Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia

Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures, #3)

by Kami Garcia

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What - or who - will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?

For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself - forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.

Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

Reviewed by tellemonstar on

5 of 5 stars

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Cross-posted at Book Reviews With the Blogmonstar

Ethan and Lena broke the world when Ethan went looking for Lena and she Claimed herself. Now the Order of Things is broken and must be fixed. Someone will pay the ultimate price to fix these mistakes.

I have really enjoyed this series. The writing is beautiful and the storyline is very intriguing. Beautiful Chaos is no exception. I enjoyed it better than Beautiful Darkness, because there was a whole lot less running around, and we found out quite a few things about some of the characters which in some cases were very surprising.Some things were less surprising, but helped other parts of both the first two novels, and Beautiful Chaos make more sense.

When Lena split the moon in half on her claiming day, no-one really had any idea of the consequences. But that choice broke the order of things, and everyone is having consequences. Lena’s powers, often unpredictable, are haywire, as are the powers of every other Caster in her family. The Greats won’t talk to Amma, who has gone past dark and into crazy territory, and Ethan is having problems remembering. Even the most innate things, like what hand he writes with, are slipping from him. The Wheel of Fate demands it’s price, and Ethan is going to be the one who suffers the most. Gatlin really has become chaotic, too. Heat wave so long that that’s it’s the middle of winter and there’s no end in sight. Lubbers (similar to locusts, apparently) have literally eaten every crop, plant and shrub. Everything is pointing to a Biblical-style apocalypse. Everything about the effects of the Claiming was very well written, and you could almost see the Lubbers and feel the heat.

Beautiful Chaos has plenty of Abraham Ravenwood, and Sarafine and Hunting in it. We learn much more about Sarafine’s past – indeed how she became Dark and fought the darkness inside her for as long as she could. We also learnt much more about Abraham’s role in this whole scheme – about how he influenced and manipulated Sarafine, to how John Breed’s life with him was like. Basically, Abraham is a pretty big bad ass. It appears, too, that he is virtually unstoppable.

Ethan has to make a very difficult decision at the end of Beautiful Chaos. After learning the reason as to why he has been forgetting and feeling fuzzy, and figuring out that very big part he has to play in fixing the universe, we get one of the best cliffhangers since the Fever series.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 July, 2013: Finished reading
  • 8 July, 2013: Reviewed