Review of Beautiful Darkness By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Book:  Beautiful Darkness 
Authors: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Published By:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages:  503


From Goodreads:  Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.  Sometimes life-ending.  Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. 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.

This book had some of the wonderful features of Beautiful Creatures such, as the unique supporting characters and amazing writing.  Who wouldn't love a Seer as a housekeeper, crazy great aunts, and a rebel best friend?  I love that the point of view of this novel is from Ethan's perspective instead of Lena's.  I don't know if I could have handled Lena's perspective as I thought she was annoying at times in this novel.  It was hard to understand her hot and cold emotions until certain events were reveled later in the novel.  Garcia and Stohl have a fantastic writing style that transports us in the Southern Gothic feel of this novel.  Beautiful Darkness, as it's title suggests, is much darker than it's prequel and often times confusing.  I felt myself having to go back and reread things especially when they were in the tunnels.  Overall, this was a good book, but I still enjoyed Beautiful Creatures more.