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Renae’s review of Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)
3.5 out of 5. Interesting story, but the main character though male, reads like a female.
Setting:
Set in the south, with all it’s charm and glory. I like the southern charm of this book and the fact that they incorporated so much of the civil war.
The magic system is open-ended. Casters can have insanely different powers, and nothing seems to glue them together, even in families. I’m looking forward to exploring more of this world.
Plot:
Beautiful Creatures is a slow burn. If an ordinary young adult fiction book is a 500 piece puzzle, this book is a 1000 piece puzzle. There seems to be a lot of filler chapters, extra description, and throw away characters.
That’s not to say the slow burn is terrible. I don’t mind, but it made the ending less exciting. And the end is a bit anticlimactic as it is. The story seems to be dramatic — lots of hormonal teenagers — but the end has no real twists or turns.
Characters:
Ethan reads like a girl. We are in his head the whole book. Many of his thoughts are more typical of a girl. When Ethan describes the dance, he uses words not known to a straight teenage man. He is too in touch with his feelings. And a guy…