Beautiful Creatures

Secrets, strangers, and curses will lure you into the first book of the instant New York Times bestselling contemporary gothic fantasy series, where a stirring paranormal romance unfolds in an isolated southern town.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

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Published Sep 14, 2010

592 pages

Average rating: 7.3

132 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Beautiful Creatures* offers a unique boy’s perspective and an intriguing Southern small-town setting, with a slow build-up that some find...

PerpetualRevision
Dec 22, 2025
8/10 stars
Interesting concept to weave together fantasy and historical fiction... sort of. The Southern setting was a bit overdone and inauthentic at times, but I'm from the South, so I noticed that more than other readers might. I enjoyed the characters and the story in part because they were somewhat different from the usual fantasy fare, though not that different. I will read the next book in the series.
Cami_canread23
Mar 10, 2026
10/10 stars
My absolute favorite book, have reread it dozens of times!!
Lit_With_Alex
Mar 05, 2026
6/10 stars
This was a solid book with a really interesting concept, great atmosphere, and a storyline that definitely had potential — but my biggest issue was the pacing. It dragged. And dragged. And dragged some more
annabq1999
Jan 04, 2026
10/10 stars
Completely love this book! Can't wait to read the next one!
abookwanderer
Oct 09, 2025
8/10 stars
Beautiful Creatures is full of unique and strong characters. I was almost frightened away from this series by the mixed reviews, but the trailer for the new movie beckoned me to give it a try. It did have a somewhat slow start. It took about a hundred pages for me to realize that this one is different from the other young adult series I've read. I was expecting something similar, but I was pleasantly surprised. I found myself laughing out loud at some parts, completely identifying with the small town idiosyncrasies. It was actually refreshing reading from a boy's perspective, even if there were a few times I wondered if a boy would actually think or do that. It was a sweet story with no cheese.

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