While searching for a book to read in his room, Ethan comes across a package which was Macon's that Marian Ashcroft had given him to give to Lena. Lena hadn't wanted it, so Ethan had kept it. Inside the package, Ethan finds a black wooden box intricately carved with caster symbols.
Inside the box, there are pages of unbound old paper which has Macon's writing on them. When touching them, Ethan is flung into a vision. Ivy warns Abraham that the Book will call to him, and warns him not to listen to it.
She tells him not to open it, and to keep it safe until she can come for it. But Ivy's warnings come too late: Abraham is already listening to the call of the Book and intends to use it.
Ethan emerges from the vision, puzzled, wondering why he is seeing Abraham now. He recalls that Genevieve's locket triggered the visions that had occurred before Lena's birthday, and that now the Book of Moons has been in both this vision and the one triggered by the locket.
He realizes that he and Lena need to figure out why the visions are occurring this time. Ethan begins to realize how much Lena has changed over the past four months. He realizes than Lena is not going to 'come out of it'.
She is drifting away from him, so much that Ethan cannot reach her inside. Their telepathic connection, Kelting , has even faded. One day at school, Ethan hear Lena losing it in his mind, and immediately drives to Ravenwood to help her.
He finds her room in a chaotic state, books thrown around and destroyed. Ethan comforts Lena, who is extremely distressed. She explains telepathically that her books 'all sounded like him. I couldn't make them stop. Lena's Gramma finally steps in and forces Lena to go back to school and act better than she has been. Until Lena gets better, she only allowed to see Ethan when he is dropping off homework for her. Ethan is annoyed at this. When Ethan next sees Lena's room, all the books and writing on the walls are gone and replaced with photographs.
When Ethan asks about it, Lena says that 'some guy' was in the graveyard when she was taking photos, and that she meant to take that photo off the wall, since it looked so bad.
Ethan also notices that the silver sparrow stands in the centre of the room. Ethan picks up a book, but when opening it, realizes that it is Lena's notebook, and that most of the pages are blank. Lena is furious and grabs the notebook out of Ethan's hands.
Ethan tries to apologize, saying that he hadn't realized that it was Lena's notebook. He then asks why she isn't writing in it anymore. Lena says that she has been writing in it, but has charmed the pages so that no Mortal can read them. Ethan is furious, thinking that Lena has charmed the notebook so that he can't read it. When he demands to look at the notebook, Lena gives it to him, thinking that he will not see anything. However, he does.
He reads:. Lena grabs the book out of his hands, alarmed that he can read it. Ethan asks what the writing is about, but Lena refuses to answer, telling Ethan that it's private. She only says that she has been trying to remember the night Macon died. When Ethan gets home, he finds Lucille waiting for him on the front porch. That night, Ethan has a dream about the night Macon died. He dreams that he was climbing onto the top of the crypt when Sarafine stabbed him with a knife, killing him.
When Ethan wakes up, he sees a scar on his lower abdomen where the knife had stabbed him in the dream. It throbs, as if it was a real wound. But Ethan doesn't have time to speculate about it as he hears Amma calling him to get up, and realizes that he has an English Final at school that day that he hasn't finished studying for. Ethan goes to school, and when seeing everyone in swimsuits remembers that today after school finishes everyone will go down to the lake to swim and celebrate the end of school.
She does not talk to Ethan and has taken to wearing her dead uncle clothes. When Emily Asher insults Macon's memory, Lena takes her revenge by setting Emily's test on fire, and putting the blame on Emily by magically placing a lighter on Emily's desk. Emily is sent to the office by an angry Mrs English. After school, Ethan tries to make conversation with Lena, but she refuses to look or speak to him.
She seems distracted, as if her mind is elsewhere. However, when Ethan mentions the vision and dream he had, she is alert. He shows her the scar on his abdomen, and watches as Lena's face pales, and she seems panicked.
Ethan tries to get her to open up, to tell him what's wrong, but she doesn't. Link then comes by and comments that nobody is going to the lake since all the cars' tires have been slashed-- all except Lena's, that is. Ethan asks Lena mentally if she slashed the tires, but she says she didn't. Ethan realizes something is wrong; 'the old Lena would have bitten our heads off for even asking.
Ethan sees a familiar guy on a Harley motorbike exit the parking lot. The motorcycle looks familiar, and Ethan strains his mind trying to figure out where he has seen it before. Lena sees the motorbike too, and immediately runs to her car, wanting to get away from there. Ethan and Link have to run to catch up to her. Ethan, Lena and Link go to the lake. After some peace and fun, Lena and Ethan kiss, and things get out of hand. Lena pushes Ethan away and runs away through the trees, upset, realizing that she had almost killed Ethan by merely kissing him.
She jumps onto the back of a motorbike, and rides away. Ethan, who has been chasing her, sees her and realizes that she knows the guy on the motorbike, or she wouldn't have jumped on. Ridley is with a guy, who introduces himself as John Breed. Ethan realizes that John was the one Lena had run off with, and that he is the boy who gave Lena the sparrow at Macon's funeral.
After Ridley mentions John's motorbike, Ethan realizes that it was John who picked Lena up at the lake. He'd be waiting on the corner the next time Lena needed a ride. Ethan is furious at Lena for deceiving him for all these months. He wonders how long she and John have known each other, and why she couldn't tell him. At home, Ethan skips dinner, choosing to stay in his room and look at photos and memories of him and Lena. Amma comes to his room to make sure he's alright. She tells him that he's 'not right' and that Lena isn't, either.
She gives him a red string with beads knotted into it for Ethan to wear around his wrist. When they do rescue Lena, Ethan encourages her to claim herself to stop Serafine from harnessing the power of the Claiming moon. When the battle is over, Ethan and Lena find their way back to one another. Link is bitten and will soon become a Blood Incubus, but Macon is teaching him how to deal with it.
Macon must hide in the tunnels since the world believes he is dead, but Liv has agreed to work with him. Ridley is unhappy about the loss of her powers. For this reason, she decides to trap John Breed in the Arclight.
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View the Study Pack. Order our Beautiful Darkness Study Guide. Plot Summary. You're like the Caster equivalent of Aquaman. Audiobook Comments I really enjoyed how the audio of these books actually sing the lyrics in the book - really well and with haunting accompanying music.
But, you have been warned, this book is read with a slow, southern drawl in most of it. I listened it on 2x speed and it felt like they were talking at a normal speed. View all 6 comments. Feb 24, mark monday rated it it was ok Shelves: teenworld , secret-histories. View all 66 comments. Mar 16, Cara rated it really liked it Shelves: paranormal , male-protagonist , , series. Every time I finish one I'm always a bit emotionally drained and the authors always dangle something in front of you, so you almost have to read the next one to keep your sanity intact.
Ethan and Lena just barely made it out alive from Lena's last Claiming, and things are not the same. Lena is grieving over the loss of Macon and Ethan can feel she is slipping away from him. She's starting to hang out with Ridley and this strange guy named John. Before Ethan can even take a real grasp of the situation Lena runs away and though things between them are strained Ethan will go and try to find her.
With the help of the sarcastic, goofy but studly Link, the smart as a whip new character Liv, and the wise old cat Lucille, Ethan goes through a journey where his heart leads him to Lena and where he will try with all he has to bring her back to him. Even though I did like reading this, I noticed the length of it a little too much.
With the first one I was so enamored with the story I didn't notice it almost at all. I'm a little peeved that there are four books in the series because I believe everything could be solved in three, but I really enjoy Garcia's and Stohl's style and will read all of them.
The southern setting always captures me, and doesn't let me out of its grasp. Unfortunately Lena was hard for me to swallow this time around.
I literally wanted to take a frying pan and bang her head, but then I would be obliterated since she is oh so powerful. But then as the book progresses I did understand her better and where she was coming from. Only then I could mentally put away the cast iron skillet. I liked the change of Ethan being angry. We had to see that he had some gumption and a limit of what he could put up with. I also thought it was great that we got to see more interaction between Link and Ethan, and learn how their friendship worked.
More secrets are brought to light in this one, and we are getting more pieces to see how the puzzle will be solved. Pay attention to Ridley and Link because their character arcs are the most interesting. They will definitely bring lots to the table in the next book. You can tell things are escalating already and I'm hopping up and down with anticipation to see what the cast of characters will be up against in the upcoming sequel Beautiful Chaos.
View all 39 comments. Feb 10, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: paranormal , 21th-century , romance , young-adult , novels , fantasy. Beautiful Darkness is the sequel to the Caster Saga. The story begins with the tragic death of Macon Ravenwood, Lena's beloved uncle. Through telepathic communication, Lena tells Ethan she wants to skip the funeral.
Ethan is skeptical about Macon's choice for burial, the town cemetery of which he doesn't have any real love for the town, Gatlin. Macon was an incubus who chose to feed on dreams rather than human blood. Several incubuses attended his funeral most of which Ethan had never known or seen before the funeral.
A caster boy gives Lena a silver sparrow before he himself had to depart. After the funeral, Lena falls into a deep depression and refused to leave the house, Ravenwood Manor. Lena had used the Book of Moons to bring Ethan back to life in the previous book, Beautiful Creatures. Lena shuts Ethan out and refuses to discuss things with him. Lena worries that even though she avoided having to choose what she will claim, light or dark on her sixteenth birthday, she thinks that someday soon she will whether she's ready for it or not.
Ethan attempts to cheer Lena up through their secret telepathic abilities, that is until Lena's grandmother Delphine insist that Lena returns to school. Initially, this seems to make Lena feel better, normal in a sense. View 2 comments. Jan 21, kari rated it it was ok Shelves: , ya. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For gosh sakes, there are still two more books in this series??? To what end? Here's the plot, let me know if you've heard this before, a few thousand times.
Mortal teenager meets supernatural being of the opposite sex, experiencing instantaneous connection while supernatural being acts oddly and tells mortal that they must stay apart, that it's too dangerous, etc.
Yet against all odds the two become a couple and after much drama and a battle, they are happily together. So, we get to book tw For gosh sakes, there are still two more books in this series??? So, we get to book two, in which the supernatural being pulls away from the mortal teenager, again for the mortal's own good, because the supernatural being is too angst-ridden and just plain idiotic to actually discuss anything with the love of their life.
Also, appearing in book two, is the required stand-in possible love interest that as a reader you can never quite believe in because if the mortal and the super-being are fated, star-crossed lovers, then adding in another one makes absolutely no sense and only diminishes the power of their love story.
Are you following me? So, I guess the third book will have more running around, trying to outwit the baddies while the supernatural continues to dither around about their exact nature, good or bad. There could be an impossible per the autor's own canon mutant child that will grow up overnight allowing the cast aside love interest to have a mini-version of their lost almost-love.
Nah, that's too far out for anyone to believe. It will end with a major climactic battle in which all the baddies will be destroyed, the world made right, or else a small debate after which the baddies decide to walk away. I enjoyed the first Caster series book, but this one is very flat and goes on far too long for no real reason.
This whole five hundred pages could have been a few short chapters. Honestly, the first two hundred pages are Ethan moaning because Lena has pretty much dumped him. Yet he continues to follow after her and feel badly every time she treats him like dirt.
After this, they spend the remainder of the book running about in the Caster tunnels and it seems as endless as the tunnels themselves.
It goes on and on until the last fifty pages when things finally start to happen. What if I met her first? What if I never met Lena? What if I just almost kiss her a time or two and we snuggle up and sleep together? What if Liv had been a guy named Leo and we were spared all of this nonsense? And after all of this, this journey to save her, her involvement with someone else which is overlooked , the pain she has caused Ethan, in the end, she chooses NOT to choose.
Not a character to whom I can feel any connection. This reason it gets a two instead of a one is because there were a few small things that I liked or that surprised me. Finding out more about Ethan was interesting, but not enough to save the book. Ethan's voice and observations. All in all, this book was very uneven and tough to get through.
AND oh my goodness, it just occured to me. Marian the Librarian! Not even original. Anyone seen the Music Man? I'm done with this series and don't care how it ends. I'm giving up on series that have so little to them that they shouldn't be serialized and don't have any growth in the characters and waste my time. View all 47 comments. It was a wonder anyone in Gatlin slept at all. After the drama caused at Lena's sixteenth birthday, everything in the Caster world has changed, and no one is prepared.
Evil forces are at work - Sarafine is up to her tricks, and Lena has still not chosen whether she will be a light or a dark caster. Her relationship wit 3. Her relationship with Ethan becomes strained, particularly when a new girl arrives to work in the Gatlin library. I liked the twists and turns the story took view spoiler [ like when Ridley has her powers taken away from her, and when Macon returns from the dead hide spoiler ] It was easy to get swept back up in this world, it has a bit of everything - humour, romance, fantasy and darkness.
It is definitely my guilty pleasure and I am going to order book 3 from the library! View all 5 comments. Aug 17, Joyzi rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Peeps who don't mind emo girl and gay boy. Shelves: favorites , reviewed , fiction , e-book , book-series , author-american , 5-stars-or-more , ya-books , paranormal-romance.
This Book, three words honey What The Buck!!! I can go on and on but I think my limited vocabulary won't do it justice. Stars speak for yourself. Ah Hello! Hi there Blindy! Look 5 stars! And can I just add how creepy the book is and I was like, "Mom I swear I'm not hallucinating I can't sleep in my room and I think there's an Incubus in my closet!
Only creepier, awesomer, insanier, bad-asser eer eer eer eer eer eer eer eer eer eer eer Okay I promise this review won't contain any spoilers so I'm using tuuuuuuut!
Yeah I know, genius right? I can't believe that Macon and tuuuuuuuut! And Ridley become tuuuuut and Link become tuuuuuuut and Ethan was the bucking tuuuuuuuut!
The villains are bucking tuuuuuuuuuuuut. The new villain is tuuuuuuuut! Liv sacrificing her tuuuuuuuuuuut in the end. And then the tuuuuuuuuuuuuuts showing up in the end. And then tuuuuuut and tuuuuuuut died in the end. And then Lena was bucking tuuuuuuuuuut in the end. And John was half tuuuut and half tuuuuuut. And the cat, yes the CAT! And seriously 18 moons??? Where this would all stop! Now I'mma shut up. Wow it rhymes, Bucking shit!
Just read this Motherbuckers! I went to National Bookstore today since I bought a rubik's cube for my brother and I was surprised that the book was released today. PS: The cover's gorgeous! View all 40 comments. Mar 18, Kristi rated it really liked it Shelves: books-i-own , own-arc , signed-arcs. Oh, how I've missed you Gatlin. The one thing that really stands out to me about this series I want to live there There is something truly addicting about Gatlin Beautiful Darkness is one word is intense.
So much Oh, how I've missed you Gatlin. So much more happens to our beloved, Ethan and Lena. Beautiful Creatures was just the tip of the iceberg All that Caster information is well below the surface and I have a suspicion that Beautiful Darkness didn't even reveal it all. The plot was a little slow at times for me I knew we were getting to something huge, but it just felt like it took forever to get there!
Although, it was totally worth all the suspense that had built up in those five hundred some pages. Loved the new characters in this novel! Liv and John I am very interested to see what these new characters have in store for us in the next two books! These are beautifully written novels and I truly admire Kami and Margie's talent! You ladies rock my world. This novel was great on its own View all 7 comments. Mar 10, Krys rated it it was amazing Shelves: listened-to-in-audiobook , long-length-book , first-person-narrative , witches-wizards-magic-themed , read-in , urban-dark-fantasy-paranormal , library-borrowed , young-adult , own , series.
Beautiful Darkness is a reread for me. I read it first in July of , when I couldn't talk about the book because everything I might talk about could be construed as a spoiler.
Sitting down to type this now, however, I realize that pretty much everything I can say about this book even now is an actual spoiler, and that makes it hard to write a review that will not offend someone.
But I'm going to try. Because I can. And because my previous boasty review of this needs to be stricken. The claiming failed and now Lena is stuck between two states, the dark and the light, with both sides warring for her powers. She is heartbroken over her Uncle Macon's death and this puts a lot of strain on her relationship with Ethan. Ethan is not the same either; he sees visions and longs for the relationship he once had with Lena.
But as the months stretch onto her seventeenth birthday Lena begins to drift from him. She is spending more time with the Dark Casters in her family. Ethan finds comfort in the Librarian with Marian and, more importantly, Marian's British research assistant, Liv.
Lena's birthday rocked the supernatural foundation of Gatlin to its core and, as the book goes on, Ethan vows to find a way to bring back the girl he loves. There's a piece in the middle of these books where the pacing is incredibly slow. I didn't notice it on the first reads because I was impatient to know what the hell was going on.
I'm noticing it more on the second read, a dull middle bit where the reader wades through the plot like quick sand. I know it's intentional, and therefore I can't fault it on the author's part. It's just the way that Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl structure their novels.
However, it has been noted - the middle drags a little. Make a note as a reader and do not be surprised. The characters are what really shine in these books though. Ethan has always been a favourite male narrator of mine. His resourcefulness and empathetic nature have always appealed to me. His love for Lena is both tragic and beautiful. These two are fundamentally different people - he's human and she is, well It causes some ripples in their relationship throughout the entire series.
That they keep trying to be together, despite the odds, is what makes these books work. The doomed nature of their relationship is gorgeous. Without some human element of drama it would fall flat, and the high school addition reminds us that Ethan, at least, is human. The latter part of this book is where the action really sings. And I had forgotten the ending, particularly the bit about the older woman I hope I am being nebulous enough. That was my favourite part of the book.
So, with Darkness done we march onto Beautiful Chaos, with a vengeance. I still love it, even with the drag. We all need a little drag in our lives, sometimes.
Nov 08, Sandy rated it liked it Shelves: read-in , should-have-been-better. Like Beautiful Creatures, this sequel drew me in with the lush, vivid descriptions and fascinating characters. However, Beautiful Darkness suffers from the same problems that plagued its predecessor: uneven pacing and a confusing ending that solves few of the problems that have been building up for pages.
And who am I kidding--I'm knocking off a star for my favorite character, Liv, who really gets shafted in this book. The delightful supporting cast is my favorite part of this series. These two authors can be masters of characterization. From Amma, Marian, and Macon to Link, Ridley, and Liv, this series contains an impressive supporting cast of witty, brave, and loyal characters.
These characters come alive for me, and I look forward to any scenes with them. Where the book struggles is with the leads. Ethan is a sweet voice for the story but perhaps not particularly realistic for a 16 year-old-boy. And I admit--I've never been crazy about Lena. I understood he needed to help her and would always be there for her, but I thought a teen paranormal novel would finally break from the predicable relationship pattern and provide a fresh twist I adore Liv.
She's brilliant, loyal, and caring, and she could have been the sunshine Ethan needed after so much darkness. By half way through the book, I was completely cheering for Ethan and Liv. I thought, "Finally! We get a unique story where the guy and the girl Ethan and Lena DON'T end up together but everyone's still happy and the choices feel real.
I thought for sure the book was establishing that you can find love again after loving someone you can't be with. Yeah, he'd always love Lena like his Mom loved Macon but he could find sunshine, warmth, love, and acceptance with someone else. I just loved how Ethan described Liv How could he throw that away to jump right back to Lena's cold, dark arms? I was beyond disappointed when in the wrap-up at the end, Liv was relegated to a few quick sentences after she sacrificed so much and had such a natural, healthy connection with Ethan.
Was it just me, or did this book feel like it could have been about pages shorter? I remember feeling that way when I read Beautiful Creatures, too. The world created by Garcia and Stohl is rich, captivating, and original; however, the pacing is uneven with huge chunks of the book that slow to a crawl and delve into talking about the same problems again and again and again you get the point.
Just more confusing, vague endings that aren't really endings at all and more "choices" that aren't really choices. At the end, didn't you feel like you were back where you were at the end of Beautiful Creatures? Will I read the next installment? Yes, but I hope the authors provide a real ending at some point.
There's a way to end a book that's part of a series where the reader feels satisfied and it feels like an ending, and yet the door is open for sequels. I hope at some point the books in this series can give readers this kind of a satisfying ending. And here's to hoping Liv gets an ending she deserves. View all 10 comments. I'm still totally captivated by this series. The dept and complexity of the plot just keeps getting better and better.
There is so much more to this book and answers so many of the questions I had in the first book. So why the four star rating? Well Lena. I just couldn't like her in this book and I'm not sure I want to like her. And she influence everyone around her to be lesser of what I would like them to be.
This is actually a excellent quality the writers have, to portray this influence so corr I'm still totally captivated by this series. This is actually a excellent quality the writers have, to portray this influence so correctly.
But that didn't make me want to stab Lena less. The setting of this book and the new "world" - for lack of better word - was awesome. I love that we get go down into the Caster tunnels and get to know more Casters and the humans assisting them.
I love how complex this "sixteenth moon" has become. I can't wait to see where our journey takes us next. Jul 08, Prabhjot Kaur rated it it was ok Shelves: ya , romance , fantasy , paranormal , ya-romance. After loving the first book in the series, this disappointed me. It picks up after Lena's birthday where she still hasn't chosen a side and there is a love triangle thrown in there too for no absolute reason.
Both Ethan and Lena became different people. I liked both of them in the first book but in this they both became so annoying and made stupid decision after stupid decision. Link, Macon and Ridley were the only ones that I found interesting to read about.
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