Review: Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margeret Stohl

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.


Hardcover, 518 pages
Published October 18th 2011 by Little, Brown and Company

LONG STORY SHORT:

Amazing. This book is everything I love about series, epic fantasy novels, YA in general. Everything and more. Maybe my disappointment with Beautiful Darkness triggered how much I enjoyed book three of the Caster Chronicles, but that's only a side factor next to the amazing character development - and chemistry, the action packed plot and the overall atmosphere created in the novel. I can't wait for Beautiful Redemption - also because of that cliffhanger in the end....

REVIEW FOR YOU:

Oh my...whatever I expected when I openend this book for the first time - this was not it. You all could read about my mixed feelings towards Beautiful Darkness, the second book in this series. I complained about whiny characters, slow plot and all those second-book-in-a-series cliches. I swore if Beautiful Chaos didn't turn out much better than that, I'd stop reading after one hundred pages and leave this series  - that started out so amazingly - unfinished.

It did not take those one hundred pages to convince me to fall for the Caster world all over again. It's like a good friend stopping by again. Gatlin - the small southern town that works as the main setting for the series - is crazier than ever - as are its citizens. My stomach hurt from all the laughing I head to do as the authors described the behaviour of small town inhabitants facing the apocalypse. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud when I'm reading a book - JK Rowling is one of the authors who did accomplish that - so this actually means a lot!

This book wasn't just funny, though. It was also pretty...I don't want to say sad. It's rather tragic. And the characters themselves are pretty helpless and desperate, but at the same time for the reader it's so suspenseful to try and guess how things are going to work out, who is good and who is evil and who plans what...it's a novel full of mystery and magic and ...

...great chemistry. Another element that I think makes a good series an awesome one. I always get that feeling of epicness when the characters not only grow and develop throughout the books, but if the relationships between them and their creators -the authors - deepen aswell. This might be complete nonsense  but I believe that you can feel it when the author(s) really know their characters and let them appear and act as more than just people in a book, but as people in real life. I don't know if this made any sense to you, but in my eyes it did ;)

Before this review is getting a novel as well, one last thing I have to mention: the plot.SO much happens SO fast. Okay, that's everything. See for yourselves!

RATING: one whole bag full of Smarties!!

I'd recommend this book to...

everyone.

Specifically if you...

love a really good series, epic fantasy books, paranormal romance that is brilliantly done