Review: Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

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Page Count: 273 Pages
Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars

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 is one of my best friend's favorite books. She adored it. Be it because we have slightly different tastes in books (Which are usually pretty similar, but sometimes stray, as all things do.) or because of the Greek mythology (which we're both pretty into.), she ranted over it for a bit and told me I needed to read it.

I read it after a while, still wondering what it was even about. I'd read the back and it sounded interesting, but it didn't particularly give away one thing I felt like I needed to know. It's a Greek mythology book. Yes, the series is called Gods and Monsters, so I assumed after I found that out. But I went through a pretty large amount of this book not knowing what the hell was going on.

I did like it, I will say that. I swooned over Sebastian. I liked Crank and Violet. But this book didn't change anything for me.

Maybe it's just that a large portion of this book is spent with Ari trying to figure out what she is. Which was exciting, but just slight irritating at the same time. I'm aware that most could've guessed what Ari was from the start, but that legend had completely slipped my mind. I did figure it out before it was confirmed.

There's a lot of action in this one, so I'm happy about that. Kelly Keaton also has a splendid knack for plotting, because everything was intricately woven into place. Things that happened in the very beginning of the book turn up later and fit into place. Every element of this story was a puzzle piece and it very slowly put itself together.

Something you all know that bothers me occurred in this book. It switches styles far too often for my tastes. It went from very beautiful prose (which I did love quite a lot. I tabbed several things in this one.) to a grittier, urban fantasy vibe, and it just ended up seeming like the author was trying to make her writing more youthful or more lyrical.

Athena bothered me in this book, as well. I know that she was supposed to be the bad guy in this one. I can understand that. But this goddess dropped two F-bombs in the course of one or two pages and called someone a "little s**t." Cursing usually feels more natural with teenagers, but a goddess who otherwise uses flourishy language seemed out of place swearing like she did.

I debated for a while about whether this one should be four stars or three, but eventually I decided it was a 3.5. It wasn't a bad book. I will be reading the sequels and I am excited for them, but, overall I've liked more books a lot more than this one. I do recommend it to those of you who love Greek mythology, action books with lots of creatures, and a strong heroine.

Amazing quote: 

"I shouldn't be enjoying the swirling material around my legs so much, or the breathless excitement that came from racing down an eerie, darkened road with old, decaying mansions all around me. Peering through the mask made me a different person, a confident version of myself. It made me beautiful, mysterious, and powerful, as though I belonged to the night and to the magic that existed here like no other place on the earth. And it belonged to me."

-Page 172

Songs I listened to while reading: