Beautiful Darkness

BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS

By:  Kami Garcia

and Margaret Stohl

FIRST SENTENCE

“The rain dripping off the brim of Amma’s best black hat.”

SUMMARY
from goodreads

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed.  Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along.  A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks.  A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations.  A Gatlin where the impossible, magical, life altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship.  And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back.  Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town’s tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.    

REVIEW

Reading Beautiful Darkness is like opening a gift that is wrapped in layers and layers of delicate tissue paper.  As I read, I peeled back the layers and I was rewarded with a whole new appreciation for Gatlin and the Castors.

The first layer covers the characters themselves.  Lena, reeling from the loss of her dear uncle, plunges into the depths of despair.  Her pain is raw and real.  Ethan’s devotion for Lena cannot be swayed.  He is stoic and he will do anything (and I do mean anything) for her.  Of course there is Link with his sweet and goofy personality to lighten the mood.  And don’t forget Ridley, who just oozes darkness and evil.

The next layer is Ethan’s voice.  His voice narrates the story and makes it all come alive.  Ethan’s voice is that of a typical teen in a very non-typical situation.  The authors have a talent for getting into the mind of their main male character.  His words hold passion and strength along with vulnerability and despair.

The setting is yet another layer to this gift.  Gatlin has all the elements you would expect in a small, Southern town.  Oh, but there are hidden secrets and mysterious underground tunnels too.  The descriptions of this dark world were like poetry.

The final layer is the plot.  Some questions from Beautiful Creatures are answered and new questions come to light.  After a slow start, there were surprises and twists that kept me up late reading.  The ending is a nice set up for the third book in this fantastic series.  I can’t wait to see what I unwrap next.

RATING

5        Plot

5        Characters

5        Attention Grabbing

5        Girlie Meter

5        Ending

25      TOTAL

5        STARS