Beautiful Darkness

By: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Fall under the spell of the Beautiful Darkness, the sequel to the instant New York Times best-selling gothic fantasy, Beautiful Creatures!

There were no surprises in Gatlin County. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin as a place where nothing ever changed. Then mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes revealed a secret world of curses and Supernaturals with terrifying abilities. Lena showed him a Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. Sometimes life-ending.

And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2010 Kami Garcia (P)2010 Hachette Audio

Love This Story!

..and I'm confident you will, also, particularly if you do read in this genre. This second installment of the Beautiful Creatures saga contains some interesting twists and turns. It is true that at some points, the story take it's time to develop but I think that is part of the story..keeping "true to it's nature", if you will. The same can be said for the tension between the characters, and some dialogue that you find yourself wishing would or would not be exchanged between them. If you become invested enough that you get "mad" a character for what she (or he) is not doing or saying, (as I did) then the author(s) have done their job! It would not be the same story if things were "easier", or things were said differently. I find Kevin T. Collins' narrative performance pretty much impeccable. He really makes Ethan real. He does this so well that the character of Ethan himself really becomes the driving force of the story, and not just because it is, in fact, relayed in first person from his perspective. His genuineness and personality really come through. You feel like you are in his head and experiencing these events from the inside out. Also, I liked the song and the sound effects and did not find them to be too much. Highly recommend!

Try the Sample

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It was very slow going and didn't pick up until about halfway through. It took a couple tries for me to get into it. I couldn't get past the slow beginning until I got the audiobook so I could listen to it while driving. Then I alternated between reading and listening.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator did a good job giving each charter their own voice. Some of the accents grated on my nerves. My biggest complaint is that he read so slow. It helped when I increased the speed to 1.5, but the reading still didn't sound fluid.

Any additional comments?

Try the sample before buying so you can check if you can tolerate the narration.

love it

loved it. couldn't stop listing to it. can't wait to start next book. the voice in the books help see the book visually.

Great series of books

The second book was great. New characters and plot was fantastic. I'm ready for the third and fourth books.

amazingly awesome and captivating

it's the narrator that takes this to the next level. this is highly recommended if you enjoyed the first book.

Great series

The series is very interesting and the reading of it by this narrator really makes it comes alive!

Truly a unique and intriguing story.

I really liked the book. In fact I am finding I truly am liking YA books much more than traditional fiction.

This book is about a young man named Ethan, and a young woman named Lena.

Lena is from a family of Casters. Ethan is mortal. Together they struggle to enter each others world, but the universe has other plans for them.

The story and the characters are well developed, and it was a pleasure to listen to the audio version of this book.

Off to listen to the second book in the series........

A great second book!

Any additional comments?

I devoured all he books in this series in a fairly short amount of time. I enjoyed the story and the narrator. If you liked the first book you will like this one.

Lena & Ethan's Love Saga Continues

The saga continues with our mortal/caster couple, Ethan & Lena. Lena has slipped into a deep depression following the death of her beloved uncle Macon Ravenwood. She feels responsible for his death due to a choice she made to save Ethan's life. She finds herself distancing herself from Ethan & running into the arms of a new guy, John Breed. Who, or what, is John?! Is he light or dark? He's not the only new character on the scene. Welcome Olivia "Liv", Marion's caster library keeper-in-training. Although Keepers are supposed to be neutral, Liv can't seem to keep out of the middle of things, & she chooses to give up her future as a Keeper in order to save a life. Thanks to Ethan, Liv, Linc, & Ridley, Lena is able to once again return to her former self. But given the events that happened in the tunnels, will things ever be able to go back to normal again?!

Out of the 4 books in the series, this one was probably my least favorite. I'm not a fan of pity parties, & that pretty much describes Lena thru most of this book. We learned a bit more of the reason behind her change in personality which helped me to cut her some slack. My frustration w/Lena thru most of the book made it hard for me to enjoy some of the other parts of the story. The book ends in such a way that it left me "ok" w/how book #2 played out & ready to continue the story in book #3.

Age recommendation: 14 & up (dark spiritual elements, magic)

On a scale of 1-10 stars, I give it 7.

Fantastic!

I absolutely loved the book Beautiful Creatures, and the second book in the series is no exception. Lena suffers greatly over her uncle’s death and Ethan does his best to help her. Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia have taken a sequel and kept the reader’s attention, while weaving the story line in a unique and interesting way. I have to say that I purchase the remaining 3 books and this book was so interesting that I will immediately go into the third book. Great series!