Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal
Year: 2009
Pages: 563
Publisher: Little, Brown
Followed by: Beautiful Darkness
Part of: Caster Chronicles (Book #1)
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.
(Goodreads)
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.
(Goodreads)
“There's not one word that describes all the people in my family. Is there one word that describes everyone in yours?""Yeah. Lunatics.”
“Just let me give you a ride home. You shouldn't be out here.""No, thanks. I'll wait for the next guy who almost runs me down.”
“No, I'm too busy trying to deflect your Power of Stupidity. But I don't think I'm strong enough.”
Everywhere I look I see very good reviews of this book. I'm amazed how many people fell in love with it. It makes me feel like I missed something, because it seems I am the only person in the whole world who just doesn't follow the hype.
Maybe it's the fact that I haven't read all that many YA books in my life, maybe compared to other YA stories out there, this one really stands out? I can't really pinpoint what it is exactly that makes me not like this book. The storyline is good. The writing is solid and skillful, it definitely has a huge potential, and yet when I think about the time when I was reading it, even now I feel tired and unsatisfied.
I really, REALLY disliked the lead character - Ethan. I wished he was more manly, wished for him not to think and act like a whiny child. As a lead character and narrator of the story, he lacked charisma and his voice was just weak, I found myself comparing him to Todd from Chaos Walking Trilogy and regretting that he was nothing like that.
The female lead character, Lena, was not any better. I didn't like her passiveness. If someone tells you that in a year or two you're going to turn dark, would you just accept the fact and not even try to do anything to change it, to save yourself? That's just pure ridiculous.
Ahh man, I really hate writing bad reviews, so maybe I should stop now. There are awfully many rants and complains that are just waiting to be poured out here. The story had a big potential, but I think it was mostly wasted. If I were to list the things that I liked about the book, it would be mostly the side-kick characters (especially Melchizedek, Link and Ridley. Oh, and Boo!) and occasional witty jokes scattered throughout more than 500 pages.
To sum it all up - considering that 99% people out there really love this book, there's a big chance you will like it too. So don't be discouraged by my review, if it was on your TBR list already, I say you still give it a chance.
I, however, won't be reading the next part of the series.