Beautiful Creatures

Garcia, Kami & Margaret Stohl. Beautiful Creatures. Book 1 of the Caster Chronicles series. 2009. 563p. ISBN 978-0-316-15195-5. Available as an eBook from Overdrive

The small town of Gatlin is what most people think of when they imagine the old South: southern hospitality, its own historic Civil War battlefield, large plantation houses and debutante balls. For Ethan Wate, Gatlin is none of those things. It’s a place he’s anxious to leave behind, but as a sophomore he’s still got three years left before he can depart and never come back. According to him, there are two kinds of people in Gatlin: Those who can’t wait to escape, and those who are not able to. With nothing ever happening, Gatlin might as well be the end of the world. That all changes, however, when, at the beginning of the school year, a new girl joins the sophomore class.

The niece of Gatlin’s recluse and owner of the oldest residence in the county, Macon Ravenwood, Lena Duchannes has moved from place to place throughout her life, never staying very long in any location. Ethan is immediately smitten with Lena. He’s met her before, in his dreams. Over the last few months, Ethan’s dreams have been plagued with a vision of a beautiful girl and him in a graveyard. And now that girl is here, in the flesh, at school. It can’t be a coincidence.

Ethan soon discovers that Lena is cursed. She is a Caster, and her ancestor made a bargain that has cost her descendants their free will. Now instead of having the possibility of choosing good or evil during their claiming ceremony when they turn 16, each caster is now assigned a side. Lena is deeply terrified she will be chosen as a Dark Caster, unlike her uncle and the rest of her family. Helped by a locket discovered next door to Ravenwood, Ethan and Lena realize that two people much like them have lived this life before, during the Civil War, and that it ended badly for both.

Now in a race against time, Ethan and Lena must fight the town bullies and discover a way for Lena to make her own choice. Can they change their fate?