Given that it's written for young adults, there sure is a lot of death in Beautiful Creatures. Let's see... dead people. First, there are those we care about. (Aside from all the evil mumbo-jumbo, Genevieve and Ethan Carter might have been a sweet couple). Then there are those we wish would come back. (Ethan's mom loved books. We'd love to get to know her better.) And finally there are those we wish would have just stayed dead, but—spoiler alert—they didn't. (Ahem, Sarafine.) Plus, we have that sucker-punch of a death at the end that Lena's going to have to deal with. What's that? No, that's not a tear. We must just have dust in our eye.
All of these different versions of death make it tough to look at mortality from just one angle. How do the living characters in Beautiful Creatures react to death, and what can we learn from them?
Questions About Death
- Do you sympathize with Ethan's father and his inability to manage his grief?
- Is Ethan actually receiving help from his mother's ghost?
- Would Ethan be able to come to terms with his mother's death if this mysterious helpful ghost wasn't around?
- How will Lena handle Macon's death?