tend to dislike them. I was lucky with Eyes Like Stars and Prophecy of the Sisters because those two books lived up to what I had been hearing/reading. I was nervous about this book as I knew little about it, though what I had heard about the plot interested me (although I DID think it was about faeries!). This book more than lives up to its hype. It is beyond any hype, it truly is. And I BOUGHT this book on my own, no reviews owed to anyone. It takes a lot for me to give a book 5 stars anywhere, and I did just that for BC.Just the first chapter had me holding in my breath as I was captivated by detailed description and wondrous writing. The first chapter, people.I also didn't realize that the narrator was male. Normally I don't like male main protagonists, (just like I tend to only like female singers, it's a thing I have). But I was quickly stripped of any doubts I might normally have about not being able to relate to the narrator. I related. I loved Ethan and I loved Lena. I could just picture Lena in my mind and she was everything I could ever want in a character.I love the detailed southern small town, and its people. I loved the horridness of the cheerleaders and jocks and how an outsider (Lena) is shunned just because she's new and different. She doesn't dress right, she is smart, etc.I love that it didn't take Ethan long to chose which side he was on.I especially love that this was more of a story about a girl trying to fit in somewhere she really stood out and how small towns can be just evil and mean. It was a story about a boy and a girl and not just about the paranormal aspects, which are there, yes, and they are all kinds of awesome (I have mentioned numerous times how much I love witches!), but they seem to take a very comfortable back seat to the growing up and learning who you are at 16.There is suspense, humour, tragedy, awkwardness and magic all rolled up into one fantastically told story.  I honestly do not know how to summarize this story without giving anything away. I don't want to. I was so contentedly surprised by what happened the entire time, I want others to share that feeling.This is a 600+ page novel, which does not feel like it's 600 pages. The story plays out just right, nothing is rushed and nothing slows down to the point that you feel you have to skip a bunch of pages to get back into the action. There isn't action like you would find in an Action Flick at the movies, but there is constant forwarding of the plot. I could not put this book down. I had read 133 pages before bed and only stopped because I HAD to sleep, I was falling asleep while reading. I finished the book this morning. A little over 4 hours of reading and I was done. I did nothing else this morning. My computer and the internets were forgotten. I devoured this book.A quick message to Margaret Stohl on Twitter got me confirmation that there will be a second book. Which I am happy about, as I was left with a couple of questions at the end of BC and was hoping that it was only because there was a sequel planned and not just because it was forgotten about (one point was fairly important to the entire story!).If you can get this from your library, or want to add a gorgeous hard cover to your book collection, I would suggest you read Beautiful Creatures as soon as you can. I took a chance buying the hard cover, though I DID have coupons making it less painful to buy, and I am not sorry that I did.Caster Chronicles

1. Beautiful Creatures
2. Beautiful Darkness
3. Beautiful Chaos
4. TBA - Fall 2012?