Review: Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures #3) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
4 Stars
Read February 15-20, 2013; 518 pages
Book #3 – I really liked this one. As opposed to trends in the previous two books in the series, Beautiful Chaos was not just action after action. There was some depth and real story telling going on here. Things came together, and were torn apart in ways that left me aching.
Also, finally FINALLY I was not annoyed at any of the characters (i.e. my many urges to throw Beautiful Darkness across the room in fits of frustration at Lena). I finally liked her. Now, I have to relent that it might have been because she’s not a super huge part of the plot here in book #3. Sure, she was in it and because Ethan is in love with her she is integral to the story line, but her actions weren’t a significant factor. Less Lena = happier Caitlin. Our narrator and protagonist Ethan comes into his own here and his personality and character shine. My heart just bled for him (see final comment). In fact, most of the character came into their own. They solidified and yet changed – they grew.
To put the book in context of the series, things are really shifting and changing now. The actions carried out in previous books are coming to hard and difficult conclusions. Garcia and Stohl did a wonderful job addressing the issues they created. They didn’t write a happy go lucky turn out of events of brush by the potentially life-altering and world-changing consequences. By dealing with repercussions of books # 1 & 2 in this way, the Beautiful Chaos contains a certain amount of gravitas. Reality hits hard. The emotional twists that I as a reader went through excited me. It was a moody book in all the right ways, which suited me as I was reading it.
Oh, and the thing I loved loved loved about Beautiful Chaos was the angst. Epic, stunning, deep episodes of angst. Ah! SO MUCH GREAT ANGST!
the cato chronicles 