Beautiful Creatures

by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Ethan lives in the small southern town of Gatlin, South Carolina.  Not much happens in Gatlin, the people who live in Gatlin have lived there all their life and can trace their families back to the Civil War.  As far back as Ethan can remember, no one new ever moves to Gatlin, until Lena Duchannes arrives.  When Ethan first sees Lena, he recognizes her from the dreams that have been haunting him at night.  He is drawn to her, despite his grandmother’s warnings.  Ethan and Lena are connected by history and also by something supernatural.  Lena comes from a long line of Casters, or witches that are cursed to become good or evil Casters on their sixteenth birthday.  As Lena’s sixteenth birthday approaches, Ethan and Lena become closer and find that not only can they communicate telepathically, but they also share visions of a supernatural event that took place during the Civil War.  Lena is not a common Caster, she has more power than most, and is terrified of going dark.  Ethan believes that Lena has a choice and as his feelings for her grow stronger, they both race against time to try and figure out some way to break the curse.

Beautiful Creatures is a beautiful read.  The setting of Gatlin, South Carolina is just as much a character in the book as Lena and Ethan.  This book is epic, though, at about 600 pages but if you stay with it you will experience a great love story, historical mystery, and a very interesting supernatural mythology created around the Casters.  Beautiful Creatures is part of a series, called the Caster Chronicles, and books 2 and 3 are available now.  There is also a movie adaptation in the works, and casting has just started for the movie.  According to the blog Hollywood Crush, the first character to be cast is Amma and she will be played by the Oscar nominated actress Viola Davis (The Help).

Click here to find Beautiful Creatures in the Library!  Also, click here to find the second book Beautiful Darkness and click here to find the third book Beautiful Chaos.

Nightshade

by Andrea Cremer

Humans who turn into invincible wolves, wizards protecting secret sites, conspiracies, forbidden love, and even a supernatural love triangle.  Nightshade has it all–including a strong and interesting female lead.  The story centers on Calla.  When we first meet her, she is in her wolf form.  She is the alpha of her pack, the Nightshades, who are destined to protect the next generation of keepers.  The Keepers are magicians who protect sacred spiritual sites and control the wolf packs.  Calla and her pack mate Bryn are patrolling the mountains they are sworn to protect, when the come upon Shay, a human guy about their age who is out hiking.  He is under attack from a big grizzly bear.  Calla can’t figure out what compels her to save Shay, but in doing so she exposes her secret–that she is a human who can transform into a wolf.  After Calla saves Shay’s life she realizes she has a strange attraction to him.  But she has to ignore her attraction because he is just a human and she is set to join with another pack’s alpha, Ren.  She knows that this is her destiny, and that she has no choice in who she can love.  Things get complicated, though, when Shay shows up at their elite school as a new student.  Shay is determined to learn more about Calla and unfortunately the more Shay finds out, the more danger he and Calla get into.

So, I was surprised to find that I loved this book!  I picked it up because there was a ton of hype surrounding it, and of course there were comparisons to Twilight–a love triangle, forbidden romance, and supernatural elements all guarantee that any book will be compared to Twilight.  I thought that Nightshade was an excellent read.  The mythology that Cremer creates regarding the wolves and magic is believable.  Also, the love story is not too dramatic either.  But what I liked best about Nightshade was that the main character Calla was a strong female!  Not only does Calla save Shay’s life twice, she also is fighting against the life that is imposed upon her. 

Nightshade is the first book in a planned trilogy.  Click here to find Nightshade, the first book in the trilogy, in the Library.  Click here to find Wolfsbane the second book and here to find Bloodrose the third and final book that was just published last week!

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

by Ransom Riggs

At first look at the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, you can’t help but being drawn in to reading the book.  I’ve seen the cover a ton of times, but it wasn’t until I picked it up to read it that I realized that the the creepy cover photo of the young girl actually shows her levitating!  When you flip through the book you see more creepy photos, like these:

All of which are real vintage photos that the author collected to tell his story.  The story of Miss Peregrine’s Home of Peculiar Children centers on sixteen year old Jacob.  At the beginning of the novel he finds his grandfather dead.  Jacob was close to his grandfather; he grew up with his grandfather’s fantastic stories of the orphanage where he grew up as an orphan of the war.  The orphanage was a place for children with special abilities like invisibility, super strength, and the ability to defy gravity.  The trauma of finding his grandfather dead causes Jacob to have vivid nightmares and for his parents to question his mental state.  Jacob desperately wants to know the truth about his grandfather, especially his childhood.  He suggests a trip to Wales with his father to the small island where Jacob’s grandfather grew up living at the orphanage.  It is on this island that Jacob discovers the truth about his grandfather and much more.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a good read, especially for someone who wants a to read a fantasy with a touch of horror.  Reading along with the creepy vintage photos makes every turn of the page a surprise.  This novel would be great for anyone who is a fan of X-Men, Harry Potter, The Magicians, and even Alice in Wonderland.

It is interesting to note that Tim Burton is in talks with 20th Century Fox to create the movie based on the book, for Miss Peregrine’s Home to Peculiar Children.  (Click here for the article on Deadline.)  Also, check out the really well-done book trailer below: