Darkness Becomes Her (ARC) by Kelly Keaton

Darkness Becomes Her:
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 really enjoyed Kelley Keaton's integration of Greek mythology into modern day paranormal folklore. To be perfectly honest I was not very impressed with the first half of this book. I thought: "Here we go again, another 'star-crossed lovers' story." But the whole book turned right around for me in the second half, and I was completely engrossed in Ari's story. I also felt the writing improved as the book progressed. Thirteen years ago the city of New Orleans was destroyed by hurricanes. After being written off by the US Government, nine families (called the Novem) pulled their resources together and bought the city outright. When Ari realizes that the hospital she was born in resides in New Orleans (now called New 2) she convinces herself that she might find her father through the hospital records. Only before she can make her way into New 2 she is attacked by a man with a sword. Incredibly strange things begin happening from that moment on. Sebastian, the boy she meets within her fist day in New 2, seems to be the only calm in the storm of danger surrounding Ari. But when she discovers the truth of the curse put upon her ancestors, she is afraid to tell Sebastian and her new friends who she really is, and why the Novem want to keep her around so badly.