Beautiful Chaos [Hardcover]

Beautiful Chaos is the third book in Kami Garcia's and Margaret Stohl's series, entitled Beautiful Creatures. The third installment brings so much more to the plate than the first two did. The action is higher in this book than in the first installments, and of course it ends on a ridiculous cliffhanger, just like the second book did. The book is more depressing than the others, because in this book, Ethan is the one having most of the problems, not Lena, and after all he is the narrator.

Beautiful Chaos makes me so excited for the last book in the series, but it also makes me sad that I have to wait an entire year for it! I can't wait to see what Garcia and Stohl bring to the plate when they wrap up the series!

I admit that this book completely took me by surprise. As the reader, I was expecting so many others things but never that. I loved that this book took a whole new spin on love and sacrifice!

What I loved most about this book is the great plot line. So much going on in the book that is kept the reader hooked and always sated. Never once did my eyes stray from the pages as I devoured it. I enjoyed that while the plot line is unraveling secrets, poems, and love popped up where I never saw it. Both authors once again did an amazing job on capturing the essence of the town and the characters!

The characters development in the story is where it needs to be. So much had changed in them that you know that these characters are at their peak. I enjoyed reading along with the characters in discovering secrets that have been under their noses. The book title is great for whats goes on in the book. Chaos. Total Chaos!

Now for the ending. Did I see that coming? No. It was something that left me gasping and WOWed. I won't spoil it, but yeah. Amazing ending that left me wanting more.

Beautiful Chaos is a completion of wonderful literature that had me in awe! I felt like I was in the town of Gatlin as soon as I open the first page, fighting the chaotic events unfolding between the pages. Filled with a great adventure of love and sacrifice, Beautiful Chaos will undo your mind leaving you yearning for more of Gatlin.

I have seriously mixed thoughts on Beautiful Chaos. On one hand, I love Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's writing and, like always, it shines through. The second half of this book was exciting, and left me not just with tears in my eyes, but crying. Ugly crying. On the other hand, the ending felt like a kick in the gut, and I really struggled to get into this book after a very slow start. Beautiful Chaos was not easy to read.

Imagine the movie trailer voice: THIS SUMMER, THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING TO GATLIN. We join Ethan in a darker place than we have before, and something is wrong. He's losing the plot. In addition to dangerous dreams, he's forgetting himself. Memories, phone numbers, everyday details, Ethan's losing little pieces of himself one bit at a time. Not good. He can't even confide in Amma: she's gone darker than she ever has before.

Since Lena claimed herself, both the Caster and Mortal worlds seem to be falling apart. I wasn't joking about the apocalypse. Drought, pestilence, swarms of locusts. The Caster's powers are misfiring, which is kind of dangerous when you can set fire to things with your brain. Where Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness were about choosing your own path, and taking control of your destiny, Beautiful Chaos is about dealing with the consequences, and perhaps about the inevitability of fate.

These books are so immersive. As Beautiful Chaos commenced, some quality or cadence of tone sucked me once more into the tiny world of Gatlin, and had me enthralled by that lush, hypnotic, flowing prose Garcia and Stohl have mastered. The short version: I love Garcia/Stohl's writing. The quality and feel of it. But I struggled to get into the story.

Beautiful Chaos has SO. MUCH. GOING. ON. that for the first half--that's 250 pages, folks--it felt like nothing happened. So much time was spent on setting up so many different plot threads, events, and carrying over ones from the previous book, it was overwhelming. I struggled through the beginning of Beautiful Chaos like I was walking through knee-deep mud. But then, thankfully, it got GOOD. Pages 250-500-something are exciting, mysterious, high-stakes and everything I expect from these two darned-talented authors.

The Caster Chronicles have always been dark, but Beautiful Chaos is darker. The bleak tone and hopelessness of the situation in Gatlin weighed down on me, and as much as I love revisiting the world of this series, for me it made Beautiful Chaos hard to read.

Once again, people are keeping secrets, but this time, the people we trust to have the answers--Amma, Macon Marian and the other Casters--are at a loss themselves. The safety net's gone. The stakes are higher this time; the dangers seem more real. Characters we've come to know and love get hurt. And, as the cover copy promises: this time, there's no happy ending. There's a feeling of desperation hanging over our favourite Caster-Mortal blended/extended family, and it rubs off on the reader.

Unfortunately, for me, Beautiful Chaos didn't feel like its own book, but more of a culmination of the events of those preceding it. The whole book was climax Climax CLIMAX! Then it ended. Seriously. Mega-uber-massive cliffhanger. And not in a good way. Beautiful Chaos was five hundred pages of build up to an event that <em>didn't happen in this book</em>.

I'm the first to admit I don't love cliffhangers, but I can respect a good one... and in a way, I suppose this one was, but, at the same time, there was no resolution to any of the events within this book, and that frustrates me. I was left knowing (almost) as little on page 516 as I was on page 1.

Despite these complaints, I enjoyed Beautiful Chaos. The writing is gorgeous, the stakes are high, the characters I know and love are all there hiding their secrets, and Gatlin? My oh my I love Gatlin.

Beautiful Chaos was dense, overwhelming, heartbreaking and... unsatisfying, on some level. Nevertheless, it's achieved its goal: I'm eagerly anticipating book four, if for no other reason than to find out how this one actually ends! If you're a fan of the series, read Beautiful Chaos. If you're already undecided on this series, Beautiful Chaos will do little to change your mind.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 70 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars