Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures, Book 1

By: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

The first book in the instant New York Times best-selling gothic fantasy series; a modern paranormal romance set against the gothic backdrop of an isolated southern town.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met.

When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2009 Kami Garcia (P)2009 Hachette

It was entertaining at the least.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I enjoyed listening to this book. I am no critic of all that is literary but I did enjoy listening at the very least.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

More with Ridley & Uncle Macon's love lives.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

I thought the narration was outstanding.

A good Teen novel

What did you love best about Beautiful Creatures?

This book is a good teen read, I enjoyed the characters. I think that there wasn't a lot of story development but was still enjoyable.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beautiful Creatures?

When the main characters Lena and Ethan first saw each other.

Have you listened to any of Kevin T. Collins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was the first time I heard his performance, and I enjoyed his narratives.

Excellent Story & Narration

If you could sum up Beautiful Creatures in three words, what would they be?

A creative and interesting story. Supernatural romance stories are becoming more common place, but this has more substance than it's contemporaries.

What about Kevin T. Collins’s performance did you like?

I love his voice, and they way he voices all characters, even the female ones.

well it's better than twilight

Any additional comments?

This is a love story about a moral falling in love with a supernatural girl. The dream sequences upset my dog and every time he said "my mom died" i found myself rolling my eyes. That being said, I listened to all 17 hours of it and will get the next book with my next credit. It was one of those books that I enjoyed but would be too embarrassed to tell my friends I listened to it.

Great Book, Great Narrator

The book was a little slow at first, but got better as it went on and you started piecing it all together. The narrator did a great job with the voices. It had a lot of sound effects and at first made me think there was something wrong with my ipod. I found them distracting, but my 12 year old daughter thought they were cool.

Amazing

This book is an amazing mind blowing experience. Its a whole new world. Cant wait for the next one.

Beautiful Creatures

What made the experience of listening to Beautiful Creatures the most enjoyable?

Defiantly the narrator. Kevin does a good job with the characters and keeps your interested through the story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beautiful Creatures?

The sound effects and the music. It's unusual to find an audiobook that incorporates sound effects without being a dramatized, abridged recording. Some of the effects are a little messy, but it added an interesting level to the experience.

Any additional comments?

It's an interesting story. Granted it is a YA book and the story is a little cliche and predictable. But I liked the twist on the idea. I've gotten so sick of love sick vampire stories that seem to prevalent right now. The love story doesn't get as sappy as most YA stories. I downloaded the book after seeing the trailer for the movie. I'm interested to see how the story conveys to the big screen.

Great story , Rough ending

The story is fantastic, though it does seem to get a little rushed and confusing in the end.

I found it a bit annoying that three quarters or more of the story was from a single characters point of view and then suddenly the authors throw us into a different characters head. The transition definitely was a bit rough at that point. Then just as you start to acclimate to being in a different characters POV, they throw back into the original characters POV.

I loved the narrator, his pace and accent was definitely a ten. I only rated it so low in performance because I really didn't much care for all the sound effects and music. I found the added effects, as well as the switch in narrators there near the end quite jarring.

I could be without the sound effects

They lost me with the sound effects and the switching of narrator voice in the end.
Not a bad book but not great either
At points I caught myself drifting away else where.

Wonderful!

Would you consider the audio edition of Beautiful Creatures to be better than the print version?

It was cool hearing the song sung, it would be easy to get it stuck in your head!

What did you like best about this story?

There were some interesting adaptations of the creatures in the story. I like when authors break the mold of typical supernaturals.

What about Kevin T. Collins’s performance did you like?

He did a great job doing different voices for each character!