Beautiful Creatures

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

The Sequel to Beautiful Creatures is entitled 'Beautiful Darkness' and is being released on October 12th, 2010.

I read this book two days ago, and I cannot get it out of my head. I loved it. The way it was written was just amazing, and the plot line was great. The ending ticked me off a little, but that could be because I didn't read it thoroughly. I was afraid there wasn't going to be a sequel, so I had to google it. I'm psyched that there is going to be a sequel though.

Has anybody else read Beautiful Creatures? If so, what did you think of it?

I absolutely love this book!
I dreampt about it at night.
I always found Lena Duchannes name at the tip of my pencil.
Stunningly captivating.

Read all four books, it's... So addicting...

I didn't read the books, but I did see the movie. I try not to watch a movie before reading the book, but there was nothing else on tv and I just happened to land on it.

I live in South Carolina, and the way they portrayed the South was ridiculous to me.

I've lived in the south all my life, and I wouldn't know how to find my way to a civil war reenactment if my life depended on it. Do they really have those down here? I didn't think so, but after seeing that movie I'm not even sure.

And the whole small town thing where something goes wrong and all the parents come together for a meeting and all that cutesy southern shit? No. Doesn't happen. You call a meeting for parents, 60% aren't going to show up. And we're talking high school aged children? Scratch that, 80%. We don't have town meetings, lol.

And everyone down here isn't majorly religious to the point where we call everything the work of the Devil. I happen to not be religious at all.

And the southern accents that EVERYONE had was ridiculous. Like I said, I've lived here my whole life, and I don't have a southern drawl. I understand that was needed in the movie to establish the southern setting, but it was just so exaggerated, and I really don't think it was necessary to have every single person speak that way.

Basically, the movie just looked like a scene out of the 60's minus segregation, and adding in modern teen culture.

Aside from that, it was very interesting. I considered reading the books for a while but never got around to it. It's hard to read the book after watching the movie.

@ renaenotrenee
The book is very different from the movie. I don't think they can even continue the movie series the way they twisted everything. The ending is a lot better, and the characters are described differently. Ridley is portrayed more preppy and teenager-like. It's just so much more and there are more characters, I'd recommend reading it.

@ JeremyTheThirteenth

I read detailed summaries of the books on wikipedia, so I saw that the books seemed better than the movie (which is normally the case).

That kind of ruined it for me, since I read all the spoilers. I also saw that there probably won't be any more movies. The first one apparently didn't make enough. Figures.

I'll consider reading them still, though.