 | Title: Darkness Becomes Her
 Kissing. The events leading up to and immediately following a rape are described. References to child molestation.
My Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
Ari can’t help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is.
Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why she is being pursued.
She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.
Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.
Review
What’s better than a new series from one of my favorite urban fantasy authors (Kelly Keaton is the pen name of Charlie Madigan series author Kelly Gay)? When that new series is a Paranormal YA about Greek Mythology that is being described as is part ‘Lightning Thief, part Twilight, and part Maximum Ride.’
Greek Mythology is looking the next hot thing in Paranormal YA. There are at least a dozen books coming out in 2011 that play off the Pantheon of gods in one form or another and I couldn’t be more excited to read them. I can’t reveal the unique mythological twist that DARKNESS BECOMES HER employs without spoiling a major revelation in the book, but it’s fresh and exciting and delightfully messed up in the way only a Greek tragedy can be.
Ari is the protagonists here. She’s an orphan who bounced from one awful foster care situation to the next before landing with a loving couple who run a bail bonds company. They provide her not only with love for the first time in her life, but also teach her the tricks of the bounty hunter trade including impressive (yet not unrealistic) fighting and weapons proficiency in preparation of her joining the business when she turns eighteen. Those skills end up saving her life and others when she tracks down a lead about her birth mother in New 2, a semi-alternate New Orleans that was destroyed and then became home to the country’s ‘freak’ population of rumored vampires, witches, and shapeshifters.
While I understood Ari’s personality, I found her prickly and bordering on waspish throughout most of DARKNESS BECOMES HER. She goes from zero to !@%&ing pissed off in seconds (*Note there is a abnormally high amount of profanity in this book than normal for the YA genre). Understandable but annoying. Then there’s Sebastian, New 2 resident who ends up helping Ari. Cool and calm despite dealing with huge responsibilities for a teenager, not to mention a frightening and uncertain future because of his unique heritage. I absolutely understood Ari’s attraction to him, but I didn’t quite get Sebastian’s attraction to her.
For mythology junkies, DARKNESS BECOMES HER delivers a great reimagining of some of the gods and myths in a fun, contemporary way that lends itself perfectly to the Paranormal YA genre. The protagonist has her ups and downs, but in the hands of the talented Kelly Keaton, I’m confident that she’ll mellow out after her growing pains. The as yet untitled second book in the Gods and Monsters series will be published in February 2012. I’m looking forward to it.
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Great review. Wasn't quite sold on this book, but it sounds like it's worth the read.
ReplyDeleteShera - There was a lot of cool world building going on, and you can tell we've only just scratched the surface. Looks like another fun series to watch.
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