Review: Darkness Becomes Her, by Kelly Keaton

Darkness Becomes Her
Kelly Keaton
Hardcover, 288 pages
Simon Pulse (February 22, 2011)
Source: S&S Galley Grab
Rating: (Avg 4.0)

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.

Darkness Becomes Her went from a story that had me curious from just reading the synopsis … to having my full and undivided attention for turning into an unexpectedly fantastic read. I don't really know how to put into words for what I feel for this book without giving too much away. The plot just kept building into layers and layers of story from the very beginning, when we first meet Ari and find out about her mom. From there, we're taken to a familiar place that isn't so familiar anymore. It's been ravaged by the hurricanes, and has become a place that you'd only read about in folklore and myth. Everything in the story is weaved together perfectly – there are no stray hairs that leave you hanging. Well, of course, until you get to the end … then, there's a pretty big cliffhanger waiting for you, snaring you in its grasp and holding you hostage until the next book is released.

The characters in this book charmed me – every. single. one. I loved Ari, our heroine. She was strong, yet still vulnerable. The best part? She didn't act like a spoiled, whiny brat! The love interest, to me, is obvious from the very beginning. Sebastian is a truly swoon-worthy character, heritage or not, and I loved that he was so brave and fearless – even when he knew he wasn't invincible. I also love that Ari and Sebastian didn't go completely love-struck and just forget about the entire world around them. No, the tension was just a soft buzz. You knew it was there, but it never distracts you from the real story. The other characters, especially the house of “misfits”, was exceedingly charming and the other characters were well-fleshed out and never deviated from themselves – no matter how rotten I thought they were. Ha.

Like I said, there was a definite cliffhanger. Of course, it didn't take the cliffhanger for me to be hooked … the story pretty much had me from “hello” and I'm still not out of its trance even after I completely finished the story. One thing that caught me off-guard was the amount of offensive language in the book. I don't think it was completely necessary to the story at all, but it's there – so, if you have a younger child reading the book, you might want to take that into consideration. But it didn't make my interest in the novel stray any. This has to be one of my top most enjoyable reads so far this year. It's definitely a recommendation for paranormal lovers that may also have an interest in Greek mythology.

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