BLEEDING VIOLET
DIA REEVES
Young Adult Paranormal
Simon Pulse
ISBN# 9781416986188
454 pages
$16.99
Hardcover – Available Now
Rating: 4 Enchantments
Hanna is a strong-willed, intelligent character; perfect for a book where your oddest dreams come to life. She probably doesn’t have the healthiest mind on the block and this is made evident by the number of prescription pills she has to take and the way she shows up on her mother’s doorstep. BLEEDING VIOLET by Dia Reeves is definitely one of those books where once the story is over, you go back to the title and finally realize what it means.
Wearing only purple dresses and nice heels, Hanna stands out in a town where everyone else wears black. It isn’t safe to stand out. Transies – transients – are people who have not grown up in the Portero, Texas area and are recent installations to this strange town. They are the only ones who wear bright colors; they don’t know any better. Why would you want to stand out when the attention you might receive could come in the form of something biting your head off…literally.
Immediately catching the attention of our neurotic Hanna is the green-clad Wyatt. His clothes signify his role in a dangerous organization within the town, one that can help or hurt depending on its desires. Wyatt and Hanna find themselves drawn to each other in a relationship that is surely as strange as the town they live in.
Ms. Reeves has created quite an interesting world in BLEEDING VIOLET. Portero is definitely on the top of my list of places I never wish to visit. Full of possessions, blood sucking creatures, monsters, and death, Portero is an interesting area where anything can happen. The possibilities the author created when she developed this town are many and I’m fairly certain that she utilized them all.
As we race through the story, Ms. Reeves throws a few different subplots at us. Hanna’s mother Rosalee wants nothing to do with her and we need to figure out why, the town is intensely strange with many secrets, someone close to Hanna starts to act oddly, and finally Hanna’s diseased mind itself plays a role in our exploration. Each of these impact the storyline and give the reader something to latch on to. Although the story may be vastly different from many out there right now, many readers will still find a good deal of enjoyment out of it. It’s oddity is such that there is never a moment when the reader feels bored. Hanna’s hallucinations (or are they real?) allow for some moments which can be at times hilarious or fairly disturbing. Ms. Reeves detail and imagery while creating these scenes is such that the full extent of the emotion in the book becomes available to the reader. I believe that the reader is meant to be confused, angered, and scared at times. These emotions fly freely off the page.
The style of writing and Ms. Reeves ability to give us a complex story in an interesting way was fantastic. At times, the story was a little difficult to follow as it stayed in fast-paced forward motion. Readers will need to make sure that they take the time to really read the book and not just flip through the pages as quickly as can be. This may be tempting as the story is quite addictive, but in order to get the full effect of the feelings surrounding Hanna, take your time with the story. It will pay off in the end.
BLEEDING VIOLET is the debut novel for Dia Reeves. Currently working as a librarian in Texas, she can be found online at http://www.diareeves.com/.
Cinnamon
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
April 2010
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