Author Visit with Raymond Wong
8 years ago
Thursday, July 26, 2012
After claiming herself, Lena has found the solace and the relief she has been looking for ever since her sixteenth birthday. However, now that she has chosen to be both light and dark, strange things have been happening in Gatlin. Not only is is unbearably hot (hotter than usual), the fields are burned black, and the Lubber bugs are everywhere. What looks like the end of times for the mortal world is also affecting the Caster world where Casters are unable to use their magic properly and Lena's powers are more unpredictable than ever. Despite the possible end of the world, Link is getting use to his new life as an Incubus and Ridley is struggling without her powers, which makes him more confident and her more possessive and determined. Also, Ethan's father is recovering quite well and has decided to write a new book entitled Eighteen Moons, which instills great fear since Ethan and Lena know that the only person who communicates with that song is Ethan's mother, which begs the question: who is trying to communicate with Ethan's father? What's worse is that Ethan's dreams are becoming more vivid and dark and he is tarting to forget things he shouldn't. With Abraham Ravenwood and Serafine on the loose, Ethan and Lena set out to find the truth behind Abraham's reappearance with the help of Marian and Liv. However, Ethan has other problems than Abraham Ravenwood--Marian has been accused of treason, which sets off a chain of events that reveal ever more treachery. In order to prevent the end of the world, Ethan and Lena must find the missing John Breed and find a way to bring order and balance between the mortal and caster world. The ending will leave readers speechless.
Critical Evaluation:
In the third installment of the Beautiful Creatures trilogy, Beautiful Chaos delves into the history behind Serafine and the search for the mysterious John Breed. After her claiming, Lena's decision created a major problem where both the Caster and Mortal world are slowly falling apart; in other words, the delicate balance between Casters and Mortals has shifted where the Gatlin has turned into Moses' Egypt when Pharoh refused to let the Hebrews free. For the Caster world, their powers have be altered as if they are slowly losing their abilities to channel them properly. Although Lena chose to be both light and dark, this choice has caused a huge riff that even Abraham Ravenwood cannot fix unless he finds John Breed. The plot is literally filled with quite a few surprises that will not only add to the complexity of the story, but shed light an specific characters who have been severely misunderstood. I was very, very curious about the life of Izabel Duchannes (aka. Serafine), which, oddly enough, is quite the opposite of what we have seen thus far. It is actually possible to say that this horrible woman was once innocent and harmless; she was a person who actually loved and wanted nothing but to be a part of the Light .As Lena continues to uncover her mother's past, readers will hope that Lena will get the answers she has been longing for her whole life. However, the idea of John Breed was very perplexing simply because he is the key that Abraham Ravenwood is after. As a mutant/hybrid Incubus, John was purposely picked by Abraham for his powers. Readers don't learn a whole lot about his birth parents, but John lived a extremely unhappy life. The worst part about it is that John has no recollection of ever kidnapping Lena or hurting others; John, in many respects, has been an unwilling puppet for Abraham. What's great about John is behind the "jerk" facade, he develops a soft spot for Liv, which shows he is more than a "freak of nature." As readers get through the series, they realize that with every sacrifice, or decision, there is always a set of consequences. When Amma and Lena resurrected Ethan, they didn't realize that he would return with only one part of his soul. When Lena chose to claim herself as both dark and light, she created the rift between two worlds. When Ethan asked to Marian and Liv to help him find Lena, he didn't know that Marian would be tried for treason. It seems that no matter how noble, or terrible, our choices may be, someone is always going to suffer. However, what we also learn, is that with time, support, and love we can always get passed these decisions and find a way to make amends. This theme is constant throughout the series, which is not only hard to swallow, but very enlightening. The final installment, Beautiful Redemption, readers may get the happy ending they are hoping for.
Information about the Author:
According to their website:
Margaret is a veteran of the video-game industry, and after working with Activision (now Activision Blizzard) and Westwood Studios (now Electronic Arts), Margaret became a cofounder of 7 Studios with her husband, Lewis Peterson. She has previously been nominated for Most Innovative Game Design at the Game Developers Conference.
A graduate of Amherst College, where she won the Knox Prize for English Literature, Margaret earned a master’s degree in English from Stanford University and completed coursework for a doctorate in American Studies at Yale University. Margaret was a teaching assistant in Romantic Poetry at Stanford and in Film Studies at Yale. She attended the Creative Writing program of the University of East Anglia, where she was mentored by the Scottish poet George MacBeth.
Margaret loves traveling the world with her daughters, who are épée fencers, and living in Santa Monica, California, with her husband and two bad beagles.
Kami grew up outside of Washington DC, wore lots of black, and spent hours writing poetry in her journals. She has always been fascinated by the paranormal and believes in lots of things “normal” people don’t. She’s very superstitious and would never sleep in a room with the number “13” on the door. When she is not writing, Kami can usually be found watching disaster movies, listening to Soundgarden, or drinking Diet Coke.
Kami has an MA in education, and taught in the Washington DC area until she moved to Los Angeles, where she was a teacher & Reading Specialist. In addition to teaching, Kami was a professional artist and led fantasy book groups for children and teens. She still lives in LA with her husband, son, daughter, and their dogs Spike and Oz (named after characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
Genre:
Teen Supernatural Romance
Reading Level/Interest:
Grades 9 & up
Books Similar to Beautiful Chaos:
Awards & Recognition:
From Amazon.com:
"This richly imagined series has all the elements of a successful Southern gothic supernatural romance....The ambiguity of good and evil adds appealing complexity....Genre fans will love it." (VOYA )