Review: Darkness Becomes Her - Kelly Keaton

Ari Selkirk has always stood out.  With her teal-coloured eyes and freakish silver hair, it's hard not to.  And she's always been alone.  Her mother died when she was tiny, and she's grown up in foster care, longing for some understanding of who she is and where she came from.  When her search for answers uncovers a message from her mother with the single word 'RUN' on it, Ari realises that someone, or something, is getting too close.  But it's impossible to protect herself when she doesn't know who or what she's running from.

Returning to her birthplace in the rebuilt city of New Orleans, she discovers she isn't so different after all.  But why is every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, afraid of her?  The truth is both disturbing and terrifying . . .

Gods and Monsters Series:

Darkness Becomes Her

A Beautiful Evil


Visit Kelly Keaton's website for more information

Review:

Ari was brought up moving from one foster family to another and although she has now found a loving home she has never really felt like she fitted in anywhere.  She also has questions about her birth parents and it is when she goes looking for answers that she finds herself in a whole new world.  After finding a letter from her mother telling her that her family is cursed and she must run Ari decides she must head to New 2 to find answers.  New 2 used to be New Orleans, until 2 hurricanes destroyed the city several years ago.  Unable to fund the cost of re-building the city the government sold the city to an alliance called the Novem and the city has become a haven for outsiders and anyone who is different.  Although the Novem have started re-building a lot of New 2 is still very run down and poverty stricken but Ari finds a group of misfit children and feels like she has found a place where she can fit in at last.

I wasn't really too sure what to expect of Darkness Becomes Her but it is an impressive YA debut and I'm looking forward to seeing where Kelly Keaton takes the series next.  If you're looking for a YA urban fantasy that is a little different then this would be a good place to start, the author has mixed in an interesting amount of Greek mythology and the story stands out from the huge number of YA vampire stories in the market at the moment.

Ari is different from a lot of other YA heroines in the fact that she can stand up for herself and she doesn't take people at face value.  Her past has taught her to be wary and it takes her time before she will trust people.  Although she is vulnerable she is capable of standing up for herself and can kick butt when she needs to.  I did think that the romance took off a little too quickly when she met Sebastian but I liked them as a couple so I was easily able to forgive that.  We are introduced to some great secondary characters who I'm looking forward to learning more about as the series progresses.  Along with Sebastian you have the rest of the misfits Crank, Henri, Dub & Violet and although I liked them all it was Violet who really stood out for me.  She is a weird and quite creepy character but at the same time she was also incredibly sweet and makes you want to look out for her.

The story line is fast paced and full of twists and turns, I'll admit that I had made a good guess at what Ari was before the big reveal but this didn't reduce my enjoyment of the story and I couldn't wait to find out if I was right or not.  There were a few things that I would have liked to have seen expanded but I'd rather have a pacy shorter story than one that is long winded and meanders to the finish line at a snail's pace.  Darkness Becomes Her was a great start to a new series and is an easy book to devour in one session.  I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series and would recommend this to any fans of YA paranormal stories.

Source: Received from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

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