Beautiful Creatures was a long but interesting read. Though the characters had their unique touches, it was semi-predictable as the authors used common tropes as small-town boy falls for the mysterious new girl and the town shut-in making an appearance. 

Beautiful Creatures is the first book in the Caster Chronicle series. It narrated Ethan Wates, a typical small-town boy, who doesn’t experience change very often. He lives with his widowed father and their help Amarie who is a Seer. All is well and mundane until the green-eyed storm of Lena Duchannes rolls into Gatlin, South Carolina. Lena turns out to be the girl from Ethan’s extremely vivid dreams and she tells him she is a “Caster”. The two then start seeing into their past and discover where the Caster trait originated and how their families intertwined. Before Lena’s sixteenth birthday, she and Ethan must find a way to keep Lena from being claimed as a Dark Caster that could kill her family. 

This novel wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great. The plot was predictable and there were a lot of soppy romantic side storylines, but honestly, I would read it again. It did have a gothic, dark atmosphere, and the character personalities were easily pictured. I haven’t decided if I like this book or if it was a waste of time.