Beautiful Darkness Review

Readers, we return to the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina where the Daree Keen is the teen hot spot, DAR runs the town and Lena Duchannes’ life has been irrecoverably changed when she brought Ethan back to life and inadvertedly caused her substitute father, Macon Ravenwood’s death.

Ethan Wate understands the complicated grief Lena is going through but that understanding can go so far when Lena’s caster world adds other obstacles. Convinced that she’s to blame for Macon’s death, Lena is sure that she’s destined for Dark and starts pulling away from Ethan and getting friendly with Dark Casters like Ridley and the mysterious John Breed. But Ethan can’t give up on Lena.

Nothing in sleepy Gatlin is as it seems and it becomes clear that Ethan’s world has always been tangled up with the Caster conflicts, and he may be the key to getting to the bottom of it before the balance of it all goes haywire.

This was an interesting story albeit long. It could have been shaved off at some points as Ethan’s continued moping over Lena took up a lot of space. However, things picked up with the introduction of new characters and the past slowly revealed through Ethan’s visions.

New characters include Liv Durard, Marian’s Keeper in Training from Britain. She has the classic researcher instincts with a fascination for astronomy and a love for Ovaltine. But her true desires to help shape Caster events and discover instead of record history has her defying the rules to help Ethan, and Link when they venture down to the tunnels.

John Breed is kept pretty mysterious being an sun-immune Incubus with green Caster eyes. But serves his role as Lena’s confidante to the Dark Casters and rival to Ethan who can’t pierce the conflict Lena feels between Light and Dark and other Caster conflicts like John can.

As for Ridley and Link, they make their returns here and are admittedly my favorite part but I’m biased. They go through changes themselves but to keep things non-spoilery, I’ll say Link is the best, most loyal friend ever with a logic that outmanuvers Caster doors and Ridley may actually have heart even if she doesn’t want one. Her journey for the next book will be interesting to see.

As for the past. The visions are not as compelling as Genevive trying to revive Ethan Carter Wate from the dead but they do serve their part in laying out the foundation for the climax and the sequel while exposing vital information about family trees and Caster lore.

The past here is all about Incubuses; Macon Ravenwood’s tragic love affair as well as the devil’s trade of Abraham Ravenwood, the family’s first Blood Incubus. The reason for Ethan’s visions also start to piece together and Ethan gets a hefty dose of character development.

He had been an audience stand-in, learning about the world as the story progresses since he’s a mortal and has no powers but intense loyalty and almost stupidly suicidal determination but there’s more than that. While he’s still loyal and stupidly determined, he learns to trust his gut and learns his fate has so much more in store for him. He’s not just with Lena as a sounding board for her to feel good and feel normal, but he’s honest and tries to help people at their worst. He always finds the way so he may be mortal but he is as necessary as Keepers and other mortals who stumble into supernatural matters.

As before Ethan makes a compelling narrator. Losing some of his “I’m so much better than these hicks, I’m an outsider” schtick, he has been humbled by everything he’s learned and is doing his best to support Lena through the toughest thing. The death of a loved one. Ethan is also dealing with the return of a loved one, his father from a local sanitarium which he struggles to reconcile the distant dad of before with the one who’s trying to shyly make things right.

However, there is not much time spent on that as Lena pushes Ethan away from her to hang out with John and Ridley and. . . basically she dumps him. But he just can’t quit her. Even when he’s come to accept that Lena doesn’t want to be with him anymore, he still cares about her and doesn’t want her to make a choice she regrets when the Claiming Moon comes so he goes into hero mode. I’d find admirable if I was actually rooting for them. But I’m not.

I wrote in my last review that Lena did not pique my interest. Here she crosses into unbearable. Ethan tries to talk to her about her feelings, she shuts him down that because she’s a Caster is a lot more complicated than the mortal stages of grief. He gets worried when he notices her hanging around John, possibly sneaking around without telling him, she deflects or lies about it. And I know she feels guilty and all that but the constant pushing him away because she thinks he’s better off without the danger is just annoying. Also she literally crosses the unofficial line of their relationship by spelling him so he won’t tattle on her runaway scheme to her family!

She won’t speak to him, won’t clarify anything, she spelled him because she was making bad decisions and honestly, its’ the least she can do after everything they’ve been through in the first book. She pulled the same we-shouldn’t-be-together-I’m-a-danger-to-you card in Beautiful Creatures too as if Ethan’s actions then and here don’t make it pretty clear he’s in it for the long haul.

Which is unfortunate because Liv also represents a viable love interest for Ethan. One he begins to consider after Lena dumps him and they had several close moments which I wish they went through it. With Liv, he feels like she’s a friend, that she’s known her more than a few weeks. They have stuff in common and things are easy. Now the whole point is that love isn’t always easy, it can be messy and difficult. but I liked the dynamic of Ethan and Liv’s sweet friendship than the constant hot-cold act Lena has got on. Especially since Liv is willing to commit big sacrifice of her dream in order to help the others.

Lena did not do that. I know this is a non-spoiler review but since it has the same immediate consequences as Beautiful Creatures, I’m going to tell you what Lena chooses for her Claiming. Instead of choosing nothing, she chooses both. Seriously? So now the Claiming has been stalled for the Eighteenth Mood.

Oh.

My.

Freaking.

God.

So basically this whole claiming was a waste of time! Okay,actually Lena’s choice has completely shifted the balance of the Caster and Mortal worlds since no one has ever chosen both before but immediate consequences are so far the same. But it is representative of the larger Lena problem I have in that she doesn’t choose (though the answer is obvious. Choose Light! Screw the like-mother like-daughter. Choose Light!) and she ends with the ridiculous line, “I just don’t know who I am” as Ethan comforts her that he’ll stand by her side no matter what.

Ethan should have better than Lena. A relationship needs communication which Ethan intiates but Lena never repays. He has to sneak peeks at her journal if he wants any insight to her mind and she hates that so he’s at a loss. A relationship needs both people to be invested and Ethan is the only one willing to fight for it. In this book and the last, she’s always the first to give in to doubts. Ethan can’t carry it all and drag her back every time she turns away from him. Also she constantly ignores how he tries to help because he’s just a mortal and wouldn’t understand. Then why be with him in the first place if he doesn’t understand and Lena won’t explain it? Ethan constantly offers acceptance to Lena and her moods and insecurity but Lena won’t extend the same courtesy to him.

Honestly, I don’t know why he’s so loyal to her. It’s always about how beautiful and connected they are but like I said, Liv and Ethan have a good friendship-infuation dynamic. I’m starting to think it’s part of a supernatural destiny thing compelled by fate to repeat history like Ethan-Genevive and Macon and his ex.

So besides Lena, my other gripe was that with a majority of the time was spent in the Caster tunnels, there was a loss of the immersive landscape description that made Gatlin come alive. Thus making this more typical supernatural teen romance angst.

While this one laid the foundation, it was frustrating and I hope the next one will be better.