Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

When Ari goes searching for her mother it leads her to New 2, the city formally known as New Orleans, now a washed out shadow of itself after two hurricanes devastated the area.  There she finds all manner of people and she begins to learn about the curse that has taken the life of her mother and so many before her.

I'd just killed a man - my fingers flexed on the hilt of the blade - with a goddamn miniature sword.
Family time with the Sandersons never covered this.  p.22

The good: New Orleans, baby!  It was fun reading a book and knowing all the places the author was describing.  From Covington and Mandeville (where my in-laws live) to the drive across the Causeway to the Garden District and the French Quarter, I know it all and I love it in a book.  Especially a book about New Orleans basically existing outside of the United States and being truly its own place. The atmosphere was just right for a book about paranormal creatures because what better place than New Orleans.  Ari is a pretty kickass character though she jumps to conclusions too quickly and is always ready to just leave when she doesn't like how things are going.  Sebastian too is pretty awesome and definitely a worthy boy for Ari.  I think Violet, a mysterious little girl, might be my favorite character.  Something about her intrigues me.

The bad: My problem with this book is that it reads like an adult writer writing a young adult book.  While I'm not opposed to language in a book (I rarely mention it in a review) this cursing felt forced in places.  Some of the characters who used curse words just seemed wrong saying them.  It was odd.  And I felt like it pulled me out of the book and made me contemplate whether or not such a character would really say that. I also felt like the author just threw every supernatural or paranormal creature at the book hoping something would stick. I was initially disappointed by the reveal of the main antagonist and who Ari turns out to be.  It just felt random.  But I can see it working too so maybe I withhold judgement on that point.