Review: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

*A little spoilerish if you haven’t read Beautiful Creatures yet.

Book Description via Goodreads:

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Source: Bought

My Thoughts:

The death of Gatlin’s Boo Radley brought about a change in everyone, in how they relate to Lena and to Ethan. It was a wonderful touch – the hypocrisy of the people of Gatlin after someone’s death. This is something that I have also observed in real life. Annoying and entertaining for me. It sort of defined the usual women in Gatlin. They stuck with the practices and when these were no longer needed, they dump them and go back to normal mode. Even Lena has changed, isolating herself from everyone and pulling away from Ethan, and sometimes acting like she was already a Dark Caster.

The things that I really liked about Beautiful Darkness were the new characters, the answered questions, the wider exploration of the Tunnels and the twists and turns. These things made the sequel a satisfying read.

Liv, an adventurous Keeper-in-training, and John Breed, an Incubus who could walk in the sun, were new additions to the great cast of the Caster Series. Through Liz, some of my questions after reading Beautiful Creatures were answered. The supernatural experiences of Ethan were finally explained.

The songs and the visions captivated me. Beautiful Darkness was two stories woven together as one. Past and present coincided in a tangle of magic and involvement. As it turned out, the Greats were not the only ghosts in the town of Gatlin.

When Lena disappeared and went with Ridley and John Breed, Ethan followed. Attempting to reach her through his mind and with the use of a gift, he tracked her down and found himself in the Tunnels where the laws of time and space were not followed. Wondrous, thrilling and dangerous, the Tunnels were filled with magical creatures that posed threat to them. As they raced to reach Lena, they discovered the truths behind the secrets about Gatlin and the Caster world.

Beautiful Darkness is sad, dark and deliciously dangerous. Better than Beautiful Creatures in every angle.

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