Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories (Kami Garcia) Books in Order

The novellas collected under Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories return to Gatlin without simply replaying the main series. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl use these shorter works to look at the people who shaped Ethan and Lena's world long before the two teenagers began uncovering Caster secrets.

These are the stories behind the stories.

The Mortal Heart follows Lila Jane Evers and Macon Ravenwood, giving real weight to a relationship that hangs over the larger series. The Seer's Spread moves closer to Amma and the gifts, losses, and responsibilities she carried for the Wate family. In Before the Claiming, the focus shifts to Lena as a child, with Macon and Emmaline trying to protect her from a future that already seems to be closing in.

The final piece, A Gatlin Wedding, brings the action closer to the timeline after the main quartet. It is a reunion story on the surface, but this is Gatlin, so even a wedding has room for old trouble, uneasy history, and people arriving with more baggage than gifts. Readers get time with familiar characters without having to begin another full-length novel.

Gatlin keeps its secrets close.

The books work best after at least some time with the main Beautiful Creatures novels. They assume readers know the important relationships and the basics of the Caster world, including the divide between Light and Dark, the Wate family, and the Ravenwood name. The reward is more emotional context rather than a separate new adventure.

The tone remains recognizably Southern gothic. Old homes, card readings, grave memories, family stories, and difficult bargains all have their place. But these novellas are often quieter than the central novels. They make space for regret, memory, first love, and the small decisions that later become impossible to take back.

For readers who finished Ethan and Lena's story but are not ready to leave Gatlin, this is the natural next stop. Read the pieces after the core quartet for the strongest effect, then continue to the Ridley and Link spin-off if you want the Caster world to become louder, messier, and more unpredictable. The Untold Stories supplies the roots beneath it all.