Now that I'm done with my confession, I'll start with the book review. Beautiful Creatures is a really great novel. In the end, I found myself loving it. However, it did take me a bit to break into it. Garcia and Stohl dedicated much of the book to well-done character development, but as a result it wasn't until about half-way through the book until I found myself drawn into the work enough to find myself hooked to it--and it's a long book. Not classic-Russian-novel long (like Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, for example), but more like Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban long. The slowness of the beginning chunk of Beautiful Creatures could have been avoided without removing the excellent character development if there was something else within the story to save it besides the very clear portrayal of the small Southern town of Gatlin where the entirety of the book takes place. Most of the speedy plot development and action of the book had been left for the later half of the story, which means that readers must have some reasonable stamina to get to the best parts and truly benefit from the book. In other words, readers who aren't frequent readers or have learning disabilities (the latter being like myself) will find the book difficult to get through at first. All being said, with this book, patience is truly a virtue, and only some patience will prove incredibly virtuous!
The characters are as believable as real people, which is the book's greatest advantage. Since the novel is a romance--from a boy's perspective, which is why I found it in "Teen Fantasy & Adventure" and not "Teen Paranormal Romance" at B&N--Garcia and Stohl completely succeeded in making the romance an utterly beautiful one. I must also mention that, in spite of the fact that every one of my reviews thus far are of love stories (and this only being my third, so give me some slack), I typically don't like romance stories. With these characters and the struggle they must endure just to be together, readers will find themselves hanging on every word both towards and after the climax. The realism of death as portrayed in the story is also heart-wrenching. It becomes really exciting to also see the small, conservative, mundane town open up in manifolds of secrets as a non-Mortal world begin to reveals itself in fantastically clever and ironic ways. Garcia and Stohl completely outshine their talents in building a world right underneath our noses in the some of most unexpected places better than J. K. Rowling ever could. Then again, Rowling's original intended audience is much younger, so I'll stop giving her flack.
Again, a large portion of Beautiful Creatures is dedicated to plot development in a small town, which will be tricky to get through for some readers, but to no avail. Anybody who appreciates a bit of magic-next-door would love this novel. I myself am itching to read the next book, Beautiful Darkness, but alas, i must wedge it within my reading list before I miss any more personal deadlines. Have you read the book as well? Please feel free to write a comment or to regarding my review, the book, or both!
***UPDATE 2/15/2013***
I wrote this review in a hurry and I believe I did Beautiful Creatures a bit disservice because of it. I made it sound like the first half of the book is simply terribly boring. It isn't at all. It is slower than the rest of the book, but finds itself in a better position compared to many, many other teen books. There is a lot more focus on the townies of Gatlin, their traditions and their bigotry, which are key to the plot. The novel isn't at all bad; it simply gets progressively better as the story progresses.
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