Review: Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is the worst book I have read so far this year. I'm not the type of person that frequently gives out 1-star ratings/reviews, but I honestly found it hard to give this book more than 0 stars. So I will start by saying that I listened and read this book in conjunction. The publishing company tried really hard to make the audiobook book extraordinary by incorporating multiple readers, sound effects, and background music. But if the story is bad, I'm not going to enjoy the audiobook more because there were cool noises in supplementation.

Here's the list of problems I found with this book:
1. The male POV, and female supporting character. Honestly, if you can't write it well, don't write it. I rolled my eyes so many times throughout the book. Like, even more than Twilight. Aside from that, Ethan was straight-up the stupidest protagonist EVER. He doesn't take advice from the adult figures in his life that are trying to protect him. This is actually one of those things that really annoy me about a lot of YA novels, but Ethan was just the worst. He sneaks out at night and overhears that Amma gave Lena a bracelet that is meant to ward off evil. What does he do? Immediately demand Lena to take it off...and she does it! It was absolutely infuriating how she basically can't make up her own mind to take action for her own benefit. I didn't really follow the romance. Lena has absolutely no reason to trust Ethan except for the fact that they can communicate telepathically (eye roll).

2. The faulty portrayal of the south. Wow. I was so annoyed every single time Ethan thought about how uneducated his classmates were, and how all the girls had blonde hair and wore short mini skirts. Like really? And he declares just how much better he was compared to everyone else before the major plot even kicked in. The worst part was when he claims that he doesn't have a southern accent because he was raised by intellectual parents. Ugh. UGH. I don't think I've ever hated a protagonist more. What a snob.

3. It was too long. Basically, it all just becomes words thrown together on paper. I am pretty sure the publishers wanted to make Twilight round 2 (I mean, the book is from the same publishing company) so they stretched the book out to be just as long. But this book was so horrible that you basically drag yourself through 350+ pages of nonsense. If I didn't listen to the audiobook, I would have quit reading by page 50.

4. This book falls under the same paranormal love story plot as every other story out there. It's super predictable. I think the author probably thought she was being original or something, but it's still the same line of garbage love story that the publishers are still trying to shovel down our throats.

TLDR: This book was absolutely terrible. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone; I'm going to un-haul my copy of the book right now.

Overall rating: <1 Star

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