A Beautiful Evil Review

TITLE A Beautiful Evil (Gods & Monsters #2)
AUTHOR Kelly Keaton
PUBLICATION February 21, 2012 by Simon Pulse
READ June 25 - 27, 2012

Myth and mayhem inhabit a richly reimagined New Orleans in this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her.After the epic graveyard battle at the end of Darkness Becomes Her, Ari and her friends know what they’re up against: Ari is facing the Medusa curse and is haunted by the image of what she will become. To make matters worse, the heinous goddess Athena has kidnapped young Violet and is threatening to destroy Ari.

Ari, along with the superhot Sebastian, is doing everything she can to learn more about Athena and to get Violet back. But the battle of good and evil is bigger than she realizes, and she’s about to be pulled into a world more horrific than she could ever imagine....

A Beautiful Evil is the much anticipated follow up to Kelly Keaton's A Darkness Becomes her.  I read the first installment in the Gods & Monsters trilogy recently and immediately rushed out to get the second.  I was blown away with the setting as well as the imaginative blend of dystopian/mythological elements and while I did feel that a lot of that was a bit lacking compared to the first it is still a worthy follow up. I do think that this one suffers from second book syndrome a bit and was definitely not as impressed as I was with the first.

A Beautiful Evil starts off immediately where A Darkness Becomes her ends as Ari is faced with attending the Novem school Presby in order to harness her gift and utilize the not-so-secret library within. We are treated to her intense training sessions with the vigorous Novem Bran and enter the illusive library within Pandora's Box.  Of course she finds out all sorts of useful information and becomes quite strong so she heads off on her quest to save her father and Violet from the evil Goddess Athena.

One of my favorite characters from the first, the essence of the city of New Orleans definitely took a back seat in this novel.  There were minor street names in this but I felt like, where the first one flourished in the rich descriptions of the landscape this one definitely held back. But all of the other characters that I came to love were back in full force. Ari was still as strong and kick ass as ever (although a bit whiny and desperate at times, but I'll look past that.) Her love with Sebastian goes to a whole new level in this one and makes for an intense story arc that really spiced up the novel.  The family dynamic created at their delapidated house in the Garden District is also escalated in this novel and something that I enjoyed very much.

While I definitely have a lot more issues with this one I still really enjoyed it.  I think it could have stuck to its roots more but I will definitely be back for more in the next one.