Title:
Darkness Becomes Her
Book Depository/Amazon
Author: Kelly Keaton
Publisher: Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster
Publish Date: February 22, 2011
Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN 10: 144240924X
ISBN 13:
9781442409248
Goodreads 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.
My Take:
Ari's mom died in an insane asylum just after Ari's fourth birthday. Since then she has been in the foster care system, and lucked out in her last foster parents, bounty hunters both, who have taught her how to fight. She's a tough, no-nonsense, type of girl - I like her.
Now 17, and with her foster parents' blessing, she visits the asylum where her mother died to figure out the riddle of her past. In her mother's possessions is a note addressed to her, telling her, among other things, to "run". She knows that her mom came from New Orleans, now known as New 2 - privately owned by a group of nine families known as the Novem, and known as a sanctuary for misfits and things that go bump in the night. Her foster parents asked her not to go to New 2 on her own, but, after a hefty blond guy tries to kill her in her motel parking lot, she hitches a ride there with a young girl named Crank (Jenna), who delivers mail from New 2.
From there, the reader enters a world people by vampires, witches, demi-gods, and shape-shifters. There's voodoo, and danger, and groups who want Ari to swear allegiance to them. With a curse on her family, she works to find out how it can be undone. As she begins to understand who she is, and what her powers are, there's even a bit of romance with a son of the Novem.
This is an imaginative and unique tale. It picked up slowly, but once this reader was caught up in the action, the pace was perfect. It even leaves room for a sequel, which I will be looking forward to. Not for younger YA readers due to some profanity, it is perfect for the older YA set and for other adults who love a good story with otherworldly elements. The secondary characters are great, and there is one secondary character in particular that I totally loved - Violet, a 10-year-old Goth girl with fangs, a small white alligator named Pascal, and a love for costumes. I hope to see a lot more of her in the next book.
QUOTES (from an ARC; may be different in finished copy):
Thanks to Bruce and Casey, I could operate six different firearms, drop a two-hundred-pound asshole to the floor in three seconds, and cuff a perp blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back;
And they called it "family time".
The gods were real. I didn't know how to react, so I just sat there feeling blank and squeezing the bars as tightly as I could. And even more bizarre, I'd somehow pissed off one of the gods.
It figured.
Writing: 4 out of 5 stars
Plot: 4 out of 5 stars
Characters: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 4.0 out 5 stars
BOOK RATING: 4.125 out of 5 stars
Read Chapter 1
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Disclosure: I received a complimentary eGalley of this title from the publisher through their Galley Grab program to facilitate my review. No other compensation was received and I was not required to post a positive review.
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