Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margie Stohl
9.02 New Girl
Written by Krystal

Eight streets later, Link and Ethan arrived at school, but not before running into Fatty at the Stop & Shop. The two tried to sneak inside, but due to the pouring rain and squeakiness, failed miserably and were caught by Miss Hester. Amma, no doubt, would have already heard about their impending detentions; that’s what it was the thing about small towns. Everyone had their own secrets and everyone else knew them, even that was no secret. Miss Hester handed them their detention slips and sent them on their way to class.

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Memorable Quotes:

Ethan: It’s not like there was any actual news. Every house had its secrets, but everyone on the street knew them. Even that was no secret. (Page 15)

Ethan: Because I was smart, I got good grades on my paper; because Link was stupid, he got bad ones. I guess nobody bothered to read them. Sometimes I wrote random stuff in the middle of my essays, just to see if my teachers would say anything. No one ever did. (Page 15)

Ethan: Last year, on a dare from Link, I had written a paper called “The War of Southern Aggression,” and Mr. Lee had given me a D. Guess the teachers actually did read the papers sometimes, after all. (Page 17)

Ethan: Emily was a flyer, the girl at the top of the pyramid, the one thrown five or six feet into the air to complete a flip or some other crazy cheer stunt that could easily result in a broken neck. Emily would risk anything to stay on top of the pyramid. Savannah didn’t need to. When Emily got tossed, the pyramid went on fine without her. When Savannah moved an inch, the whole thing came tumbling down. (Page 20)

Ethan: The bad omen wasn’t just the hearse. It was a girl. (Page 23)

Questions for discussion:

Link immediately thinks they are soul mates, after all 16 years of the same girls must get boring. Even Ethan harbors the hopes that this new girl is the girl he’s looking for. If it is true for these two, how many other boys do you think will be after her? What do you think her reaction was like on her first day?

Why doesn’t anyone seems to have information on the new girl, despite the fact that she is in their grade and therefore must have classes with some of them?

In small towns like Gatlin, image is everything it seems. For example, Ethan is on that basketball team because it’s normal. How do you think this new girl is going to affect Ethan’s normality with others and do you think she is indeed a bad omen?

Did you notice something in this chapter that you’d like to discuss with the book club?

Read and discuss more HERE.