Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures

*WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD*

I understood why this book’s movie was a flop. Then again, I’m not sure how the book did well. The series came out around the same time as Twilight. The movie was marketing itself as the next Twilight, but if marketers shown have known that people would want a break from Twilight’s five film fantasy world which is where The Hunger Games, science fiction/ dystopian, stepped in and sky rocketed in popularity.

The world of Beautiful Creatures is fascinating because it embodies southern charm with witches, that call themselves casters, and a battle between light casters versus dark casters. The only difference between Beautiful Creatures and Twilight is developed characters, story development, and logic.

Beautiful Creatures had less than a handful of characters that are unique and fully developed. We know Lena Duchannes’s family history along with her uncle’s, Macon Ravenwood, but Lena’s character is too much like Edward’s doubt side to make her stand out. She’s basically Edward in female form. But at least Edward had his moments of acceptance towards Bella’s love for him. Lena is constantly pushing Ethan away. It’s not fully clear how Lena feels for Ethan because of her determination to push him away and keep him in the dark about her and her family.

The story was told through Ethan’s perspective which made the story interesting, but it still lacked that thrilling drama and intriguing world development. It was enticing that each of Lena’s relatives had a unique power, but the story didn’t explore their personalities, ambitions, or lives further. Maybe in the three sequels to this book there’s more depth into the world and characters, but there should still be more than just what the characters look like and how much they despise Ridley, who had more personality than all them combined. Macon Ravenwood talked cool, but his over-protectiveness was becoming old quick. Edward Cullen was over protective for a hot minute, learned the consequences, and regretted it quick. Macon kept on despite what it would do with his relationship with Lena.

Overall this book started off as a 3.75 but quickly dropped to a 2.9 then back to a 3. The ending didn’t feel like it had high enough stakes because the villain, Sarafine, Lena’s mother, hadn’t killed anyone that we knew or saw. Sarafine revealed that she was involved with Ethan’s mother’s death, but it wasn’t clear on why or how she did it. There was no answer as to how Ethan’s mother was involved with the caster community or whether or not Ethan has some kind of power. The story had its moments where it was interesting, but the mortal characters came across as over exaggerated and cliché. I don’t get why teenage books hate on cheerleaders so much. They are people too. I’m not a cheerleader, but I’ve never met a cruel and vindictive cheerleader. That department would be the popular bad girls that weren’t apart of any after school activity.

I’m not sure if I will continue this series. The movie in all honesty is way better than the book even though the film wasn’t that great either. If the stakes were higher, the characters were a little bit more developed, and the ending was way more satisfying, then this book would have had me hooked like entire Twilight Saga.