Review: Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

Pub. Date: February 22nd 2011
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 288
Readership: Young adult
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal
Rating: ★★★★
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.

I’ll admit it: it was the cover that originally drew me into this book. It happens to the best of us. It didn’t even sit on my shelf long. I bought it and maybe a week later I picked it up and started to read. It had a really strong start; jumped right into the swing of things. Ari is a freak with her silver hair and teal eyes “like a neon sea”. The drama and story begin to unfold when Ari finds a letter her dead mother wrote to her. Now, the letter was a catalyst, a springboard, to get the story going. I understand that but one things that bothered me about it was that it wasn’t really explained. It was nothing more than a blurb and that bothered me. I was left wondering, um, why? However, I quickly got over that.


Darkness is fast paced, something I like. Ari quickly heads to New 2 – which was once New Orleans but thirteen years ago, Katrina hit and the government sold it to a group called the Novem. I liked this concept. A hint of dystopia in an urban fantasy.

Ari is a badass. She’s not your typical heroin of a YA series. She’s a sarcastic, clever, kick-ass, gun wielding chick determined to find more about who and what she is. And she has a bit of a potty mouth – something I wasn’t expecting. It’s rare to find a YA book throw around fuck.

The world this book takes place in is great – one I wouldn’t mind stumbling down the rabbit hole into. New 2 is home to vampires, shifters, witches, and wait for it, Greek Gods. One to be exact but that’s a spoiler and I definitely don’t want to spoil you. I found that the book was a little short, 273 pages wasn’t enough to fully develop the other characters, the relationships and everything else. But with that said, it has such potential and I really did enjoy it. I read 200 pages in one go of it at 4 in the morning and that’s saying something. It has some great twists, turns and moments that make you go whaaaaaaaaaat? Suffice it to say, I’m counting down the days till February when A Beautiful Evil comes out.