Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Title: Beautiful Creatures	Loved it	Graded
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Little, Brown
Elements: Gothic
Series: Book 1 of a trilogy

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There was a curse. There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

It's taken me a long time to appreciate the intricacies of Beautiful Creatures. It's the story of a love that sustains through the ages, and the consequences of one such love set in a time centuries before. There are actually two stories being intertwined in this one book.

One story happens in present day, and is the main focus of this book. It's told from Ethan's point of view, which is quite refreshing in a love story. It's not the brooding, Cullenitis type of narrative: brooding, focused on the girl and how beautiful she is despite her insecurities, yada yada yada. Ethan is quite a normal guy, if slightly romanticised. I mean, he sure doesn't think much about what guys usually think about, which is understandable as it's marketed to girls.

It seems a bit as if Lena and Ethan have switched roles in the usual YA stereotype, because Lena is the female counterpart of the brooding alpha female. Misunderstood, mysterious and distant, I'm amazed at how well it works for a girl instead of a guy. The fact that she's a girl doesn't make her any less mysterious, but it does make some of her frustrations seem more like tantrums. They have to fight for their love despite the disapproval of the society, and this is echoed in the other love story. The flashbacks are slightly intrusive in its  frequency and italic font. Sometimes I just want to read to the main story, but the flashbacks are essential to the story. The slow pace doesn't work to the story's advantage at times, with the second half feeling a little packed.

Garcia and Stohl did a marvelous job of weaving the different story strands together and integrating the Southern culture into the overall story, making it a whole character. It's a good debut. I'm looking forward to see how the story is continued.