Ari has always been different: she has strange, teal-colored eyes and silvery hair that she cannot alter in any way. She’s tried cutting it, shaving it, but to no avail. Her search for answers about her birth mother and her heritage lead her to Rocquemore House, where she gets her first clues as to who her mother was.

Even though her birth mother’s letter issues her a warning to never set foot in New 2 (the rebuilt version of New Orleans), Ari does it anyway. In New 2, Ari discovers that the people who live there are even stranger than she is. She also meets a very powerful woman who claims she can undo the curse in Ari’s family that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Ari wants nothing more than to be normal, but as more secrets come out in the open, Ari finds herself doing the thing she had least expected: embracing her powers and vowing vengeance.

Kelly Keaton is the pseudonym for Kelly Gay, an adult urban fantasy author whose Charlie Madigan series is absolutely incredible. So naturally when I learned she was going to write a YA series, I was all for it. Darkness Becomes Her is the first in her Gods and Monsters series, and as you get further into the book, you’ll understand exactly why it’s called that. It’s fitting, and in so many ways, it’s totally brilliant.

I love the idea of a re-built city taken over by a powerful group of supernatural families, each with their own special abilities. I felt we got to know what this city was like, but I wanted to know more about the rest of the United States, and even other countries as well. Was it war, plague, or something else entirely that caused everything to fall apart? What kind of government reigns over the country? I wanted more back story, and I hope that we’ll get some of this in the next book, Beautiful Evil. Another detail that might have been a bit confusing is when all this occurs. Ari states her birth year as 2009, and she is 17, so the year is 2026.

Without giving too much away, Darkness Becomes Her is a fun combination of Greek mythology and perhaps the most popular supernatural creature, the vampire. I didn’t think it was all that possible anymore, but Kelly Keaton came up with a fresh perspective of vampires, and I really enjoyed it.

For those who love romance, there is a little bit of that in here, but I wasn’t all that caught up in it. Things happen far too quickly between Ari and Sebastian, and it almost feels forced. I suppose I really enjoy drama, tension, and excruciatingly waiting until characters finally get together rather than a happily ever after being established in the first book. There was the barest hint of a possible love triangle, so maybe the third character will be brought back in more books to cause further trouble.

Disclosure: I borrowed a copy of this book from the library. Neither the author nor the publisher compensated me in any way for this review.