By Jordan Sunkel
Round Table editor
People can grow up in small towns, with tons of history, and not even know about it. Middletown Valley is enriched with history, involved in both the American Revolution and the Civil War, the only wars fought on American soil right in our home town, but yet people come and grow without knowing any of the events here.
In the fictional town of Gatlin, the people are all about the War Between the States, otherwise known as the Civil War. The Daughters of the Revolution run strong, and basically have control over the entire town.
In the book Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Ethan Wate lives in Gatlin, where Southern pride runs deep. Recently Ethan is having strange dreams about a girl slipping through his arms, and waking up with mud of the nightmare in his bed. He cannot understand the visions.
On the first day of school, he expects everything to be normal, but for the first time in a very long time there is a new girl. After searching to find out who she is, Ethan realizes that it is the girl in his nightmares. When he approaches her about it though, she denies every word.
In small country towns, if you are out of the ordinary, you are not welcome. Lena Duchannes is not normal. She does not strive to be a cheerleader, she does not act like all the other girls and she lives with the town’s recluse, Macon Ravenwood. This causes her to receive endless torment from the popular girls in the school.
However, strange things start happening around Lena. When a window breaks mysteriously, Ethan knows something is going on. He is drawn to her, and time after time when she denies him, he refuses to give up.
Eventually Lena gives in and allows Ethan to grow close to her. As their relationship grows, so does his knowledge of who she is, and who her family is. When all the secrets are told, Ethan is caught in the darkness of a world he never knew.
Garcia and Stohl write in Ethan’s point of view. The reader experiences everything that Ethan does: his anger, his fear and his feelings for Lena. The emotions in the book are strong and clear, and ring out to all who read it.
My favorite part of Beautiful Creatures is how Garcia and Stohl write in the dialect of southern people. The dialect makes it seem like the story is alive, and the reader can almost hear Amma speaking to Ethan as she scolds him.
Beautiful Creatures teaches to not only allow yourself to choose your own destiny, but to know about where you came from.
“Just because you live in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean you can’t know where you live.”