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

Addictive

Have completely enjoyed the 2nd book of the series. It's quite addictive!! I would definitely recommend.

Amazing

10/10

This is an amazing fantasy, romance, adventure book that is like nothing I’ve read before.

love it

this should have been a movie the people the story love it yes ridley love her as a mortal.

Better than the first....

I found myself actually enjoying this one more than the first one in the series. I was by no means floored by the epicness of the story but this one went down much better than the first.

They returned the narrator which to me was an EXCELLENT choice seeing that he was more or less the star of the first one in my opinion and the story line was just a bit stronger. There are a number of very interesting twists that occurred in this story especially with the minor characters in the book. I actually found myself gravitating more to some of the other characters than the main ones because of the more 'flawed' nature of said main characters themselves. I found myself having the same problem with the two main characters in this book as I did in the last albeit to a lesser extent. They both seemed flawed in atypical ways and despite me actually enjoy reading about flawed characters I am not seeing growth in these characters (the main ones) in any meaningful fashion.

Still an interesting read though which has the potential to be an amazing story if only the authors will aim for more than creating a novel designed for love sick teen scene....

Engaging and entertaining

Once again Ethan Wade's world comes to life. The characters are three dimensional and the mystery gets steeped pretty deeply in the paranormal. The castor world is even more firmly entrenched in Gatlin than we first thought. Add a strange and unusual incubus to the mix and Lena is in over her head. Top the story off with the phenomenal vocal talents of Kevin T. Collins and you will believe you are really hearing from Ethan. This story is a perfect follow-up for 'Beautiful Creatures'. I recommend it whole-heartedly.

A bit disappointing

Would you try another book from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and/or Kevin T. Collins?

I had actually read Beautiful Creatures, the first book in this series. So I was expecting a good story out of Beautiful Darkness. But I did not find it to be so. There was way too much whining and not much action thru the entire first half of the story. I know Ethan lost his mother and Lena her uncle but the moaning and crying just went on too long. Once the story finally took off I had already lost interest.

The narrator was just not my favorite. The voices he used for some of the more interesting characters was just annoying and grated on my nerves. Maybe it was just me but I was turned off my the entire narration.

I know so many enjoyed this book and performance, but I was not among them.

Would you recommend Beautiful Darkness to your friends? Why or why not?

No. Maybe it is a better read than a listen.

Did Kevin T. Collins do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

He did make sure we knew each characters voice and was consistent with it thru out the story.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Couldn't stop listening to first one but this one

Any additional comments?

Couldn't stop listening to first one - it was delicious!
...but this one was a little slow for me and negative at the beginning. The first half was her depression and I almost put it down (like in Twilight book 2 where Bella whines and whines and whines...until I wanted to kill myself or her!) then it picked up. It introduced a new character that I loved and with all the depression I was almost hoping he ended up with her.

I get a little confused with so many periphery characters but it adds to the flavor of the book. I did miss the "aunts" in this book: they do not show up nearly as often as they did in book one and they made me laugh out loud.

I liked it enough not to give up on the series though and I am buying book 3 now. :)

Enjoyed it!

I wasn't sure what was going to happen after the first book. I liked all the twists and turns the characters went on in this book.

amazing world of magic and intrigue

kevin collins is an amazing narrator, I love this series. Light and Dark castors such an amazing world that is created, full of mystery.

Good read!

I thoroughly enjoyed this rendition of the book! Hated the movie and thought this was a lovely alternative!!! While i didn’t like all the sound effects (some of them, but few, just didn’t seem to fit the situation quite right) but overall i feel they added to the story more than detracted.