Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

* This post contains spoilers. *
* Read my reviews for each book HERE *

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1)

Kami Garcia

YA - Fantasy, Paranormal

563 Pages

(Read 9/9/16)

     I read this book under recommendation from a friend, and it was worth it. They said I needed to download it right away and read it, which I did. It took me around a week to read,  just because I was busy, not because I wasn't completely invested in Ethan and Lena's relationship.

     Ethan Wate is the main character and narrator of this book, which is different for me. I haven't read many books where there is a male narrator/main character, but I did immensely enjoy this book. He is a typical teenage boy at the beginning of the book. He's on the basketball team, he's dated cheerleaders, and he and his best friend are inseparable and basically brothers.  

     Lena Duchannes is a caster, a witch of some sort, but has yet to be "claimed" which basically means that she hasn't yet been deemed a good witch or a bad one. She and Ethan don't meet until the first day of their junior year, but they have some weird dreams where they are both dreaming the same dream where Lena is falling and Ethan is trying to save her. The dreams are weirdly realistic as in Ethan actually wakes up soaked from water, in a bed filled with dirt or mud, and even with scratch marks from Lena's fingernails. Ethan can never remember the rest of the dreams though, just Lena slipping away and his failing to save her.

      The reason that they are having these dreams is because a long, long, long time ago, one of Lena's relatives cast a "spell" (they're called casts but it's redundant to say 'cast a cast.') to save her dying boyfriend and curses the entire Duchannes bloodline. Most of the Duchannes' go dark, as in the case of Lena's cousin Ridley or her mother (unbeknownst to her) Sarafine. Every once in a while, a Duchannes caster can claim herself, and in this case, Lena gets the honor. She spends her entire junior year believing that she is going to go dark because she is a very powerful "natural" caster, where she can control the elements. In all reality, she won't be claimed for another year. (More on that in the review for Beautiful Darkness.) She and Ethan fall hopelessly in love, (of course because this is a YA novel and there are hardly any YA novels without a romance.) and spend the entire school year trying to gain control of Lena's situation with the help of her uncle Macon and the local librarian, Mariam. 

      Macon Ravenwood is considered the Boo Radley of Gatlin, South Carolina. In all reality, he is a Dream Incubus, a "vampire" of sorts who feeds on dreams rather than human blood. Macon is the reason why Ethan can never remember the end of his and Lena's all-to-real dreams, Macon is feeding on them to try and keep Lena safe. Between Macon and Amma, Ethan's live in "Grandma" who is really a Seer which is also part of the Caster world,  Ethan and Lena are deprived of any information about what is really going on and have to figure it out themselves. 

     In the end, what's going on is Lena's mother, Sarafine, who is the dark caster is trying to technically kill Lena. Sarafine shows up on Lena's sixteenth birthday and wreaks havoc causing death and despair, all to make sure that one of the most powerful naturals ever (Lena, in case you didn't know) came to the dark side. In all of the mess, Ethan ends up getting stabbed by Sarafine and dying because he helped Lena figure out the truth to everything. Lena uses a cast to bring him back to life, the same cast the doomed her family bloodline for eternity, and in the "eye for an eye" situation of the Order of Things, Macon is taken in Ethan's place. I won't lie, I cried when this happened... I had gotten so invested in Macon throughout the book. He turned out to be this caring, hopeful, true Southern hospitable man who really cared about his niece like a father rather than an uncle. He was Lena's only father figure and I believe that the reason she was so headstrong and smart was because of Macon Ravenwood. 

     I give this book a 5/5 because I just don't think I could give it any less. Read this book, then lend it to everyone you know so that they too can fall in love with Macon Ravenwood and the relationship between Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes.