Book #3: Beautiful Creatures

Title: Beautiful Creatures

Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Date started reading: Jan. 12, 2013
Date finished reading: Jan. 17, 2013

Publish date: November 2012
ISBN: 978-0316231657
Number of pages: 592

Official summary: "Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything." (http://www.kamigarcia.com)

Official book trailer:

Official movie trailer:

How I obtained the book: Got through PaperBackSwap.com

My pre-reading commentary:  I'd like to claim that I am not reading this series just because the movie looks awesome, but I'd be lying. I have heard lots of good things about the books, so yes, I am interested in them, and I'll probably love them, but if it wasn't for seeing the awesome movie trailer a couple months ago, I would've never planned to read them.

My post-reading commentary:

• I feel like the authors were way more wordy than they needed to be. I think the first 120 pages or so could've been written in 30 pages. They spend way too much time describing everything. I really didn't need 40 some pages explaining how living in a small town is. 
• I really think this may be one of the few times when I like a movie that's based on a book better than the book itself because the movie will have to condense things a lot and won't have so much of the details I felt were unnecessary. 
• In the end, I really think about a third of the pages could've been cut out and the story wouldn't have suffered one bit. Everything had too much detailed. The entire book overall was too wordy. The storyline was great, but the execution of it was a little lacking since there were parts that were a little too dry because they were bogged down by Ethan describing every detail of everything around him and of everything that happens. 
• I am seriously looking forward to the movie now, even more than before I read the book. Judging by the trailers, they did a great job translating a magical world for the movie screen. 

Memorable quotes:

•  "Gaitlin wasn't like the small towns you saw in the movies, unless it was a movie from about fifty years ago. ... Gaitlin wasn't a complicated place; Gaitlin was Gaitlin. ... There were no surprises in Gaitlin County. We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere." ~ Ethan
• "It's funny how you can live somewhere your whole life, but not really see it." ~ Ethan
• "Things were changing pretty quickly around here, for a town that never changed at all." ~ Ethan
• "Teenagers -- everything is apocalyptic." ~ Marian
• "To everyone else, school was prison. To Lena, it was freedom." ~ Ethan
• "Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures." ~ Macon

Buy on Amazon.com: Beautiful Creatures