Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles #4) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be.

Why I read this book?

This is the fourth book from the Caster Chronicles series. So far I have been very pleased with it, even with the tiny novella (Dream Dark) so here I am, continuing with Lena's and Ethan's story.

What's the book about?

As you might remember from Beautiful Darkness, Lena has broken the Order as she claimed herself as both Light and Darkness. We also learned that John Breed was being used by Serafine and Abraham and this book we see the consequences of both events. Both the Caster and the Mortal world are being affected by the order being broken, and only a sacrifice can stop the Wheel of Faith but is not clear what should be sacrificed.

Final thoughts

What Lena had done was the Caster equivalent to smashing the Ten Commandments.

Once again I think Garcia and Stohl did a very nice job. The side stories intertwine nicely and smoothly with the main story line without being less important and adding to the fullness of the characters. I think I've mentioned before that I like the fact that nor Lena nor Ethan are helpless without each other but they are better together. Both of them figure things out and help the other without seeming utterly dependent on the other. Most of all, I like the fact that they both show love for others both in family and friends and their devotion is equal to them.

Was I expecting what happened with Ridley? Yes, it wasn't that of a secret what she was doing and how. I was however surprised at the fate of Sarafine, that I was not expecting.

The book ends with a cliff hanger, which is ok, considering that I have the next book to follow. In all I enjoyed the book, as always was a fast read both because of the story and because it is well written. Once again I applaud the fact that both authors don't try to write "like a teenager would talk" and hence I'm not rolling my eyes in the middle of a sentence doubting anyone would actually talk like that.

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

What's the book about?

This is the sequel to Beautiful Creatures. Just a bit of a warning there might be a bit of spoilers from the first book here. After confronting her destiny and sort of evading it, Lena is not feeling quite herself. Although Ethan tries his hardest to keep things the same for both of them this proves very hard when Lena herself seems to be committed to pull away. The appearance of a new Caster doesn't help. In the end it will be up to Ethan to keep fighting for the both of them.

What was the thing I liked the most? 

See, I was kind of disappointed at several points of the book because I was afraid it was falling into the love triangle again, and I sort of had enough of that already. However, I liked the side story that we got from Ethan's mother. Also, I really like Ridley, she is a bad/good character and I like that I can't predict her...yet

What about the main character?

Last review I talked about Ethan, so let's talk about Lena this time. I liked her in the first book better. She is smart and vulnerable. I didn't like her martyr tone, but when you learn the weight she has on her shoulders, with the responsibility of killing half of her family depending on her "calling", it is understandable that she is not the bubbliest of the teenagers. However, in this book we don't see her as much and the moments we do she has turned into this even sadder, darker, sort of Emo girl...no, I didn't like her in this book.

Final thoughts

I was very happy to see that the authors didn't go with the token "love triangle". I liked Olivia as a new character, more than I expected at the end. It wasn't better than the first book but I still want to read the third book and this is only due to the tiny doors that were left open at the end of the second book. 

  

This is book makes part of my Sequel Challenge :)

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

What's the book about?

Ethan Wate leaves in Gatlin, South Carolina. He thinks he doesn't belong in this small town, where everything has happened before to the point that he can tell who is going to be sitting with whom on the first day of school. That is, until Lena Duchanes arrives to town. He has seen her before, except that he hasn't, not really. He is instantly drawn to her, even when everyone in town seems against it. Learning she is a caster won't make people to like her any better and having a curse upon herself won't make her relationship with Ethan any easier either.

What was different of this book?

I know what you guys are thinking. Oh, this is just Twilight with witches instead of vampires. I know you are thinking it because that's why I didn't read the book before. I started wondering about it when I saw the movie coming, but you know what made me read it? My boyfriend, whom we will start calling Alex, since that's his name, comes to me and says: "io9 has an article about that book, apparently is good". So I go, I read this article and realized...well, it might not be like Twilight after all. 

And it wasn't. It remain a YA book, people, but (so far) none of the characters is useless without the other. I mean, yes they want to be together, they are 16 (about) but there is no "I will die if you are not to my side" part...again, so far, lets hope I will be not disappointed. Other than that, I feel the characters were better constructed and adding the little bit of Civil War was nice too.

What about the main character?

Ethan...Ethan has the feeling that he doesn't belong. Partially because his mom was an outsider and partially because he is a secret book worm. Sadly in this town, that's not a good thing, so he keeps he jock façade until Lena comes in the picture. He is battling some hard situations of his own. I think the teenage male voice has to be a little bit worked on, but it was nice to see a male main character for a while.

As for Lena...she wants to fit in. She want to do what every teenage girl wants to do, knowing that she might have limited time to do it. 

The 10% moment

At this point I wanted to know a bit more about the side characters. I mean, I knew how this was going to end, but the side characters (Amma for example) where very interesting and had a good back story. 

Final thoughts

Look, let's all be honest here. This is not the Pulitzer in the making, not the greatest American novella. But is a well written book. Was there a bit of cliché in the depiction of the town and its characters? Sure, but the point of this book was not to be an accurate picture of the south. The book was born as a dare. And the authors delivered EXACTLY what they were asked for. Unlike Zoey from the House of Night Series who in theory has as much power as Lena, the latest is not helpless. Sure, she "fell in love"...and yes they use the L word a bit fast...but I did the same thing when I was 16...minus the magic part.

This book delivers what was asked from it. Is a love story between teenagers. One of them happens to be supernatural. They have a lot of things against them being together. The girl does something else than falling in love, no vampires...

There is one thing that is bothering me A LOT, and that is the bunch of people hating this book. Is not the fact that they hate it, is ok by me, is the fact that they all say the same thing that everyone criticized about Twilight. I feel like a lot of critics, feeling the upcoming explosion of fans of this book decided to take cover early and say oh the book is just awful!. The book is not awful. The book is not great. The book could have more depth...but that would make it into another book, not the one that the writers wanted to give to their teenage kids (their words, not mine)

And while we are in the subject, all this "who falls in love in a second" speech I've also been hearing. Well, a teenager does. Think of the relationships you had when you were 15-17, full of hormones. Every time you felt like you couldn't wait a single second before talking to someone in particular, doing something, and the feeling that no one understood your feelings. I think a lot of people who read this book as an "adult" are either forgetting or in denial about what teenage love is. I'm just saying.

I'm not trying to convince you to like the book. Is just that to me, when everyone says the exact same thing about something (either good or bad) it stops feeling like a personal opinion and more like a collective stigma.