Sublime Choas

53. Beautiful Chaos

 

This is the third in the Beautiful series, and I have read them all in their first week of release.  I don’t even know how I found out about the first book but I have truly enjoyed the ride.  As I said, this is the third book and in many ways I thought it was the best.

The books have the typical YA appearance: A beautiful girl, who will become a witch on her birthday, falls for an average guy (in fact, they seem destined for one another) who may not be as average as he seems.

But what is so new, and really well done, is that we see it all from the young man’s POV.  We see him act stereotypically tough, but feel shame for it.  We see him feel truly fearful for those he loves, we see him sacrifice, and act heroically.  And we see him admire the girl for her loyalty and bravery.  Like I said: New.  What is also great here is that the peripheral characters, made up of close friends and family, are really well developed and are given very important places in the plot lines.  These characters have returned in all three books and continue to be hashed out and more deeply developed instead of being retired and replaced with each new book, and I love that because it makes the payoff of sticking with the series that much more sweet. The southern gothic setting with its traditions and superstitions has also become another character. The plots are written much more like mysteries with subtle hints given throughout, but also little surprises along the way. Each book does end with a cliffhanger, which is a bit tired but I guess also a bit necessary.

Safe to say I will pick up the next one as soon as I can and that is rare for me with a series, usually by this time I only stick with it because I feel like have to.