Beautiful Darkness (Beautiful Creatures, #2)

by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Fall under the spell of the Beautiful Darkness, the sequel to the instant NYT bestselling gothic fantasy, Beautiful Creatures!
There were no surprises in Gatlin County. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin as a place where nothing ever changed. Then mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes revealed a secret world of curses and Supernaturals with terrifying abilities. Lena showed him a Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. Sometimes life-ending.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.

• ISBN10: 0316077046
• ISBN13: 9780316077040
• Publish Date: 19 September 2011 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[littleread1]

I feel like I should just finish this series.

[Sarah Says]

The second book is non-stop, action packed and improves on the first. In The first book a large chunk of the story was set around Ethan and Lena’s experience at school, where as in the second book it is nearly entirely set in the underground Caster world. We keep all the characters we’ve previously met and more are thrown into the mix; the mysterious John, undead Abraham and adorable Liv, just to name a few. We find out the truth about Ethan’s mother’s death and her involvement with Macon, as well as some secrets about Ethan’s own special destiny.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

3.5

[Kim Deister]

My review: This next book picks up not long after the first in the series, Beautiful Creatures, ends. In my opinion, this book is darker than the first, coming on the heels of personal tragedy within the story line. I think one of the things I loved the most was how grief was handled. It wasn't glossed over at all, giving it total reality.

The setting of a southern small town, along with the gothic elements, is a definite stereotype of southern living, and maybe a little over the top. But it works perfectly within the context of the story and sets the stage for even more secrets to be revealed.

There was much more development of the characters in this book, too, which really brought some of the characters to life. Interestingly, one of the characters that most came to life for me was one that was actually dead. Ethan was much more of a strong presence in this book, a lot of his story being his own instead of entwined with Lena's.

The angst level was a lot higher in this book, something that usually tends to annoy me. But it is something that really worked for this story. It added a pretty dark layer to the entire story and served to underscore a lot of the issues in the book.

Things to love about Beautiful Creatures...

--Answers. A lot of questions were answered in this installment of the Beautiful Creatures series.
--Questions. As many questions that were answered, there were all kinds of new questions that leave me wanting to start the next book.

Things I wanted more of...

--The mundane world. Most of the story took place in the Caster world and not nearly as much in the non-magical world. I missed the blend.

My recommendation: You definitely have to read these in order to experience the flow of the story. I think the story was better than the last and I recommend this one just as much as the first.

[tellemonstar]

Full review here.

Thankfully, this book didn't suffer from second-novel syndrome. It answered questions that were raised in Beautiful Creatures, and raised some more to be answered in the next one. Ethan and the gang had themselves some adventures in Beautiful Darkness.

I appreciated the fact that the authors didn't just make Lena stay the same as she had been before after the events in the previous novel. Beautiful Darkness gave us a deeper look in to the pull of Light and Dark on Lena, and how she felt about having to choose to declare herself one of the other, particularly at the expense of half her family. It obviously affected her quite a lot, and the fact that she felt quite guilty about Macon, and what happened to Ethan as well, was very apparent.

There was a few things revealed about Ethan's mum, and about Macon that sort of come out of the blue for me, and I felt as confused as Ethan when we found out these things.

One of my favourite things about this was the Tunnels. They are like a characters within themselves really, and gave a 'Alice in Wonderland' feel to parts of the second half of Beautiful Darkness.

[mrs_mander_reads]

Loved this one just as much as the first. Definitely kept me guessing. Bought the third book right after I finished the second. I'm ready!

[tweetybugshouse]

Just like the first book i was pulled in and did not want to come up for air. I love how every page your uncovering more of the caster world and you just can not wait to see how each puzzle piece fits together. I am excited to see how it all comes together.

[angelarenea9]

I did not really enjoy this book. It read like filler chapters. I found the characters to be frustrating and flat, or predictable. It seemed like in the grand scheme of this series this entire book was irrelevant. Did Lena *really* need to run off? No, she was being a bit dramatic. So did Ethan need to chase her? Nope. Once again I did enjoy the aunts though.

[ellieroth]

Decepción!!!! uno de esos libro que fue mejor no leer, siempre he dicho que mi curiosidad me ocasionarían problemas, en este caso, bastante aburrimiento.
Todo el libro es inestable, comienzo aburrido, el transcurso de la historia se pone interesante para volver a caer en lo aburrido. No me gusto, pero le pongo dos estrellas, porque tuvo buenos momentos.
Puntos buenos, creo que son Link y Liv, Macon también, pero muy poco.
Cómo siempre el punto malo, con la emo de Lena, o sea: un par de cachetadones no le vendrían mal a esta muchacha!!! Ethan tan patético como siempre, parecía que se iba a redimir pero... en fin.
Me parece que el libro pudo dar más, es mi opinión.

[Linda]

Such a beautiful story! And it's all so true, even in the real world, to find our purpose, to find ourselves, to find the truth.
I thought this book was even better than the first of the Caster Cronicles, I loved all of it!