Beautiful Creatures: The Graphic Novel by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, illustrated by Cassandra Jean
Series: Caster Chronicles Adaptation
Genre: Paranormal | Romance | Young Adult
Length: 240 pages
Published on 5th february 2013 by Penguin
Purchase: Amazon
Kami Garcia: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Margaret Stohl: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Cassandra Jean: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Copy picked up from a book swap at a blogger event
Others are cursed.
In Ethan Wate’s hometown there lies the darkest of secrets.There is a girl.
Slowly, she pulled the hood from her head.
Green eyes, black hair. Lena Duchannes.
There is a curse.
On the Sixteenth Moon, the Sixteenth Year,
the Book will take what it’s been promised.
And no one can stop it.
In the end, there is a grave.
Lena and Ethan become bound together by a deep,
powerful love. But Lena is cursed and on her
sixteenth birthday, her fate will be decided.
Ethan never even saw it coming.
At my local blogger events we have a trolley where we can place books we no longer want and other members can help themselves. A nice little unhaul system we have.
At our last meet up someone passed me the Beautiful Creatures graphic novel because they know me well and that GN’s are my thing.
I do actually already own Beautiful Creatures in its original book format but I’ve never read it and I’ve not seen the movie so I figured this was a good place to start.
So hi this was my first actual exposure to the Caster Chronicles world and honestly I had forgetten what it was even about which meant I got to go in with an open mind and be pleasantly surprised.
I really enjoyed the story of this GN and the secrets that unfold within the plot, however, I don’t feel like it was a great GN.
Here is an example of the illustrations within and how most pages look and as this is a rather character driven story its mostly character driven illustrations we see.
Not that theres anything wrong with this, it just kind of didn’t hold my interest as strongly as others I’ve read.
I think as this is just set in our world with small fantasy elements the backgrounds/settings didn’t particularly draw me in.
The times I enjoyed the spreads the most were as the rest of the Casters were introduced and their powers were visible on page.
I also enjoyed how speach and thoughts were differeniated on page too – as two characters are able to communicate with thoughts it was important to display these in a different manner.
However, for a GN it is very text heavy.
I’ve looked at the illustrators more recent art (as this was published in 2015) and I love how her syle has improved so much! Its good in this too but now? I LOVE IT.
So whilst I enjoyed reading I think mostly it has inspired me to want to read the book as I believe I will get more enjoyment from that. This was a nice read but ultimately I don’t think it was something needed unless you’re a huge huge fan of the series.
For anyone who is unfamilar with what the story contains it follows Ethan who’s been dreaming about a mysterious girl who then starts at his school. Her name is Lena.
It soon transpires that she’s not all she seems; has magical abilities she’s struggling to control and her family have various powers too.
There is also a curse on Lena that means on her birhday her life could be changed drastically – she becomes light or dark. Good or bad.
As the two work together to figure out how to keep Lena safe on her birhday they realise theres more to their past and the curse.
Northern Plunder 
I didn’t even know this graphic novel existed! I’ve never read the book but I’ve owned it forever and keep meaning to pick it up. The movie is honestly hilariously awful but if I believed in “guilty pleasures” it would be #1 on my list, it’s just really mindless and fun and has a great soundtrack.
This cover is gorgeous!! Adore the purple. I’ve seen the film but never read the book, probably should since they won’t be continuing the films.
yeah i kinda wanna go watch the movie now even though i know its cancelled to see how well they adapted it :)