So the book I read for our witches week was Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. First, let me just start by saying that I genuinely dislike first-person stories. That rule definitely lifted a bit with reading "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" so I was willing to give beautiful creatures a shot. I like supernatural things. Even more so I like witches quite a bit.
So for this book, it is sort of all about the consequences of good and evil as well as any teenage dream trivial romance. But it isn't real and blatantly so. Ethan is written for young teenage girls- the emotional romantic that isn't actually seen a lot today due to the devastating toxic masculinity in which boys are raised in. To me personally, he comes off as somewhat a whiny underling with delusional interests, however, this could be because in life love doesn't work just by seeing someone in a "dream" and hoping they would magically fall In love within. With this book that is sort of the all-around plot but it begs for something else.
With Lena and Ethan both aside I honestly found myself drawn more to the other characters just because the constant back and forth between Ethan and Lena was like reading Romeo and Juliet again. Only with more spells, dark and light castors, and an incubus. I mean the good news is that this book (at least the first, haven't read the second or any other in the series) ends with something that I do think is natural to any teen with a monumental decision. Indecisiveness. She doesn't choose a side, simply, thinks of a way to put it off to just not choose which honestly I respect that they chose this for her. If confronted with that sort of a choice when I was a teen even now I would probably be looking for a way out.
Even though they don't state that they are witches and wizards in the book- that is essentially what they are only with a different name and set of rules which are what most authors do in the first place anyways. Rehashing an old idea with a different set of names to try to "change it up". It wasn't a bad book by any means. It had a lot of mystery, teen romance, and supernatural themes but for me, it just didn't bring a whole lot of new to the table. Just more left me with a feeling of wanting to digest some form of media that would bring new life to an old theme rather than painting the characters up and giving them different names.
So for this book, it is sort of all about the consequences of good and evil as well as any teenage dream trivial romance. But it isn't real and blatantly so. Ethan is written for young teenage girls- the emotional romantic that isn't actually seen a lot today due to the devastating toxic masculinity in which boys are raised in. To me personally, he comes off as somewhat a whiny underling with delusional interests, however, this could be because in life love doesn't work just by seeing someone in a "dream" and hoping they would magically fall In love within. With this book that is sort of the all-around plot but it begs for something else.
With Lena and Ethan both aside I honestly found myself drawn more to the other characters just because the constant back and forth between Ethan and Lena was like reading Romeo and Juliet again. Only with more spells, dark and light castors, and an incubus. I mean the good news is that this book (at least the first, haven't read the second or any other in the series) ends with something that I do think is natural to any teen with a monumental decision. Indecisiveness. She doesn't choose a side, simply, thinks of a way to put it off to just not choose which honestly I respect that they chose this for her. If confronted with that sort of a choice when I was a teen even now I would probably be looking for a way out.
Even though they don't state that they are witches and wizards in the book- that is essentially what they are only with a different name and set of rules which are what most authors do in the first place anyways. Rehashing an old idea with a different set of names to try to "change it up". It wasn't a bad book by any means. It had a lot of mystery, teen romance, and supernatural themes but for me, it just didn't bring a whole lot of new to the table. Just more left me with a feeling of wanting to digest some form of media that would bring new life to an old theme rather than painting the characters up and giving them different names.
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