“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
Neil Gaiman

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl



Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Darkness (Oct. 2010)


By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrVl6pq1gNE


http://media.barnesandnoble.com/index.jsp?fr_chl=bf959b72587c3a9b94da6cf24804619fdda4731e&cds2Pid=26721&linkid=1331414


The titles of these two popular YA novels were a little deceptive. I have to admit, my initial draw was actually the stark but absolutely beautiful cover of the book. I know there is that whole silly thing about not judging a book by its cover, but we all know that every single one of us does it -- at least at first. It's one of the reasons librarians weed through collections and find updated versions of classics. At any rate, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect initially given the title, but Garcia & Stohl have delivered an interesting mixture of fantasy, gothic, and historical fiction and melded it into the supernatural world. Toss in a librarian and I was hooked! I couldn’t put down the first book, Beautiful Creatures, and was lucky enough to have an advanced copy of Beautiful Darkness from ALA. I loved both of them and can’t wait for more from Garcia & Stohl! I'm also looking forward to one day meeting them as they have certainly created a fan out of me!


I hate to give too much away about plot, but the basic story involves teen Lena Duchannes who moves to her grandfather’s mansion in the small southern town of Gatlin and starts to stir things up unknowingly. She has an instant connection with local teen Ethan Wate and interesting things start to happen…Mystery abounds as the story unfolds and a supernatural world in Gatlin that has been hidden for centuries is revealed.



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