Beautiful Chaos

by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I went for a little mini-vacation recently so I was wondering what I could read that would fulfill the vacation read requirements of a mindlessly entertaining quick read. From my experience with the first two books in this series, I knew this was just what I was looking for.

True to form, it kept me engaged and made me want to keep reading all the way up to the very end. Which proved to be a problem when my kindle died on me when I was 5% away from the end! So I've found another downside to ebooks. Don't get me wrong, I still love them (I wasted no time in ordering a replacement kindle) but I do recognize the pros and cons to my kindle as well as the pros and cons to physical books.

While I normally prefer to take time off between books in a series this one had a surprise ending that I want to see how they deal with. I may have snuck a peak at the beginning of the final book in the series when I was downloading it onto my new kindle. Fortunately, I was able to tear myself away after the first paragraph or two and resume the next book on my list. However, it may not be long before you see a review of that book pop up on this blog. Fair warning.

I got interested in this series when the movie came out (which was awesome, btw, and you should all get the DVD so that they'll make the rest of the series into movies) because I liked the idea of a family divided by good and evil. On your sixteenth birthday, you get chosen as Light or Dark. You have no say in the matter. Epic battle between Good and Evil ensues, complete with family drama.

Seems pretty cut and dried, right? I thought so, too. Until this book. This book reveals that, regardless of how a person is chosen, they can fight it. Whether or not they can have any success is another matter but the point is that no one is entirely Light or Dark, good or evil. Both Light and Dark exist in everyone, it is merely a matter of which side is more dominant. As with all good YA, this book wasn't afraid to tackle the big issues and, for that, they gained an extra measure of my respect.