Humans Are Such Beautiful Creatures

The deep south....

Southern accents, southern cooking, the history, the extravangant plantations, there is something about the south that always draws me in when I'm reading about it.

When I was nine years old, it was the first time I ever saw Gone With The Wind and from that moment on, I became obsessed with it. I even had a Scarlett O'hara t-shirt and a Melanie Hamilton barbie doll. Kids my age would come over and be like who's that? And I'd say, "Well, I do declare that, that would be Miss Melanie Hamilton." And then the kids would look at me like I was some kind of weirdo.

I read the book when I was 13 for accelerated reader and to this day, the movie and book have been my favorites and probably will be for the rest of my life.

When I first heard about Beautiful Creatures, I was inrigued because the MC is a male. I hadn't read that many YA books with a male as an MC so I thought hey, this might be an interesting read, I'll give it a go. Case in point, I ended up loving it and have puchased the sequel and will probably purchase the rest of the series when they come out. But that's not the main reason Beautiful Creatures is #5 on my list.

Here's the two reasons Beautiful Creatures is my #5 pick for my best YA reads list of 2011. Gone With The Wind, really gave you a feel for what it was like to live in the deep South. I loved the way Margaret Mitchell described the world of wars, barbeques, courtships. And I was always tried to find a book with the same kind of world building, describing the deep south. And it wasn't until I read Beautiful Creatures that I realized I had finally found it.

The world the authors created is honestly spot on to what I think the deep south would be like. Yes, I've been to some of the southern states a number of times and some books that try and describe the south make it feel phony. Like they've never been their or witnessed it's beauty.

Everything about Beautiful Creatures, set in Gatlin, felt authentic. I could close my eyes and actually see the surroundings. That's how real it felt.

And most of the time, unless you are writing a dystopian or fantasy novel, because there are exceptions with those, that reality is important.

Southern Gothic was a new genre to me, until I read this book. Kudos to the authors because they have made a Southern Gothic lover out of me. And maybe for you guys too!

If you want to be whisked away to the deep south, where Amma's cooking, Ethan's love life, and Lena's witchy ways are the norm. Buy this book, you won't want to put it down!

Cheers!