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Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything

When I read the reviews on Amazon, I quickly requested this book from the library. But the reviews on Goodreads have not been promising, plus the fact that this book is ridiculously long, I thought I might return this book as soon as I borrowed it but since my holiday is about to end soon, I gave this book a try, and I finished all the 563 pages of it.

The story started off pretty well, considering although I've read the synopsis earlier, I couldn't make sense what the book is all about. The jokes were sometimes really funny and I liked the idea how even though Lena was quite pretty, she has no sense of style whatsoever, which somehow made her stylish in her own way. But towards the end, she seemed to give up too easily and kept saying 'there's nothing you can do blah3'. Come on, a female lead should be more inspiring than that.

What I like
- The whole type of Light and Dark Casters, the Siren, the Natural, the Incubus etc. Cool names, but the details of their powers were not being elaborated enough for the readers to fathom.
- The sharing of dreams and visions, and how the smell, the heat, the blood lingered even after the dreams and visions were gone.
- Link is a pretty hilarious character.
- Boo. I silently wished he would not be dead and thankfully he survived.

What I don't like
- The length! OMG, how could the authors force me to read a 563 pages long novel and left me with so many questions even after I finished reading the last page. Save for the sequel of course, but honestly, by reading the synopsis of the following novels and the no of pages they have, I don't think I'll read the sequels anytime soon. Maybe never.
- The story lost pace after about 200 pages or so. Yes, I did finish this book within 24 hours, and as much I was eager to find out what happens next, I can't help but noticing how there were so many scenes that were insignificant and should be cut off from the novel.
- The prejudice against the Southern people. I mean, they can't be that bad, can they?
- The cover. Some people commented it was beautiful but nah, I don't think so. Just average.

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