Book Review: Beautiful Creatures

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

563 pages

We've established the fact that I'm a paranormal junkie. That's why when I tried reading 'Beautiful Creatures' last year and couldn't get into it, I was extremely surprised. When I researched reviews on Goodreads, however, I discovered that I wasn't alone. A lot of other people said they had a hard time getting into the story and gave up on it. I still can't tell you what it was. Flat characters? Slow plot? Whatever it was, I had zero interest in continuing on.

Fast forward to the movie trailers that were released later in the year, and I was seriously perplexed. Teen angst mixed with magic; what wasn't there to like? The movie looked extremely good and right up my alley, so I decided to give the book one last try.

And I wasn't disappointed.

At one point, I was so into the story that I had a hard time putting it down and spent the better part of a day reading. Part of the reason I'm not a fan of reading digital copies is that I never have any clue how many pages are in the book I'm reading. I was completely blown away to discover this one was over 500 pages long. I personally felt that it could've been cut down a little (especially the odd scene with the great aunts and the squirrels), but overall it was a great read. I already bought the next book in the series.

When I review books, I like to keep it short and sweet as I hate giving out any kind of spoilers and I don't think it's necessary to rehash every scene. The story itself was very engaging - boy meets girl, girl is extremely weird and comes from an even stranger family, girl may be in danger, boy protects girl. Simple enough formula, yet really interesting and pretty unique as far as what I've read in the past. The action in the ending had me on the edge of my seat and there was enough going on with these characters that I really gave a damn how things turned out.

So if you're into paranormal, I definitely recommend this one. Hopefully in the next week or so I can also say whether or not I think the movie is worth seeing. Based on the book and the trailers I've seen, I can pretty much guarantee that it will be worth the time.

~Jen