Lauren Viddler’s Reviews > Beautiful Darkness > Status Update

I am extremely surprised to see that Macon was alive this entire time! He was trapped inside a prison that Ethan's dead mother put him in, so that he wouldn't die and could help Ethan save Lena! Now, it is more important than ever to get to Lena because she had been going dark mostly because she thinks she killed Macon. But he is actually alive!

This must be a lot for Ethan to take in right now. He has just found out that his mom was involved in the Caster world, loved Macon (Lena's uncle), and was killed by Sarafine! As if he didn't already have enough to deal with, since Lena is possibly going dark. But before his mom knew about casters, the information she knew could help Ethan save Lena. This reminds me that there is good in bad and bad in good.

Ethan has had visions before. But the people in the visions could never seen him, but suddenly, now that can. I think the reason for this is because Lena is becoming dark, and Ethan doesn't know what he can do about it. But that doesn't stop him from trying to find the answer. And I think the people in the visions might now more about Ethan's situation than he might think.

It seems like Lena is carrying less and less about Ethan, as she hands out with Ridley and John more. This is shown when Ethan sees her dancing with John in a loving way, and all she cares about is the fact that he was following her. But Ethan really needs to face the fact that Lena may be going dark. After all her eyes have turned pure gold, the color of a dark caster's eyes.

In this book, and the previous one, Ethan and Lena have been faced with a situation; Lena's claiming. And they are always warned by a song. I think these songs have been trying to tell them something and they should pay more attention. The song hasn't lied once, and it cost them the life of one person already. If they want to stay together, they are going to have to uncover the message begins the lyrics.

I feel bad for Ethan. He's already had to cope with the loss of his mother, and now he has to cope with Macon's passing. Macon might have not always been the nicest to Ethan, but he was only looking out for Lena. He truly was a good man at heart.

(Author's Craft) The book starts from where the first one ended; Lena's uncle had died. So this book immediately started with a funeral. This set the mood to be very gloomy. Ethan and the Casters from Lena's family were there, making it very uncomfortable for Ethan.