Bleeding Violet - Dia Reeves

"Love can be a dangerous thing….

Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna’s tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of a new home.

But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she’s far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe." - Book Cover

Hanna is a manic-depressive. She is 17 years old and never met her mother, when her father dies, she decides to show up on her mom's door steps for better or for worst. For worst, her mom doesn't want her here and would do anything to get rid of her, so they made a deal. If Hanna fits in within 2 weeks she gets to stay, if not, she goes back to her aunt. Portero is more than she bargained for though, can she handle it?

As much as I wanted to like this book, I didn't. Let me explain why. First of all this book felt more like SciFi then fantasy, and I don't like SciFi. When I think of Bleeding Violet, the word weird instantly comes to my mind, but the word isn't strong enough.

Monsters hiding in windows, turning you in glass statues if you touch them?

Doors appearing out of no-where with dead people inside?

Mother and Daughter naked on a beach carving glyphs into a naked boy's forehead?

A girl being eviscerated by her friend to get rid of a nest of little demons?

Just not my cup of tea, really.

I can deal with weird stuff though, I would have to say the thing that bothered me the most while reading was the fact the all the weird events didn't seem to fit in together, like there are some holes in the book's matrix that would help me make some sense out of it. I felt like I was trying to put a puzzle together, but I had pieces from multiple different puzzle, so for obvious reasons it wouldn't fit together.

If you read the book, is there some kind of explanation I missed that would help me make some sense of that world?

I read the book until the end hoping some bits of information would help me, but unfortunately it didn't happen.

On the other hand, characters had some potential. Hanna is very interesting, her illness is a major part of the story, and I liked Wyatt (Hanna's boyfriend). Rosalee (Hanna's mom) is a whole new level though. She's possessed and have a major case of multiple personality disorder, makes it kinda hard to follow sometimes, but it adds an edge to the character.

This book really wasn't for me, but I'm not giving up on Dia Reeves, it was her first novel so I'll wait and see what else she got up her sleeve.

Read an excerpt

Here's a list of other reviews of Bleeding Violet:
The Hiding Spot
Once Upon a Bookcase
So Many Books, So Little Time

Books Stats:
Hardcover: 464 pages

Publisher: Simon Pulse; 1 edition (Jan 5 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416986189
ISBN-13: 978-1416986188

Book Source: Review Copy sent by Simon and Schuster

Posted by Tynga at 12:38

 Review, Simon Schuster, young adult  9 People left their mark

Tynga is a 32 years old mom of two, from Montreal, working as a lab technician in an hospital specialized in heart disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading all things Paranormal and photography.

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