Beautiful Darkness

Kami Garcia · Margaret Stohl

Oct 2010 · Sold by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

About this ebook

Fall under the spell of the Beautiful Darkness, the sequel to the instant New York Times bestselling gothic fantasy, Beautiful Creatures!   There were no surprises in Gatlin County. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin as a place where nothing ever changed. Then mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes revealed a secret world of curses and Supernaturals with terrifying abilities. Lena showed him a Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. Sometimes life-ending.
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.  

Ratings and reviews

I think this had to be more stunning than the last! I love the way the authors write. Apart from the occasional (though few) problems I have with a few of the characters or the parts I thought 'does that really fit', I thought it was amazing. But then again to contradict myself, most of the 'does that really fit' parts came together at the end and just boosted how well thought out the contents really are. I've been in love with some of the characters, for example Link, who happens to be my favourite character, since the first book and I love how most of the back-seat roles of the first book were brought forward to be main-roles in this book. Especially the cat Lucille! At first I thought 'that's rather strange' but then as the book progressed I was amazed at how Garcia and Stohl had made a cat a important role. Through all the books I've read, that rarely happens. (And the cat was too adorable for words.) Anyway, even though in a lot of the parts of the books Lena isn't present, Garcia and Stohl still managed to keep her a main role, which is of course important because well... there would be no story without her. I've never really been sure what to think of Lena (always loved Ethan though) but I loved her part in the ending of the book. It all drew together really nicely. Another character I like is Amma. She's funny but powerful, especially in the scene that stuck out most to me, which was the pie scene. Both funny and a horrifying prospect. One thing about the book I thought could have been slightly more, how to say... dramatic is the scenes where something big happens but there's hardly any emphasis, such as the scene where it's a flash-back of Macon and Jane, and Abraham suddenly appears. I think that could have been slightly more detailed. But that's just my opinion, maybe the simplicity of the whole scene really made it in others opinions. One last thing is, I'm still trying to figure out how the chapters work. It doesn't go up like 'one, two, three' it goes up differently but maybe that's me being a dunce and just missing something.

loved this book. there is a lot of mystery and love and hope that's a reason why i feel in love with this book. i never get tried of reading it, but i must say the first one was better. this book i would recommend to anybody that loves love and mystery. <3

This book was a fairly gripping tale. Where the first of the chronicles laid out ideas i had a hard time really getting into it. This book made me feel like I had delved straight into the heart of the story in the first few pages.

About the author

Kami Garcia is the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and the Legion series. Kami lives in Maryland with her family and her dogs, Spike and Oz, named after characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Margaret Stohl is a lifelong science fiction fan, former video game designer, and #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures, Cat vs. Robot, Life of Captain Marvel, and more. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her family.