

Title: Becoming
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Women of the Otherworld #0.9
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Graphic novels, Paranormal fantasy, Strong women
Pace: Fast
Format: Graphic Novel
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: Danvers, Kate

This graphic novella tells the story of Elena’s “becoming” a werewolf—that dark period from the time Clay bites her through her escape to Toronto.

I can understand why Armstrong didn’t want to turn the tales of Elena’s turning into a short story. Whilst I was always curious about those months, even year after she was bitten, reading the story would have been depressing in the extreme. However, displaying this story as a graphic novel not only helps to impart the violence, anguish and confusion of the time, it also allowed a window into the experiences of Elena and helped to explain some of her actions throughout Bitten.
Displaying Becoming as a graphic novel not only assisted in highlighting the violence and emotional turmoil that Elena went through in her change, but it also helped to wade through a lot of the heady repetition that such a tale would have required. I spent an amazing hour reading this again and again as I looked through the amazing artwork. Every time I glanced over an image, I was able to find another aspect of the artwork that I had missed.
3 thoughts on “Becoming by Kelley Armstrong”