“Beautiful Darkness”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Beautiful Darkness is the sequel to the Caster Saga. The story begins with the tragic death of Macon Ravenwood, Lena’s beloved uncle. Through telepathic communication, Lena tells Ethan she wants to skip the funeral. Ethan is skeptical about Macon’s choice for burial, the town cemetery of which he doesn’t have any real love for the town, Gatlin. Macon is an incubus who chose to feed on dreams rather than human blood. Several incubuses attended his funeral most of which Ethan had never known or seen before the funeral. A caster boy gives Lena a silver sparrow before he himself had to depart. After the funeral Lena falls into a deep depression and refused to leave the house, Ravenwood Manor. Ethan has been hearing the song “Seventeen Moons” playing on the radio in his car and on his iPod and tries to tell Lena about it. Lena had used the Book of Moons to bring Ethan back to life in the previous book, Beautiful Creatures. Lena shuts Ethan out and refuses to discuss things with him. Lena worries that even though she avoided having to choose what she will claim, light or dark on her sixteenth birthday, she thinks that someday soon she will whether she’s ready for it or not. Ethan attempts to cheer Lena up through their secret telepathic abilities, that is until Lena’s grandmother Delphine insist that Lena returns to school. Initially this seems to make Lena feel better, normal in a sense. However, on the last day of school Ethan and Lena ditch class and head to the lake where they are flirtatious with one another and almost kiss, but Lena ends up setting the grass on fire. Lena flees the scene and rides away on a motorcycle with a boy Ethan has never seen before. From then on Lena begins to act in strange unexplainable behavior. She ends up spending some time with a new girl in town called Oliva (Liv) Durrand, and a boy named John Breed, as well as her siren troublemaking sister, Ridley. Ethan becomes concerned that Ridley is using her siren influence on Lena and ends up recruiting his best friend Wesley Lincoln to spy and follow Lena. But Ethan discovers that Lena is acting on her own, this makes Ethan crestfallen. Ethan had started to read Macon Ravenwood’s journal, and had visions of The Great Burning, a large important part of Gatlin’s history. He sees in the vision Macon giving his mother Lila Evers a thing called an Arclight. An Arclight is a magical object used to trap incubus and succubus. While visiting his mother’s grave Ethan is given an Arclight by his mother’s best friend, a librarian of both a Gatlin and the caster library named Marian. Ethan pays a visit to Lena’s bedroom and finds out that she has been keeping a journal which includes an attempted reconstruction of the events that led up the her uncle’s death, Macon Ravenwood. Ethan also finds out that Lena is planning to go to a magical place called the Great Barrier, which is believed to be a myth and that John Breed is trying to help Lena locate it. Ethan takes Link to a keeper, Liv and pursues Lena who is convinced that she is walking into severe trouble in her quest to get to the Great Barrier. At first the group consisting of Ethan, Link and Olivia “Liv” into the tunnels under Gatlin. They run into Ethan’s Aunt Prue who points them in the right direction giving them a map to help the find their way. In the tunnels they also discover Ridley who insists she’s has Lena’s best interest at heart. Ridley claims that by helping Ethan, she has been robbed of her powers by Lena’s mother for being a bad daughter. Ethan realizes that wasn’t killed at Lena’s claiming ceremony but was in fact sucked into the Arclight. Ethan and Liv end up being able to free Macon from the Arclight and Macon reveals that he is no longer an incubus. But he is too weak to be of much help, magically at least if not physically as well. When they reach the Great Barrier they find Lena’s mother Serafine and the dark casters with Lena unconscious. Serafine is hoping to harness the powers of the Claiming Moon in hopes to force Lena to choose the side of darkness, therein killing all the light family member of Lena. Macon uses the last of his strength to protect them from the dark casters. Lena is afraid to choose but Ridley encourages Lena to choose light even if it mean Ridley herself would be killed in the process. John Breed turns out to be a hybrid magical creature, of what is still yet to be seen leaves the scene. Abraham Ravenwood, Macon’s grandfather, the source of darkness, appears and tells Lena that she has broken the natural order of things and there will be consequences. Abraham takes the dark casters and disappears. Link tells Ethan that he has been bitten by John Breed during the fight at the Great Barrier and becomes a incubus. Ridley is now forced to attend school like a normal person because she has been stripped of her siren powers, and they bury the arclight in Macon’s empty grave—but a man in a white suit watches them do so and then claims the arclight when they leave. What will become of Link and will Lena. Will they be once again thrown into the hands of danger?

Reception

Critical reception for Beautiful Darkness has been positive, with the Manila Bulletin calling it "moody and atmospheric".^[4] Booklist praised the book's "gothic atmosphere" and new characters.^[5] The School Library Journal blog positively reviewed Beautiful Darkness,^[6] with a librarian also giving a positive review for the book's "great storytelling balance".^[7] Kirkus Reviews wrote that while the book had a "weaker and more hurried plot" than its predecessor, "readers... will find satisfaction here".^[8]

References

1. ^'Beautiful Darkness' authors Garcia, Stohl in tune with complexities of teenage life Deseret News
2. ^'Beautiful Darkness' gives girls the power Salt Lake Tribune
3. ^[https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2010-10-31/chapter-books/list.html NYT Best Sellers October 31, 2010] New York Times
4. ^Preview of better stories to come Manila Bulletin
5. ^Beautiful Darkness Booklist
6. ^Review: Beautiful Darkness School Library Journal
7. ^Grades 5 & up School Library Journal
8. ^BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS By Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl Kirkus Reviews

External links

Synopsis

Reception

References

External links