REVIEW: Darkness Becomes Her (A kinda PG-13 fun Anita Blake or less funny more action-oriented Paranormalcy/Stephanie Plum

Keaton, K.  (2011).  Darkness Becomes Her.  New York:  Simon Pulse.

273 pages.


Appetizer:  Seventeen-year-old Ari has gone searching for information about her mother.  The woman had given her up to the state of Louisiana years ago.  Soon after learning that her mother spent time in an insane asylum where she eventually committed suicide, Ari finds a cryptic letter.  Then she is attacked by a supernatural being.  Lucky for her, she's been raised by bounty hunters for the last few years and can handle the creature attacking her...at least the first one, anyway.

Realizing that there's more going on, Ari's quest for information about her family's past leads her to the ruins of New Orleans, AKA New 2, (which had been devastated by hurricanes thirteen years previously and has since been dominated by a handful of wealthy families called The Novem who want nothing to do with the outside world).  While in New 2, Ari makes new friends, learns more about the magical curse that has haunted the women in her family and realizes she has a powerful and ancient enemy to battle.

Darkness Becomes Her proved to be a fast read (when I had the time) that was easy to get into and that I was willing to read, "just another chapter...okay one more than I'll stop...how long is the next one--okay, one more...."  I liked Ari as a character.  She was tough and could handle herself in a fight (In that way, she reminded me of Kiersten White's protagonist in Paranormalcy).  I thought it was interesting that Avi in Darkness Becomes Her had such a dark past and history of abuse (Keaton does a good job of not dwelling on this, but rather briefly showing what Ari has endured, making it impressive that the character has survived and is as strong as she is.)  Overall, the book is a light quick read.  So, since I didn't get bogged down in the darkness, it was easier to focus on the romance (with a vampire-warlock named Sebastian...oorh, in theory.  In reality, he was kind of blah.  I thought he needed to be developed more.  Aside from the requirement of being handsome, providing necessary exposition about New 2 and showing up at the right time, there wasn't much to her personality.

I could also focus on the fluff and rich descriptions of the surviving (and familiar!) parts of Southern Louisiana and New Orleans.  Keaton has created a protagonist whose world and experience are easy to escape into.  (I know I used the book to avoid grading for a little longer.)

On a tiny note, I wasn't crazy that the author included a word in Greek as a part of the name of the monster hunting group:

I have no idea how to pronounce the word!  Sigh.  I guess I can add that to my to-do list:  learn Greek, ancient and modern.  I also felt like Keaton had to work a little too hard to establish the rules of her world.  Don't get me wrong, this is important for an author to do, but I felt like she had to work a little too hard to accomplish this...like there were some weaknesses in the world building.  All this means is...so many rules.


Plus, I wasn't completely crazy about the way the Greek goddess Athena was portrayed.  But there were a still a lot of great tensions with the conflict with her.  Keaton focuses on the myth of how Medusa was created and Athena's role in that.  It has the potential to be a strong critique of the way victims have historically been treated after surviving rapes and abuse.  I wanted Keaton to push those critique and commentary more.

I liked the way voodoo, fantasy and Greek myth were all combined.  It was reminiscent of an actual New Orleans Mardi Gras experience (to which there are several scenes devoted in the book).

And since I mentioned Mardi Gras, here are some pictures I took of my own Lundi Gras parade experiences.  Think of it as setting the mood for the novel:

The sequel to this book is A Beautiful Evil.  I'll be reading it soon.  :)


Dinner Conversation:

"Under the cafeteria table, my right knee bounced like a jackhammer possessed.  Adrenaline snaked through my limbs, urging me to bolt, to hightail it out of Rocquemore House and never look back.
Deep breaths.
If I didn't get my act together and calm down, I'd start hyperventilating and embarrass the shit out of myself.  Not a good thing, especially when I was sitting in an insane asylum with rooms to spare." (p. 1).

"'After your mother gave you up to social services, she spent the remainder of her life here at Rocquemore.'  His fingers fidgeted with the file.  "Self-admitted," he went on.  "Was here six months and eighteen days.  Committed suicide on the eve of her twenty-first birthday."
An inhale lodged in my throat.
Oh hell.  I hadn't expected that."  (p. 2).


A letter from Avi's mother:  "Stay away from New Orleans, and away from those who can identify you.  How I wish I could save you.  My heart aches, knowing you will face what I have faced.  I love you so much, Avi.  And I am sorry.  For everything.
I'm not crazy.  Trust me.  Please, baby girl, just RUN." (p. 12)

"The Novem never confirmed or denied any rumors.  They never gave interviews, never stepped into the spotlight except to make the purchase.  And then they retreated into their ruined city, leaving the rest of the country to wonder.  It's wasn't long before they joined the ranks of Area 51, Roswell, the Loch Ness monster, and all the other conspiracy theories and paranormal speculations out there.  The undercover reporters and truth seekers who'd come out of the city later on with grainy photographs and accounts of monsters and murders only added to the speculation.  And now, thirteen years later, a large percentage of the country believed New 2 was a sanctuary, a hot spot, for the paranormal." (p. 29)

"'New 2 is home to a lot of what the Novem call 'gifted' people.  What do you think would happen if Violet or Dub--or I--lived beyond The Rim?'
Easy.  "If they couldn't hide their abilities, life wouldn't be so kind," I answered in a quiet voice, thinking of my own experiences.
"Exactly.  New 2 is a place where you don't have to hide, but if you want to, that's okay too.  No one is going to judge you because you're different.  That's what the Novem wanted all along." (p. 98)

"'I have asked to see you to offer my protection while you're in our city.  Together we will delve into your past and uncover this gift you have been given.  But in return, you must grant your allegiance to me, a blood oath to the Arnaud family and no other."
"Was that what you asked of my mother?  You weren't just helping out of the goodness of your heart?"
Josephine laughed.  'I don't have a heart, my dear.'"  (p. 108)


Tasty Rating:  !!!.  (AKA 3.5 explanation points of excitement)

REVIEW: Where Things Come Back

Whaley, J.C.  (2011).  Where Things Come Back.  New York:  Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

228 pages.


Appetizer:  My first thought when first hearing of this book:  "Why isn't it called Where Things Return?  Why?!"  Why use two words when you could use one?

My first thought after hearing that this book won both the 2012 Morris Award for debut authors and the Printz Award for young adult literature:  "I must read this NOW.  Wordy titles work!"

My first thought after learning that the author, John Corey Whaley, is a Louisiana teacher:  "Yay!  I can't wait to show my students."

My first thought after reading the book:  "Meh.  Alas, alack, oh dear.  I wanted to enjoy it more."

Where Things Come Back is the story of seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter, whose cousin recently died and who has a crush on the tragic Ada Taylor (her previous boyfriends have a tendency to die....).  Cullen's brother has gone missing.  There's no evidence or reason for Gabriel's disappearance and the grief is hurting every member of Cullen's family.  On top of that, Cullen is stuck in Lily, Arkansas just like all of his other friends, and knows he will never leave until he knows what has happened to his brother.  As Cullen searches for a way to bring Gabriel back, the town of Lily searches for the elusive Lazarus Woodpecker which has been seen for the first time in sixty years.

Every-other-chapter is devoted to sharing the story of Benton Sage, a missionary who works in Ethiopia and then his roommate after Benton returned to the U.S. to attend college.  These seemingly unrelated stories eventually come together in striking ways.  (Although, these chapters never really won me over.  I found the narration to be too telling.)

Throughout the novel, there are paragraphs which begin "When one..." to describe the way Cullen reacts to things.  At first I found this subject change from the first person to be very off-putting, but I have to admit, it grew on me.  I also liked the way that Cullen invented book title names throughout the narrative.  It reminded me a lot of the novel King Dork and the attention its protagonist paid to creating band names and album covers.

Nonetheless, Where Things Come Back never really captured my imagination or interest.  I never desired to pick it up and read it.  However, when I did bring myself to read the book, it was the type of narrative where it was easy to just keep reading.  (To get through as opposed to enjoy)  I can appreciate and respect what Whaley has written.  He pushes away from the way many YA narratives are told.  But I never really connected with Cullen, his friends or the story.


Dinner Conversation:

"I was seventeen years old when I saw my first dead body.  It wasn't my cousin Olso's.  It was a woman who looked to have been around fifty or at least in her late forties.  She didn't have any visible bullet holes or scratches, cuts, or bruises, so I assumed that she had just died of some disease or something; her body barely hidden by the thin white sheet as it awaited its placement in the lockers.  The second dead body I ever saw was my cousin Oslo's.  I recognized his dirty brown shoes immediately as the woman wearing the bright white coat grasped the metallic handle and yanked hard to slide the body out from the silvery wall."  (p. 1)

"Being seventeen and bored in a small town, I like to pretend sometimes that I'm a pessimist.  This is the way it is and nothing can sway me from that.  Life sucks most of the time.  Everything is bullshit.  High school sucks.  You go to school, work for fifty years, then you die.  Only I can't seem to keep that up for too long before my natural urge to idealize goes into effect.  I can't seem to be a pessimist long enough to overlook the possibility of things being overwhelmingly good."  (p. 5)

"You see, Ada Taylor had a grim history.  As a sophomore in high school, when I was just a freshman, Ada was dating this ass-hat by the name of Conner Bolton.  Conner was a senior and made it his personal mission to make every freshman in the school terrified to be caught walking alone or near the bathrooms, lockers, or trash cans.  But alas, he died before Christmas break in a car accident.  Ada was the only other passenger.  She walked away without a scratch.  Then, the next year, Ada was dating this okay guy who I used to play G.I. Joes with on the floor of my mom's hair salon.  His name was Aaron Lancaster.  He didn't even make it to Thanksgiving before he up and drowned int he White River during a thunderstorm.  His dad found his empty fishing boat.  A search party found his body four days later.  I heard it looked like he had been microwaved.
After that, it almost seemed like a ridiculous thing to date Ada Taylor, or even go near her.  But that didn't matter much to the young men of Lily, even me.  The unspoken philosophy of all those in love with Ada was something like this:  If I have to die to get that, then death it is."  (pp. 6-7)

"When Benton Sage found out that he would be going on a mission for his church that year, he was overwhelmed with excitement and panic.  His stomach felt a sort of queasy rumble as he stood with his sisters and Reverend Hughes, and watched as the entire church circled around them, clasped hands, and began to pray.  Ethiopia, he thought, would be the first place he could truly exert his faith.  It was his fear of travel, of leaving his comfortable life in Atlanta, of floating mysteriously thirty thousand feet in the air, that made eighteen-year-old Benton feel as if he would collapse onto the church's soft, green carpet as he heard the choir begin to chant amens and hallelujahs behind him."  (p. 16)

"'Did you hear about that bird?' Lucas asked me, still staring toward the house.
Lucas was one of the smartest and strangest people I knew, and so I wasn't very surprised by his choice of topic.
"What bird?" I asked.
"There's this woodpecker that's been extinct for, like, sixty hears.  Only, this guy from Oregon or something was down here and he thinks he saw one."
"In Lily?"
"Right outside of town.  I think he was canoeing down the river and saw it fly by or something.
"Weird."  (pp. 29-30)

"It was one of those moments when you're waiting on someone to say something important or funny or just do anything to break you away from the sad thoughts that overwhelm your mind.  Thoughts like never having enough money to move away or not getting into college.  Thoughts like having to come back to take care of a sick parent and getting stuck here all over again.  That's what happened in Lily.  People dreamed.  People left.  And they all came back.  It was like Arkansas's version of a black hole; nothing could escape it." (p. 35)

"It was three hours later and after calling everyone we knew and driving around town twice that we decided to call the police.  It was a Thursday when my brother, the Left Hand of God, disappeared.  It was on this same Thursday that John Barling appeared on national television to talk about the Lazarus woodpecker and how it had come back from the dead." (p. 55)

"Here's the problem with a fifteen-year-old boy going missing:  No one thinks he has been taken.  Especially Gabriel, who looked to be my age.  Everyone in town, though they didn't say it, was thinking the same thing:  Gabriel Witter has finally run away from his family.  That, or he went hiking through the woods and either got lost or got eaten by a bear.  Here's what I knew:  My brother was taken from me.  He did not run away, because he wouldn't.  He couldn't.  He would never.  And he'd never gotten lost in his life."  (pp. 58-59)


Tasty Rating:  !!

Louisiana Series: An audio Book review of My Louisiana Sky (AKA the day I began to worry about Coral Snakes)

As a way to get to know my new state of residence, I've been trying to read literature about Louisiana. 

(The selection has proven to be a little...pathetic.  There's not much of a selection.  Especially since I'd like to read about more than just New Orleans.)

First off, let me tell you that my general knowledge of Louisiana was very limited before moving here:  Hurricane Katrina, other hurricanes, cajuns, Remy from the X-men, alligators, oil spill, Mardi Gras, True Blood/The Southern Vampire series (which, admittedly I've seen every episode of/read every book).

It's a pretty limited view of an entire state.

I actually had to bite my tongue during my initial Skype job interview to stop myself from asking if alligators and hurricanes were something I should worry about in the area I would be moving (Answers:  Not too concerned unless a hurricane displaces the alligators and Yes, be concerned:  power outages possibly lasting weeks, high winds and rain during the storms.)

So, I was left feeling like I wanted to see some of the other ways that my new state is presented.  I--of course--turned to children's literature.

I decided to begin my acquaintance (and this new series of reviews) with Louisiana in children's literature by listening to the audiobook of Kimberly Willis Holt's My Louisiana Sky.  She's the author of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, which I read five or six years ago and remember enjoying.

The premise is that Tiger Anne--a girl living in Saitter, Louisiana--faces a choice.  She and her grandmother have always had to look after Tiger's mother and father who are both "retarded" (to use the dated language in this historical novel).  When tragedy strikes, Tiger must face the choice of moving to Baton Rouge to live with her stylish aunt and staying home to care for her parents.

An angsty premise that is one-part coming of age story and two-parts character figuring out her own identity through a major decision story.  I could get into it.

I especially liked that Tiger was a tomboy who played baseball better than most of the boys.

I downloaded and started listening...and absolutely *hated* the tones the narrator used to voice the various characters.  Sometimes her Southern accent didn't match the Louisiana accent I've been enjoying for the past few weeks.  Often when she gave voice to minor characters, she spoke in tones that made them sound completely and unnecessarily idiotic. 


I was not a big fan.  I probably would have enjoyed the story more if I read it.

I did eventually ease into the story.  Especially when a character died of a heart attack after seeing a coral snake.  (So...coral snakes...is this something I have to worry about now?)

Louisiana, please advise.

Then towards the end of the book, there was a hurricane.

Sigh.

At least there weren't any alligators.

How much I learned about Louisiana:  Not too much.
How much I felt comforted about some of the supposedly-scary aspects of the state usually presented by the media:  Also not too much.

I have since discovered there was a children's movie made of the My Louisiana Sky, starring Juliette Lewis and a younger Michael Cera, among others.

...

Netflix guesstimates I'd give the movie two stars.

...

I did add the movie to my queue.  It will stay at the bottom and I'll get to it when I get to it.