“Beautiful Chaos” by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – Loss of Control
Before talking about the book, I’d just like to point out that Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is the final entry in the Beautiful Creatures trilogy, so if you haven’t read the first two books,, I suggest you take a look at my reviews which you can access by clicking either of the following titles: Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness. If you don’t, you are going to read spoilers here, and needless to say, they make literally any story less exciting. Now that this is taken care of, on with the show.
Beautiful Chaos is once again centered on Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes as they try to live out their lives in Gatlin. However, unlike before, it seems as if the supernatural powers lying beneath Gatlin are getting quite agitated; intense storms, unprecedented heat waves, and swarms of locusts turn the town in what seems to be a crude reenactment of the Ten Plagues. As if that wasn't enough, Lena and her entire family of Supernaturals are starting to lose control over their own powers, making the situation increasingly dangerous.
Beautiful Chaos is once again centered on Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes as they try to live out their lives in Gatlin. However, unlike before, it seems as if the supernatural powers lying beneath Gatlin are getting quite agitated; intense storms, unprecedented heat waves, and swarms of locusts turn the town in what seems to be a crude reenactment of the Ten Plagues. As if that wasn't enough, Lena and her entire family of Supernaturals are starting to lose control over their own powers, making the situation increasingly dangerous.
On his end, Ethan is once again plagued by strange dreams (more like nightmares though), and for the first time ever, they actually spill into the real world and influence his day-to-day life. It seems that whoever or whatever is haunting Ethan seeks to torture more than anything, as Ethan starts to gradually lose his memory and his identity, forgetting names, faces, numbers, events… basically his mind is being blanked.
First of all, I need to say this: this book starts off slowly and has a lot going on in it. At first, you may find yourself a bit confused, and perhaps it will be hard for you to get into the story, but rest assured that as things progress they become much more fluid and interesting. Worst-case scenario, this is a book, after all, and nobody is stopping you from flipping a few extra pages to get through parts you don’t care about. Apart from that, I can’t think of a single complaint I have about this book.
Out of all the three novels in the series, this is the one I enjoyed the most. For the first time, the protagonists are really losing control over themselves and find themselves face-to-face with something they can’t begin to comprehend.
What exactly is so great about finding them being truly overwhelmed by the circumstances? Well, they are actually put to the challenge and are given a chance to shine brighter than anyone else. Up until now, even though our heroes have been in some pretty bad situations, they have never found themselves at a loss of control in front of an impending doom which will not only swallow them, but the entire town, and possibly even the rest of the world (given enough time).
First of all, I need to say this: this book starts off slowly and has a lot going on in it. At first, you may find yourself a bit confused, and perhaps it will be hard for you to get into the story, but rest assured that as things progress they become much more fluid and interesting. Worst-case scenario, this is a book, after all, and nobody is stopping you from flipping a few extra pages to get through parts you don’t care about. Apart from that, I can’t think of a single complaint I have about this book.
Out of all the three novels in the series, this is the one I enjoyed the most. For the first time, the protagonists are really losing control over themselves and find themselves face-to-face with something they can’t begin to comprehend.
What exactly is so great about finding them being truly overwhelmed by the circumstances? Well, they are actually put to the challenge and are given a chance to shine brighter than anyone else. Up until now, even though our heroes have been in some pretty bad situations, they have never found themselves at a loss of control in front of an impending doom which will not only swallow them, but the entire town, and possibly even the rest of the world (given enough time).
The stakes are now higher than ever, and I have to say it’s incredibly thrilling to put yourself in the shoes of the characters as each one of their actions is based on desperation and crucial to the survival. Another point which I liked about the book was that there was no guarantee of a happy ending. As a matter of fact, throughout the read I had the impression that there was no way for things to end well.
Naturally, I’m not going to reveal what happens, but what I can say is that the ending will probably be far from what you expected it to be… it kind of left me with my jaw open, to be honest. All in all, the third entry in this series is by far the best one in every aspect, and I definitely recommend it to those who have read the previous two.
 | Kami GarciaPersonal site Kami Garcia is an American writer who grew up in Washington, D.C., holding an MA in education. Along with her friend and co-author, Margaret Stohl, they creating the Caster Chronicles series, which debuted with the very well-received book, Beautiful Creatures. |
 | Margaret StohlPersonal site Margaret Stohl was born in California, and is best-known as being Kami Garcia’s co-author for the Caster Chronicles series, which holds well-regarded books such as Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness. In 2013 she published what is the start of her own series, Icons. |
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