Fresh New Voice of YA- Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Bleeding Violet by 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."- summary from Amazon

Reeves has a fantastic debut on her hands, full of suspense, realism and some original fantasy elements. I do think however that the book probably could have been a bit shorter and some parts didn't seem necessary to the plot. The prose was done really well and had a compelling feel to it, which made it difficult to put down though I had to put it down MANY times due to work and having to do other things.

Hanna was a fun character to read about and the kind of heroine all YA should have- bold, daring, able to take care of herself, weird, smart and quick thinking but also had flaws too. I liked the inclusion of her being manic-depressive and it was definitely interesting to read about, especially considering everything else going on in the book. My only problem is with the summary which I know the author didn't write but it bugs me a bit. It said "Expertly merging real issues like racial identity and mental instability with..." and I was expecting a bit more about those two issues, but neither is explored very deeply, especially the racial identity. Hanna is bi-racial but it's hardly ever mentioned and it's not like anyone in the book seems to have a problem with it. So that was a bit of a letdown for me; I definitely thought it would have been interesting to explore those issues within this urban fantasy realm.

I will say this: The Mayor made me SO PISSED OFF. Like you have no idea- characters sometimes make me angry but this one (and few others) made me want to punch something, preferably the character herself. My goodness, she was such a rhymes-with-witch. She doesn't really show up until the ending, which is amazingly suspenseful and fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat, trying not to look ahead while reading to see what happened next. That was an amazing climax.

All in all, go get this book! You should not be disappointed.

FTC: Recieved ARC from publisher. Amazon link is an Associate link; any profits go toward funding contests.