By Dia Reeves
Published by Simon Pulse (Simon and Schuster)Released January 5th, 2010
Source: Simon and Schuster
454 pages
3.5 stars
Summary:
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. (taken from goodreads)
WoW! This is the craziest book I've ever read. Think MI meets bio-polar/schizophrenia and you've got Bleeding Violet. My mind is still processing what I just read yesterday. I don't even know where to begin. I don't know if I didn't like it or if I did like it. I sat down to start it, not planning to finish it in a sitting and before I knew it I was done. That was the most insane reading coaster I've ever been taken on. I found I wanted to put the book down a few times and then other times I couldn't get enough of it. I still can't stop thinking about it, which is a good thing.
What I didn't except is to be glued to the pages of Bleeding Violet as I found out more about Hanna, and the town she's just entered. Most "transies" don't last more than a few days in town full of hungry things that lie waiting to attack the unsuspecting. In a town that dresses mostly in black, so no one stands out, The Mortamaine who dress in green, and Hanna continues to dress in her Violet/purple colored dresses.
Dia Reeves did an amazing job with introducing us to Hanna, the main character who has bio-polar, schizophrenia and a few other diagnosis. I've never read a book where the main character had both. I think Dia did a brilliant job at taking us into Hanna's complicated world. The book starts off with Hanna talking to her dead father who she sees, as she running away to meet her mother, Rosalee, that she's never met before.
What Hanna's mother and new school mates don't except, is that Hanna's dwelt with weird on an every day basis and fits in well with this very strange East Texas town of Portero. She lasts longer than the week they've all bet on.
Wyatt, who's a Mortmaine, is a protecter of the town. Soon Hanna realizes there's more to Wyatt and many of the town's people, including her own mother than she first realized. Hannah and Wyatt's relationship is a hot and heavy one on the side, as Hanna is eager for Wyatt take her on a hunt, which no one goes on if you're not a Mortamaine. With Wyatt's help, Hanna will prove to her mom that she can stay in this town, full of unseen doors to other worlds and where sprits lie in waiting to claim their next victim, that she can take care of herself.
Wyatt reminds me a little bit of Cabe from the Wake series and Jace from the MI series. Why? Like Cabe, Wyatt accepts Hanna the way she is and doesn't try to change her. He supports and stands by her to help her. He's like Jace to me, as he's got a duty to fulfill. He can't change what he is, and while he doesn't stand up to authority (which Jace always does) till towards the end, he knows what he wants, and gets it and he's one good "evil spirit slayer/demon hunter".
Hanna is a very strong character, learning to deal with being bio-polar and schizo. She's used to being deemed a freak, but finds that what she's dwelt with on a daily bases has prepared her for what's going on, on a daily bases in this new East Texas town she's just entered. She'll do anything to save her mom, even if it costs her life.
Rosalee is very much the absentee mother and does not allow anyone into her life. She's a broken person from the inside and through the course of Bleeding Violet we learn a great deal about Rosalee. She has her own ways of showing Hanna she does love her and it will take a lot of time to build their relationship. **spoiler free** as there is a lot more to her mom than what I'm writing about.
Overall this book was good. I'm still thinking about it. It wasn't hard to read or follow what was going on throughout the story. Dia did a great job at capturing my attention and keeping it through out the book. I'm totally in awe over this being her debut book! I'm looking forward to talking to her about it when we chat with on at the end of the month. **This book has profanity and sexual references in it. It can be a little gruesome for some in the way they kill people to kill the demon/spirit that processes their bodies, and there's some violence in here. We'd recommend this for 15 and above.*
By Dia Reeves
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