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young adult book reviews & more

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Bleeding VioletHanna knows she’s crazy. She’s had the hallucinations, taken the pills, and gone through strange obsessive phases like the one that filled her closet with only purple clothes. But even if Hanna’s okay with being crazy, she’s not okay with other people looking at her differently because of it. So she decides to run away to Portero, Texas, where her estranged mother lives. Bizarre as it is, the town of Portero might be crazier than Hanna is. Strange creatures crawl all over in the daytime, attacking innocent people at their leisure. The death rate and quantity of missing people is Portero is abnormally high. None of this fazes Hanna, who is intent on staying now that she’s found her mom. But as new secrets emerge, crazy takes a turn for the worse, and Portero might be more than Hanna can handle.

Bleeding Violet is a strange story, to say the least. Reeves’s debut novel is a whirlwind of blood, guts, spirit possession, and all kinds of crazy. The effect is a bit disconcerting. While Hanna’s propensity for purple and talking to the ghost of her dead father does make her a unique protagonist, it also makes her a difficult character to relate to. In fact, the whole story was hard to get into partly because of the weird factor but also because the gory violence and sex was bothersome. I’m the type of reader who doesn’t enjoy excessive violence of any kind in novels; I can tolerate it when it serves a meaningful purpose, but in Bleeding Violet, I felt the violence was just an accessory to the rest of the craziness. This novel does have its interesting parts here and there, but overall, I’d say that Bleeding Violet is more for those with an appetite for crazy and the a strong enough stomach to hold it down.

This novel may be enjoyed by fans of Generation Dead by Daniel Waters, Need by Carrie Jones, and Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.

Rating: 3.25

Review copy from Amazon Vine

3 munch(es) :

Sarah said...

I'm not quite sure what to make of this book -- I love the cover, believe me, but I guess my question is, is it TOO over the top? Like, would you say it's teen horror rather than fantasy or something of the like?

Rachael Stein said...

Hmm, I wouldn't say that it's entirely horror, but it is too over the top to be just fantasy, if that makes any sense

Savannah said...

I need to pick up this book. I read lots of reviews on it and they all sound interesting.

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