SINFUL: A Bleed Novel

Bleed #2

by Dax Varley

Sam, a sin eater, is asked to absolve the sins of Rebel Walker, a deceased billionaire infected with a lifetime of evil. Now Reb’s corpse has vanished with Sam being the last to see it. But who’d snatch it and why? The dead can’t get up and walk out. Or can they? Drawn into a labyrinth of murder, mystery, and pure horror, Sam battles supernatural forces—all while pursuing the mysterious new girl at school. It's Supernatural meets Dorian Gray in this stand-alone Bleed novel.

Genres: Horror

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 20, 2016

About the author

Dax Varley is the author of SLEEPY HOLLOW, RETURN TO SLEEPY HOLLOW, BLEED, and NIGHTMARE HOUSE. She loves humor, horror and all things paranormal.

When Dax isn't writing, she's collecting odd photos online, reading recaps of her favorite shows, or kicked back with a good book. She lives in Richmond, Texas with her husband, a shelf full of action figures, and about a dozen imaginary friends.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam, a teenager, eats sins, so that when someone dies, they don't end up going to hell. He usually does this at the funeral home, just before the body is buried. He has friends who also have unusual powers. Topher can heal. Xyan can speak any language as well as persuade people to do things, and then forget that she had talked to them. And then there is Jake, who can sort of predict the future.

And of course they all go to high school. Let the high jinks ensue.

As an urban, YA, horror, fantasy, this wasn't bad. Admittedly, I have not read a lot of this type of genre, and at some point I was getting a little bored with the demons, and just wanted to get to the end, but other than a little lag, the story held together, the characters were realistic, if you can call teenagers that heal, eat sins and can see the future to be realistic.

Be that as it may, I did read it to the end, and I did enjoy it, for the most part. The scary parts were scary. The dialogue was natural, and even the love interest wasn't forced.

I had only one problem with it. This might make the book more a 3.5 for some, but my problem was with how the characters solved the problem, the problem that drove the book. Xyan, who can persuade anyone of anything, does so to find out how to beat the immortal demon controller. But up until that point, everything was plausible, and the characters were trying their best to figure things out. Not exactly a Deus Ex Machina, but dang close.

So, if you like urban fantasy, in the YA level, this isn't a bad book to pick up.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

[Harry Brake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A shared society of individuals that delve into cleaning up the deaths of individuals, those clean ands those not so clean. Nightmares based on trying to correct wrongs. Along the way, a somewhat sort of existence. Elements of Joe Abercrombie's The First Law series permeate, such as sin eaters, the existence of magic that can intervene, but set in an adolescent setting with adolescent characters working with, and against various elements.

Occasionally, there were moments that were forced to be an adolescent, but past the halfway mark, these seemed to disappear. Noticing the opposite sex is certainly adolescent, but at times again, in the beginning it seemed forced. Maybe as the characters develop it began to not be as noticeable, but in the early stages of the plot it was hard to see adolescents' fitting into some of the forced language, etc..

Overall, a great plot, entangled with adults that seek to take advantage of what should be about, and a lesson lies therein with the standard good vs evil. Humorous in many places, for the most part the plot is easy to see how it would fit to an adolescent life, and important choices are made at an teen and adult level, by both. Not a forced read at all, but some rough edges that wear away by the end - and ending well. The novels by Dax Varley by large have been very enjoyable and well written!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 for this lackluster sequel

Sam's the sin eater. It's a drag, he can't eat around his friends, otherwise he eats their sins. Understandable. The book starts off with Sam eating the famous Hot Sauce dude's sins, and is surprised by the amount of evil he ingests. Then his body goes missing. Between trying to woo the cute girl at school, putting off therapy, and the detective dogging his step, Sam barely has time to figure out what's going on.... and then there's the nightmares...

Here's what I didn't like: Sam's thoughts and humor felt overly forced. I don't believe he'd be able to tell the difference between purple and light purple, but nails lavender for Casey's dyed tips. The book was solely in Sam's POV—it didn't feel like Bleed at all, and half of the reason why I liked it is because we got glimpses into the other characters. In fact, Sam merely used his friends for their gifts, and did this all on his own. I missed the camaraderie the most.

Here's what I liked: Ghoul was creepy. The bees were pretty cool...

Overall, as I said before, I missed the friendship and how they solved things together, and Sam was all I need you to do this for me. It wasn't... bad writing, but it wasn't fun either. I was pretty disappointed by it. Not sure I'll read the next ones in the series.

[michael hutchins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing

At first I didn't get into it so much because it was only from Sam's perspective unlike bleed but after 2 chapters I really got into it. The plot was awesome

[Tanya Grech Welden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read 50% of this book before I made the conscious decision to put it down forever. My decision not to finish was based, not on bad writing or weak plot, but something else entirely (which I shall get to in good time). While I was not particularly wowed by the writing, it is competent and absolutely acceptable given the book’s genre. The plot (or what I read) seemed to be moving forward in a way that was generally conducive to page turning. Furthermore, it is cleanly edited and, for the most part, has a narration with an appealing edginess to it. I do feel strongly though that this novel may miss the mark with its audience.
You see, I have a problem with the central protagonist, Sam. He is utterly unlikeable, something that many readers (a lot of whom will inevitably be female) will agree with. Put simply he is a slimy creep who consistently objectifies female characters. While I appreciate that the author was possibly trying to get inside the male adolescent brain, I do think she crossed a line when developing Sam’s character. Of particular note, when pondering an impending date with Casey, “He could definitely go for a couple of hours of watching her cute butt as she glided the lanes, ” and my personal favourite “Like a fly drawn to sewage, his eyes locked on her telescopic breasts that proved a real challenge for her pink sweater. Once he broke the force field and looked at her face, he guessed her to be in her early twenties.”
Really? That is just plain creepy. I might just stop here, I’m sure you get the idea. I don’t know where the Dax is going with this, but I am assuming that she has written the character Casey as some of kind manic pixie-dream girl, whose primary function is to save Sam. Not cool. The only outcome of this approach is that Sam comes off as a slime-ball and Casey seems like a one-dimensional bimbo. I don’t like either of them….a problem when you are trying to engage an audience.
While I find the notion of sin-eating a little weird (I mean Catholic priests do this, only they don’t eat the sins, they absolve them), I could overlook this plot flaw if Dax could tone down Sam’s x-rated tendencies. As it stands this is not the kind of book that I would like adolescents to be reading. What’s more, as a female reader, I find it insulting. I can only hope that the second half of the book takes the reader to a place where Sam can evolve from being a Neanderthal into something more enlightened. I doubt it….and even if Dax did have a lofty agenda, I never finished the book so it was ultimately a fail. There is potential here for something really special, after all some of the ideas are quite original, what is needed is some serious re-writing of Sam’s character.

[Kevin Breaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work from a HWA member. Glad I asked to read this one.

[Donna Maloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scary, twisty guilty pleasure

I could NOT put Fax Varley's latest book down. The twists and rising suspense just kept coming. No spoiler alert-- you will love it.