Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl {Review}

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publish Date: October 2011

Source: Library

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected--and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What--or who--will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?
For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, nbut this time it isn't Lena--and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself--forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.
Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect out of Beautiful Chaos after I didn’t enjoy Beautiful Darkness as much as I’d hoped, but boy howdy did Stohl and Garcia step up their game for this one.

In the past books it was the setting that did it for me, but this time, it was all about the characters. Let’s start with Ethan. I loved that a lot of the focus was on Ethan this time instead of Lena. You’d think the focus was always on him since he’s the main character, but it almost seemed as if Lena was the main character in the past. Speaking of Lena, I liked that she was back to normal. It was way more enjoyable to read about than crazy, mopey Lena.

“Linkubus” was basically super awesome. We got to see quite the character growth with him which was nice since he’s one of my favorite characters :]

I really like the relationship developments with Liv, Lena, and Ethan.

I never would have expected to find out any more about Sarafine, but it was a rather nice surprise.

I liked that for once, the main focus wasn’t on the town and the happenings within it. Like I said, I liked the setting and the town in the previous books, but having the focus be more character-driven for Beautiful Chaos totally worked.

Final Thoughts: Beautiful Chaos was absolutely fantastic. It’s practically killing me not to have the next book since the ending was so cruel. If you’ve read the rest of The Caster Chronicles, then you definitely need Beautiful Chaos, and if you haven’t read them, you should definitely start. If you’re a fan of character-driven books with intense endings and awesome sidekicks this is definitely something you should get your hands on.

Pages: 518

Series: Caster Chronicles #2

Rating: 5 stars