well, i am reading a paranormal romance written for teenage girls. so sue me!

i would love to give this book 1 star and just forget about it, for so many reasons:

- despite the potentially interesting role reversal happening (mysterious supernatural GIRL meets weepy, slack-jawed BOY), the dialogue between the two is just as mawkish and hand-wringy as bella & edward.
- my God, two authors and two pages of credits to supporters of this project, and they still don't know how to write? hello, there is no need to follow an entire paragraph of description or torrential emotion with a one-sentence paragraph summarizing the preceding paragraph. over and over and over again. c'mon folks, this is Writing 101 stuff. repeat after me: repetition is bad writing. repetition is bad writing.
- the last third of the book should be completely pumped-up narrative excitement, but for every page of actual action there are two pages of ridiculously obvious exposition and eye-rollingly banal dialogue.
- new kinds of supernatural beings shouldn't just pop up to cause trouble or save the day or be the mother of the best character, John Breed. they should not pop up repeatedly. and they shouldn't all have corny little nicknames either. "evo", a special kind of shape-shifty witch...really?

but i can't give it the lowest rating because the novel had many enjoyable moments, mainly in the first half before things got sloppy & ridiculous. there's some charm there, particularly in the supporting characters and their eating habits. even better, this is a novel that is fascinatingly chock-full of extremely emotional dreams, hallucinations, visions, etc - practically every other page. at times the characters' emotions were so intense it almost felt like reading the equivalent of someone hyperventilating, or having a panic attack. that's kinda fun for a while, until its not. also: a network of magical tunnels. i'm always a fan of that.

and then there's a nifty plot device that stays true to the protagonists' so-very-intense, can't-keep-their-hands-off-of-each-other, you-are-my-life kinda love, while also adhering to the strict no-sex dictates of YA fiction: whenever Whiny the Witch & The Drama King get too hot & bothered while grinding away, THEY LITERALLY START BURNING UP! no need to even worry about condoms - with that kind of innate barrier, sex ain't even happening. i guess they'll have to stick to magical phone sex - which, in Beautiful Darkness, actually has a name: "kelting". sorry kids, looks like you're looking at a lifetime of fully-clothed snuggling and lots of, er, hot kelting action.