Beautiful Chaos

A nice extension of the storyline, however I've reached my limit of young adult angst. I don't think I'll pick up the next one in the series for awhile.

A solid YA read. It's not high art literature, but better than some (most) of the YA lit out there now. The world created in this series is engaging and doesn't feel hokey. I also really like that the main character is male. Often with YA novels the first person protagonist is female, so this is a nice change of pace, in my opinion.

So, this is still a really well-written series, with a rich cast of characters and a fully-realized setting that puts The Caster Chronicles ahead of several similar series. However, this installment – by and large – seems rather pointless. Its main task seems to be setting the stage for Book 4.

Yes, there's some character development – but not enough, it's like they're afraid to go too far with some of the supporting characters (like Link and Ridley) at this point, they have to leave something for the next installment. Yes, we get some vital back story, but . . . well, that's pretty much it. There's a couple hundred pages of set up, a quick action scene and a conclusion that isn't.

A few other notes:
* It took Ethan and Lena far too long to decode the song lyrics. They've been doing this for about 2 years now, right? And they're this slow? Hard to root for people when they're acting far stupider than they are – especially this many of them at once.
* For people who talk about loving and respecting each other as much as these people do – they don't communicate. On those rare occasions when they do, actual progress is made. Amma and Ethan, in particular, should've conversed, not hidden things from each other.
* For a series with such a strong sense of place, man, these authors show such contempt for the citizenry and culture of Gatlin. Isn't it possible to talk about problems with the society without vilifying it?
* I was unclear whether the devastation brought about by Lena's choice (and Abraham Ravenwood & Co's reaction to it) was limited to Gatlin, or if it extended beyond that. If it's just Gatlin – where's the press, the scientific community, the feds, looky-loos, etc. converging on the area to investigate it? If it's a larger area affected, what are the explanations? Assuming they're able to defeat Abraham in the next book, how does the world go back to normal?
* So many things – Ethan's taste issues, Link's abilities, foremost amongst them – are introduced, and explored a little bit, and then dropped. Why?

I have confidence that Garcia and Stohl will pull this off (mostly) in the last 50 pages or so of Beautiful Redemption, and this will just fade into memory as a prolonged setup. But right now, it's left a sour taste in my mouth.

There are very few books that have caused me to miss sleep in order to finish them. This book was one of them. The ending is out of this world and every part of this book was just so perfectly written. I loved it.

It was hard to get back into this one, the latest in the Caster Chronicles. It's been awhile since I read Beautiful Darkness so I spent quite a bit of time lost or trying to remember who certain characters were. This book is another example of how some series just need an ending. Three books is enough and at over 500 pages each time you really should have been able to tell the story by now. If you can't, then chances are you're dragging it out too long.

Granted, there was a lot going on in this book.

Ethan is changing. His favorite things to eat now make him sick. He's forgetting things he shouldn't be forgetting and everything just has a foggy sense to it. Not to mention the nightmares and the feeling of being stalked.
Ridley is being mysterious and secretive. Yes, that's not surprising, but something is going on there and you just can't tell what it could be - especially (SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS) since she is no longer a Siren.
Link is not only chasing Ridley around and trying to be all he can be for her, but he's also dealing with the change that came upon him at the end of Beautiful Darkness (he also has a short story Dream Dark about his changes).
Amma is going crazy. Instead of Ethan having to worry about his father, this time it's Amma who is going off the deep end.
Marian is going to be tried and punished for her part in the Arclight incident with Liz. Or rather, her inaction that allowed Liz to become involved.
The search for John Breed and what he really is.
Lena is desperate for answers about her mother and where she came from.

So yeah, 500 pages isn't really a lot when you're trying to cram all that in, but did we really NEED to cram all that in? Probably not. Some of it just seemed unnecessary. Like Ridley. She does have a big part to play in the whole John Breed stuff, but meh.

Out of the whole book my favorite was a surprise to me: John Breed. His character is interesting and fun and new. We got a look at him in the last book, but it was more of a background character than someone we needed to pay attention to. He's also the anomaly. He's not really Dark or Light and he has just about no history.

The book leaves on quite literally a cliffhanger. The difference this time is that the cliffhanger is pretty straightforward so if it takes another year for the next one to come out I'll probably remember enough to not be confused. From what I can tell (and there really isn't too much info out there) there will be one last book after this one.

Keeping my fingers crossed.