I recently finished the sequel to Kami Garcia and Margaret’s Stohl southern gothic tome, Beautiful Darkness (Beautiful Creatures, Book 2).  While I enjoyed the original, I liked the sequel even more because the supernatural details had been established so there was more room for plot and character development.  Despite its five hundred pages, I devoured this book in three days.  The twists are so compelling that I was distracted when I tried to put the book down and do something else.

The authors have masterfully crafted a fantasy world that is unique but clear.  The southern setting is so sensual that you’ll smell the lemon trees and mourn the decay of Ravenwood Manor.  I desperately want to visit the underground Lunae Librae and see the cemetery on All Saints Day.

The story revolves around an archetypal fight between good and evil, but allows for many shades of gray in between.  As the main characters come of age they repeatedly discover that nothing is as it seems or as they hoped it would be.  I don’t want to deny anyone who hasn’t read either book the pleasure of discovering the lush world of Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes, so I’ll just say you’ll find spellcasters and demons, impossible love, ghosts and adolescent trauma between the covers.  The book is joyous escapism and this is the perfect time of year to pick it up.  If you think your family is twisted, wait until you meet the Ravenwoods, Duchannes, Wates and Lincolns.

Have you read Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness ?  What part of the world would you visit if you could?

Beautiful Darkness (Beautiful Creatures, Book 2) is available from Amazon in hardcover for $11.63 and paperback for $9.99.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 10:59 am and is filed under Read. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.