Become
Ali Cross
Release date: November 11th, 2011

Goodreads / Purchase

Sixteen-year old Desolation Black wants nothing more than to stay in Hell where it’s cold and lonely and totally predictable. Instead, she’s sent back to Earth where she must face the evil she despises and the good she always feared.

When Desi is forced to embrace her inner demon, she assumes her choice has been made—that she has no hope of being anything other than what her father, Lucifer, has created her to be. What she doesn’t count on, is finding a reason to change—something she’s never had before—a friend.

 
Become is not your average YA paranormal. We’re thrown into an intense novel about the battle between angels and demons. Lucifer’s daughter, Desolation, is our protagonist and against her wishes, she’s being sent back to earth where there are teenagers and people with… feelings.

Desolation has a really unique personality. Being the devil’s daughter she’s very cautious, socially awkward and a bit of a loner. She doesn’t want to fall in her father’s footsteps. In fact, she doesn’t really like him all that much. She also senses that there’s something very different about her; As though she doesn’t belong in Hell. I had a lot of fun with Desolation. She is very critical of herself, but you can tell that underneath it all she’s a great person who is just trying to figure out where she fits in.

I really enjoyed the style of writing throughout the novel. It’s very descriptive and sophisticated; I found it highly intense, and with a lot more depth than most. There are strong messages sent throughout the story about finding oneself and, most importantly, good vs evil. The intensity was a bit of a problem when it came to the theology and the myths behind the angel/demon battles. I found myself getting confused during the explanations. My only knowledge of it comes from the show Supernatural, so the elaborate lore were a bit overwhelming. I had to reread a lot of passages to get the gist. For this reason, I couldn’t entirely get caught up in the story as much as I had hoped.

Despite the complexity, I still enjoyed the plot. Like I mentioned, it was very intense with a lot of action and battle sequences. I did like getting to know why Desolation was seemingly different from the others. The romance also played a big part in the story which did alleviate the seriousness throughout the book.

As an angel/demon book, don’t expect this to be like the YA novels Hush Hush or Fallen. Become goes right to the core of Norse mythology: Asgard, Loki (Lucifer), Odin, Thor. But even if, like me, you don’t know a lot about these myths, it’s still a fun read, however I think people versed in it would absolutely enjoy it to it’s full potential.

3 Hot Espresso

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