Beautiful Darkness - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Darkness - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Pages: 508
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Release Date: 28th October 2010

Other Titles in the Series: Beautiful Creatures

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 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.

Beautiful Darkness is as beautifully written and intensely gripping as its predecessor, Beautiful Creatures.

One of my favourite things by far about this book is the writing. Together, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl have written a novel in soft, languid and lyrical prose that weaves images of Gaitlin and the Caster world seamlessly into your consciousness and bringing it to life. This also contributed to the air of charm that Beautiful Darkness contains with the madcap traditions and ideals of the South.

The Caster world continued to develop in ever surprising ways as the story unfolded. It has so many different facets and sidelines that throw the characters in the opposite direction and alter the story completely. The revelations about the world and characters are built up to with a painfully slow and steady drip of information that never quite fits together until the very last moment.

As well as developments in the world nearly the entire cast of characters had an overhaul in one way or another. Amma continued to amaze me with her never-ending awesomeness; Lena infuriated me with her frequent stupidity; Ridley surprised me in general and the adults had shocks and secrets that really filled them out. There was also a new character, Liv, who I’m still not really sure about.

I thoroughly enjoyed Beautiful Darkness and I’m eagerly awaiting the next instalment of The Caster Chronicles.

For my 2010 100+ Reading Challenge

Sophie