Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles #3)
by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Summary: Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What — or who — will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?
For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself — forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.
Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.
Source: I purchased a Kindle copy.
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Review:
I really liked Beautiful Creatures when I read it a couple of years ago, but I never picked up the rest of the series. It has taken me almost a year to finally commit to rereading the first book. I would start it, groan inwardly, and move onto something else. As much as I liked the book the first time around, the idea of reading 500+ pages again just sounded terrible. But I finished recently and committed to reading Beautiful Darkness before I lost my motivation. And after struggling to get through that book because it was sooo looong, I almost gave up.
Beautiful Chaos was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise daunting and slow series. Finally, it was less about Ethan and Lena’s love story and more about the events surrounding them. It was as if this was the book where characters were finally able to play their role. I learned a lot about the Caster world and the rules of it, along with what went on in Amma’s world.
Gatlin was falling apart after the events of Beautiful Darkness and all the clues they had were vague as to how to fix it. Ethan discovered the lines of the Eighteenth Moon song, but couldn’t decipher their meaning. His role was finally defined and he was able to use his abilities in this novel, however useless they may be. Old characters resurfaced and the characters we knew were altered by the events of the last book.
Beautiful Chaos was long, but unlike the previous two books, it was relatively fast paced and didn’t feel like such a long novel. I picked up the next book with an eagerness I hadn’t yet felt about the series, which is a huge compliment. I feel like things are finally happening, the twists keep coming, the elements of the plot finally mesh well and things are starting to be explained. And most importantly, Ethan and Lena aren’t so wrapped up in themselves. It’s bigger than the two of them and I needed that to happen because I was SO SICK of the two of them.
I really liked what happened to Ridley and Link and see a lot of potential with their characters and side plots. I have no idea what the spin off series, Dangerous Creatures is about, but if it’s about their side plots, I definitely see the appeal.
I can finally say that I do recommend the series. If you can trudge through the first two books, Beautiful Chaos really shines in a way the other two failed to do.
Labels: Review, YA
