Bleeding Violet

Portero Universe

by Dia Reeves

Hanna is what you'd call mentally ill. She'd call it being totally crazy. After running away to Portero, Texas to find her estranged mother, Hanna thinks this new town can't be any crazier than she is. She's wrong. Portero is haunted with doors to dimensions of the dead, and protected by demon hunters called Mortmaine. Hanna soon falls for a young Mortmaine named Wyatt, but when her mother is possessed by a murdering ghost, Hanna decides to do whatever it takes to save her, even if it means betraying the boy she loves. In the end no one will be left unscarred.

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Romance, Fiction, Urban Fantasy

468 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 14, 2009

About the author

I was born. I did some stuff. What do you want from me?

Reviews

[Bry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea how the hell to classify this book. I didn't like it but I kept turning the pages at a feverish pace, granted that was more so in shock. Think train wreck that you can't stop staring at. This book is just a hot mess despite its gorgeous cover art.

Let's begin with the plot before trying to explain the insanity that is the characters. This book is about Hannah who shows up in her mother's home town of Portero, Texas. This town is overrun with evil creatures, magical doors that are like folds in space. You can go through a door and end up on the other side of town or on the other side of the world, or on a different world altogether. Then you have the Mortmaine, a group of people who fight these creatures and protect the town (but only if it benefits the whole town...if you are stupid enough to cross something evil's path they consider it your own fault and won't lift a finger for you). They are also able to use glyphs which are almost magical in nature (though they all deny the existence of magic) and there are 5 magical 'keys' which can open any door you like. Semi interesting premise right? Only nowhere in the entire book is this universe explained at all. These occurrences are restricted to the town of Portero, but it never mentions why. The keys, doors, creatures themselves...they all just pop into existence in the story with no rhyme or reason given for their being there. Frustrating much?? Yet it was as if the craziness and evil in the town were all just a sub plot, one to be thrown in from time to time as a break from Hannah's insanity. Out of 450 pages the real plot didn't present itself until after 300+ pages. And even then the real plot was lacking in detail and tension. Basically it boils down to a ghost is possessing Hannah's mother and the fight to exorcise and destroy it.

Now for the characters...Hannah (which seems like way to innocent a name for this girl) has been diagnosed as hyper, with anxiety, as a manic-depressant...the list apparently goes on and on...suffice it to say the bitch is crazy. And not the sees things from time to time or talk to ones self while rocking back and forth in a corner kind of crazy, but confused by right and wrong, mentally anguished, morally bankrupt, with no consequences kind of crazy. She is willing to bash people over the head or just sleep with people when she wants something or is bored, burn houses down in a twisted show of affection, or accept any version of reality that would terrify others because it lessens her own amount of crazy (at least in her mind). And I can't forget how self centered she was either. She was constantly mentioning how soft, supple, pretty she was. In the end the only thing I found relate-able about her was her desire to be loved and not be alone. Otherwise I just didn't get her and almost hated her.

Rosalee, Hannah's mother obviously has serious baggage from an unhappy childhood and having to live in this insane town. She uses sex as a weapon and refuses to be with anyone. 'Love is a trap' - her life's motto. Her home has 1 living room chair, 1 dinning room chair, 1 twin size bed. She is all about being alone. So when Hannah arrives she is cold, mean, and completely uncaring. She somewhat redeems herself towards Hannah but the streak of cruelty she bears for others is always there.

Wyatt, a young member of the Mortmaine group is the only likable character in this book and Hannah's boyfriend. He seems to be 2 people in 1. As a teen he is humorous, horny, and a typical boy who is out to impress his friends, protect his loved ones, and just have fun. Yet when he hunts he becomes stiff, robotic, and unyielding - the perfect soldier so to speak - or at least he tries to be. Death, blood, gore - sadly all of these are normal. At first Hannah is disturbed by this (the pot calling the kettle black seeing as how she nearly killed her own aunt with no remorse) but then revels in the fact that some is 'freakier than her'. Not to mention this violence and gore is presented in extreme detail - more for shock value though than to add depth to the story I think. Amazingly enough though, considering his upbringing and the expectations upon him he manages to remain human. He just can't turn off his emotions as they expect him too. He cares for people, helps them when he isn't supposed to, and uses weapons that the other Mortmaine deem unworthy even though they are extremely effective.

A huge presence in this book though is sex. You know I used to say that YA novels were a bit naive in how they handled love and sex (or at least sexual tension) between the characters - in that they lauded the former and usually ignored the latter. Then I read this book and was floored by the exact opposite extreme as Hannah flaunts her 'expertise' (she herself claims to have had so much practice you really couldn't call it that anymore) to her mother, Wyatt, and others. Hell, her and Wyatt arrive at his home covered in blood (like Carrie at the prom) where his parents don't even ask about the gore then proceed to have sex in the shower with no thought as to the fact the rest of his family are there. Not to mention her father's ghost/her hallucination (? that is never figured out either) WATCHES - at which point Wyatt has the decency to blush whereas Hannah just blows it off and claims that being dead means being beyond shame. Oh and this happens after Hannah and Wyatt swap their lost virginity stories - she at 14, and him at 15 with a 19 year old. Later in the book she describes being at school in her old town where she decided to sleep with all the boys in her class alphabetically but apparently got bored after the A's. This delightful story was in a conversation with her mother (see the scene below) and throughout the story they bond over sex stories as they realize whatever the other has done reminds them of them self. Yes I think it is silly to write about teenagers who never think about, talk about, or have sex, or at least urges, but I also don't think it should be passed off so nonchalantly.

Also, being from the southern United States I found it stupid that all of the characters had what Reeves considers to be a Texas accent. Everyone uses the word 'gone' instead of 'going to', 'gonna', etc. "You gone get that", "we gone go to...". Yet this doesn't impart an accent on her characters - it just makes them appear ignorant and uneducated. The woman is from Dallas too. If it was so important for her characters to have a southern accent she should have known how to have written it without having everyone seem like backwoods high school dropouts.

Seriously just thinking about this book makes me confused. On one hand it is probably a bit realistic - at least in terms of teens and sex today and the graphic portrayal of the violence - but on the other hand totally inappropriate as I am sure 10yo+ kids are reading it. To be honest I think this book is like 16+. It's uncomfortable to read at times (like when you realize the ghost of her father or hallucination from her crazed head watches her have sex with Wyatt) and completely shocking with Hannah's thoughts and justification for those thoughts like "if it was okay for a boy to hold on to his erection while being tortured, then it was okay for me to hold on to my love for Rosalee". True, the plot at the end had a lot of action that somewhat distracted from the insane characters and the fact that none of the readers questions are answered, but too little too late. Either way I am very surprised at the amount of high ratings and glowing reviews this book has gotten. Yes, it is certainly different from the rest of the Twilight-esche nonsense that is being published, but that didn't make it any good. Highly disappointing and just damned odd.

*****

Notable scene i.e. an example of craziness and when mom and daughter bond over the others sexual escapades:
Hanna and her mother Rosalee are walking by the house her mother grew up - which Hannah offers to burn down even though people currently live in it as it hold bad memories for her mom - when greeted by an old neighbor who used to get Rosalee in trouble whenever she would sneak out to go meet boys. They greet one another and the neighbor, Miss Holly, asked Rosalee if that was her daughter with her, to which she replied yes. (This is written from Hannah's POV.)

"She's so pretty. Just like you. Hopes she only takes after you in looks. Or is she out running wild in the streets the way you used to?" To me Miz Holly said, "I could tell you stories about this one-"

"G'night, Miz Holly," Rosalee said, bright and mean. "Tell you son I said hi. And you husband."

"I...okay."

We walked back the way we'd come. "I guess we won't be sending her a Christmas card," I said.

Rosalee threw an evil look over her shoulder at Miz Holly, "She was always ratting me out to my folks."

"So you got back at her by sleeping with her son and her husband."

Rosalee's laugh was as evil and gorgeous as a serpent's tooth. "Am I that transparent?"

"It's what I would have done," I admitted. "When I was back in Dallas, I decided to sleep with all the boys in my class in alphabetical order, and they totally went along with it. It's like you said - it's easy to fascinate men."

She looked at me, half-shocked, half-amused. "You went to bed with all the boys in your class?"

"I never even got to the B's," I said, swinging the bag of peaches. "Too many A's for little ole me. I got bored after Armbruster and called it off."

"You're definitely my daughter," said Rosalee, chuckling, halting conversations mid sentence as people marveled at the sound of her laughter.

I wanted to burn something for her so badly I felt sick with it. I wanted to tell her I'd do anything for her, but my heart was too full to speak.

I was her daughter.

Definitely.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such an uniquely interesting and odd book that isn’t going to appeal to everyone’s taste, but I’m glad that I’d became aware of it through Teen Creeps Podcast.

Sixteen year old biracial Hanna struggle with mental illness takes the decision to move to Portero and start a fresh.
Whilst in this crazy town Hanna soon realises that she might just be the sanest person there.

If Reeves chaotic narrative was a way for readers to experience the symptoms of bipolar, then she certainly succeeded.
Whilst I found it slightly hard to follow the story at times, I still found Hanna to be a fascinating and interesting character.
It’s also really important that these issues are addressed in mainstream novels.

Both brutally bloody and plenty of scenes of a sexual nature this YA novel is for a more mature teen reader.

I didn’t quite love it as much as the initial enticing premise of being something different, but I’m glad that these types of stories exist.

[Wendy Darling]

Taking this off my list for good.

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was a hot mess of crazy overwrought people doing things that made no sense in an entirely implausible setting.

But, I have to admit it was moderately entertaining if you didn't try to think too hard. There was plenty of action and colorful descriptions. Reeves is definitely imaginative (so much so that lots of the ideas were pretty much wasted, which is frustrating to me) and it is always nice to get a book that isn't identical to all the others in its genre.

So, that rating is 2 stars by the goodreads definition: "it was okay". I'd even, with some reservations, possibly recommend this to some older teens looking for a change of pace in their YA fantasy.

[Michelle Rebar · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHOA. And I say that as if I am Keanu Reeves and have just entered The Matrix, because I'm pretty sure my mind will never be the same after reading BLEEDING VIOLET. It is without a doubt the craziest and most original book I've ever read. It is absolutely insane, wildly imaginitative and quite possibly the work of a mad genius. I guess the best way to describe the experience would be, well, have you ever woken up from a dream and you want to go back to it so you force yourself to go back to sleep and pick up where the dream left off, except when you do, it's not the same as it was before and it's kind of messed-up-crazy and it's even more amazing than it was originally? That's what BLEEDING VIOLET is like. WHOA.

Hanna is crazy. Really crazy. She only wears frilly, homemade purple dresses and has always been a weird girl. She takes a multitude of pills for her mental illnesses and she has hallucinations. She even hears her dead father's voice in her head. When she thinks that her aunt wants to put her away in a hospital, Hanna runs away to live with her estranged mother, Rosalee, in Portero, Texas in hopes of starting a new life. When she arrives at her mothers door, she is shocked to discover that she is not wanted, but Hanna will not back down. She is determined to prove that this can work and she will somehow fit into her mothers life. Little does Hanna know that she has just moved to the one place that is even more insane than she is. Crazy is about to take on a whole new meaning.

On the first day at her new school, Hanna notices that everyone is dressed in black and they are not very friendly. Oh, and the windows are trying to lure people to their deaths. That's a big problem. Along comes Wyatt, a boy dressed in green who seems to know how stop whatever is happening. Hanna is intriguied and impressed by him and muscles her way into his life. It turns out that this little town in Texas is overrun with monsters and Wyatt is a member of the Mortmaine, a group of hunters that protects Portero. All the madness that was once inside of Hanna's head is becoming reality. Portero is the only place that has ever out-crazied her, and it's getting weirder and more dangerous by the minute. It's literally a fight or be eaten situation. With mosters, ghosts and evil sprits on the loose, it's a wonder how Hanna and Wyatt find the time to fall in love. This love could be what eventually saves Hanna's life, but being a badass helps a lot. Hanna is definitely a badass. A crazy badass in heels and a bloody, violet dress.

You never know what will happen next in BLEEDING VIOLET. At times it is brutal, but has it's share of touching moments. There are also moments that are bizarre, wild and absurd. This is definitely a head trip that is not for the faint of heart. It is brilliantly original and I can say with certainty that I never have and never will read anything else quite like it. At least not until Dia Reeves opens up her mind again. The only things that have ever come close would be some of the more freaky anime out there (like MELODY OF OBLIVION, FLCL, ELFEN LIED or SHADOW STAR NARUTARU). The longer I think about BLEEDING VIOLET, the more I love it. My mind is changed forever. There is no spoon (Matrix reference).

*I recommend this for readers over 16 because of the more mature relationship between Hanna and Wyatt. There's also quite a bit of blood that gets spilled.

[Lightreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to wait a while to review this, because otherwise I would have snarled my way through a glowing review powered on my sheer fucking outrage over the crap people say about this book. Did you guys know that sixteen-year-old girls who are confident and sexually active are sluts? Oh, and people with mental illness should not be the protagonists of young adult fiction because it’s “upsetting”? That’s right, being exposed to people with disabilities is really unpleasant, and it shouldn’t happen to unsuspecting normals, particularly those delicate young impressionable ones!

…Hang on, where have I heard this before? It’s on the tip of my tongue… Oh! Right! I remember now!

*pants*

So, um, the actual book. Okay. Some of you who consider yourselves outsiders looking into the fantasy genre will really dig this one. It’s this twisty, hallucinatory fantasy-horror about a teenaged girl with Bipolar Disorder moving to a town full of doors, and all the things that come through those doors. It’s about how her bendy, elastic mind clicks right into this place, and how all the splashy horror set pieces have that psychologically dense feeling you get from good horror, where the creepy floaty tentacle monster is an outgrowth of the emotional arc as much as the plot arc. Hmm. I think I could compress all of that into the word “visceral,” and mean the same thing. This book felt like an ocean surface to me, with that intense awareness of sharks moving invisibly underneath.

Anyway, it’s cool, and weird, and disturbing, and hypnotic. And it’s about a sexually active bi-racial teenaged girl with a mental illness and it’s not stupid about any of that. But I think my mind is too orderly, my desire for internal fantasy rules too strong, because I didn’t love it. So I’m not raving about it, even though I was tempted to as a generalized fuck you to a few people out there.

But some of you guys? You will totally dig this.

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short review: A girl-version of the cat from Breakfast at Tiffany's chases after her mom (they support themselves in the same way, anyway). There's no room for crazy cats. Shoo! She rubs up against everything. Whomever said that cats don't beg for affection like a dog were dead wrong. If you ignore them they do just that. This girl is determined to rub against all who ignore her. And kitty got claws.

Long review: The narrator of Dia Reeve's Bleeding Violet is crazier than a shithouse rat, as we like to say in the South. If Reeves were more adept as a writer, the crazy-eye view wouldn't have been such a detriment. As it was, attempting to look over her blazing purple shoulder to see what the hell was going on got to be more trouble than it was worth. Should I give her a break because it is her first novel? I'm not feeling generous. I'm a slave to my moods. Sometimes I could feel affection for the little scamp, the rest of the time I was impatient to get to the point. (That Bleeding Violet managed to make me laugh is the only reason I'm giving it three stars instead of two.) Whatever that point was could hardly matter to Hannah. She believed what she wanted to believe, no matter what. Her mom eventually gives in because Hannah (literally, in one instance) bashes her skull in with her relentlessness. Stone-cold stubbornness is all there is to it.
It'd have been more interesting if Hannah struggled to push through the abyss of crazy, or those deafening crazy pills her old and new family tried to make her take. It could have been interesting that she wore it like a badge of honor if she didn't wear it in the same careless way she wore her sex appeal (well, she SAYS over and over she has it. If you wanna take her word for it...). Hannah slept with all the boys of her last school, going in alphabetical order. That is until she got bored (of course she got bored! high school boys?). (That did win over mommy. She enjoys looking at herself in the mirror, I take it.) It's all just a whim in that unthinking childlike way you can't even remember later 'cause you didn't understand what was going on in the first place.
The flashbacks of her time in Finland were promising in a fairy-tale logic kinda way (could be what this book was missing more of). Too bad they descended into more sex to be loved scenes.
Daddy is a ghost (or a figment of the crazy?) and tells his daughter no one else will ever love her but him, won't she kill herself so they can be together again. He watches her have heap loads of sex. It's all in the name of love for Hannah. Hannah's need for love must come from his side of the family.
The scary town she moves to is exactly like those faceless ya books Dark Elite by Chloe Neill and Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine. I'll think twice before picking up another girl-moves-to-monster-land ya fiction.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up after 250 pages, I just can't be bothered anymore. I don't get why everybody likes this book, I'm sorry.

Maybe I gave up too soon, but right now I'm feeling too annoyed to give it another try.

I really wanted to like this, but this is just a bunch of random crap. It makes me feel like there is something wrong with my head for not getting the joke.

[Haley Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't believe there are words to describe BV, but I guess I'll have to settle for "actual words". Usually, I would wait a couple of hours to really let a book sink in, but with BV I want to bounce up and down and tell everyone about her freakishly awesome novel. I saw a few comments by some that claimed they found parts confusing, weird, and many other things that I laughed at. If your not the type of person who loves the strange, the freaky, and the interesting, then you will not fall for Bleeding Violet.

This book blew my mind away. I couldn't stop reading it, I didn't even take a break to go eat until I had read several chapters. Bleeding Violet has a perfect balance needed of a good novel, humor, love, action, fantasy, alive dolls. There wasn't one thing I hated about this book, which is rare for me. I usually find at least one thing to fuss over in many popular books, but Dia Reeves made such a different type of novel. She has such a creative mind. I found myself wanting to be like her. In fact, she is one of the very few writers who convince me to keep writing. Out of the many books I've read, this one tops them all.


This book has everything I look for in a great novel, especially with a lot of humor in such a wicked book. Which is also what I love about Bleeding Violet, it makes you happy, yet freak out. Thinking about this book makes me want to read it all over again, and also make everyone I know read it as well. I don't think anybody could hate Bleeding Violet, unless they have no heart.

~Questions about what I think of Bleeding Violet~

Q. What Did You Think Of The Characters?
A. Absolutely amazing, my favorite was Ragsie.

Q. What Would You Rate Dia Reeves Creativity?
A. On a scale of 1 to 1,000,000? 1,000,002.

Q. Will You Buy This Book?
A. -Clutches Ragsie close to self- Do you have to ask?!

Q. Is Bleeding Violet Worthy Enough To Have A Sequel?
A. Hell yeah! But, it doesn't look like that will happen.

A last few words about Bleeding Violet:
Beautifully written, creative, and sparked with specialness, I would say this novel could never be insulted. Even by the heartless people who can't love.
Though I may have a much different opinion as others, I must say this book was the book for me.

[Katie(babs) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves is a very strange book indeed. I would say if this book were made into a movie, it would be a cross between Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Trippy is the word that comes to mind while I read the adventures of Hanna Jarvinen. Hanna is a biracial teenager born from a Finnish father and a black mother, who may or may not be a professional escort, and never wanted her to begin with. Hanna not only is manic-depressive, hallucinates, and sees and talks to her dead father, but won't think twice about killing to get what she wants.

Hanna may sound a bit bloodthirsty, but she is pretty much the only "normal" one when she decided to live in Portero, Texas where her mother is. Hanna ends up on her mother, Rosalee's doorstep and has this fantasy that she will be welcomed with open arms. Rosalee does anything but, and is bit wary of her daughter, probably due to the fact that Hanna may have killed her aunt but hitting her head with a rolling pin. Hanna shrugs it off, and is more concerned that she didn't get all the bloodstains out of her dress. Hanna pleads with Rosalee to let her stay and is given two weeks where she must try and fit in. Hanna thinks this is a piece of cake, but Rosalee thinks Hanna is doomed to fail since Portero is not your normal, everyday American town.

The first day of high school for Hanna is very weird, to say the least. The whole school wears earplugs and the majority of the student body is in black while Hanna wears purple. She doesn't just stand out because of the way she looks, (she loves to wear long dresses and high heels) but because she's a transy. Transies are people who haven't grown up in Portero and usually wear bright colors because they have no idea that if you stand out too much, you may just end up dead. Hanna becomes fixated on Wyatt, who wears green because he's Mortmaine; one who hunts the evil creatures causing mayhem in town. Hannah practically jumps for joy because everyone is freakier than she is and decides she wants to be Mortmaine and fight evil alongside Wyatt.

Now Hanna has to be on the look out for things called lures that turn you into glass, doors that appear out of nowhere that will show you worst nightmare, and monsters that want to take your soul and suck you dry. Things hit really close to home when Rosalee becomes possessed by a nasty spirit called Runyon, who used to be Mortmaine but went off the deep end. Runyon is causing major mischief and it's up to Hannah to stop him before he destroys Portero.

Bleeding Violet was one reading experience I will not soon forget. I have to hand it to Dia Reeves for writing a very imaginative story, but one that is not comfortable reading. And in all honesty, I would be very wary in allowing any teen under the age of sixteen to read this book. The violence and bloodshed will make your head spin and have a bit of a sadomasochistic feel to them, especially when Rosalee, who channels Runyon, decides to torture and kill a young boy she finds at the lake with the help of Hanna. This a very squeamish, snuff like stuff, not only because Rosalle gets the boy drunk to make sure he passes out while she tortures him, but the mentions of her victim having an erection is one that made me cringe:

"She straddled him, moving his erection aside so she could sit comfortable on his stomach." And from Hanna…

"I fell onto my back on the cold ground and laughed until I cried, hope bubbling within me. If it was okay for a boy to hold on to his erection while being tortured, then it was okay for me to hold on to my love for Rosalee."

Now isn't that sweet of Hanna to have this bonding moment with her mother while they kill this poor boy, who becomes some sort of sacrifice for Runyon?

Along these lines, the topic of sex, especially between Wyatt and Hanna is somewhat a fade to black kind of variety, which I couldn't understand at all. I guess it is one thing to explain the scene above in graphic detail, but when Wyatt and Hanna have sex, which I really don't think added anything to the story, it was glazed over as in they kiss, fade to black and next where Hanna is pulling on her underwear and thinking how great it was.

This is where I have to ask, why in a young adult book like Bleeding Violet, are graphic scenes of voice and murder acceptable to be written in great detail, but when a our main character like Hanna has a tender moment with Wyatt, that leads to sex, why is that glossed over? Extreme violence is perfectly okay, but showing detail sex scenes are not? What gives?

These issues aside, I absolutely adored Hanna. Her tenacity, positivity and unique personality were a breath of fresh air. Hanna has this wonderful inner strength and big caring heart, even though her actions may be strange, but then again Bleeding Violet is one massively, wacky book.

I was on the fence on what grade to give Bleeding Violet because I wasn't sure what to think. It’s not all that often and author like Dia can make me have such a strong visceral reaction, where I was flinching as I read. I certainly wouldn't recommend this for anyone younger than high school. Hanna was the saving grace for me and one character I can't help but applaud for her bravery and facing down those who feel she is not worthy or important.

[TheBookSmugglers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original Review HERE

You are not welcome to Portero, Texas, unless you have a thick skin and you are here to stay. With hidden doors that open to other worlds (the Latin word for door: Porta) spread all over town and with all sorts of creatures (like leeches with tentacles for example and ghosts that live in the river and grant wishes if you can manage to breathe underwater enough to make the wish) crawling out or sucking you into them , Portero is definitely Weird Central of America. Its residents have all accepted their reality, living life to the best of their ability, under the Mayor’s authority and the hunters of Mortmaine’s protection. Everybody wears black as to not attract attention except for the Mortmaines who wear bright green; and if you stay long enough you are entitled to a key. This is how you know you belong.

Enter Hanna Jarvinen, first person narrator of this story and one of the most fascinating characters I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Half Finn, Half African American, Hanna is a biracial, bicultural, with bipolar disorder and violent tendencies, prone to hallucinations and who ran away from her aunt’s house before she was sent back to a mental institution. With her Finn father dead (although when she is not taking her pills, she talks to him in her head) all of Hanna’s hopes rest on her mother, Rosalee. Even though she has never seen her mother since she sent her father and her away when she was a baby, she fantasises that Rosalee will not only welcome her but accept her, weirdness and all. All her dreams come crashing down when she arrives in Portero. Rosalee is cold and unwelcoming. She means to send Hanna away, back to her aunt, to the mental institution, anywhere but Portero. She does not want anything to do with Hanna and is absolutely convinced that she will not adapt to the harsh reality of Portero:

“Let me get this straight: You want me to leave because you don’t think I can adapt?”
“I know you can’t”
Was she serious?
I was biracial and bicultural. A walking billboard for adaptation.

As much as Rosalee is unwelcoming, Hanna is unmoving and they are both forces to be reckoned with and so they strike a deal. If Hanna is not freaked out in the first two weeks, she gets to stay with Rosalee. On the very next morning Rosalee sends her to school where she is welcomed by the weirdest happenings and she realises that maybe Portero is weirder than she expected after all. Then, when she fully expected to fit in from day one, after all she was always able to use her looks and her personality to captivate men and women, she is ignored and scorned by the in-crowd lead by Wyatt, a Mortmaine. Hanna is a Transy, a Transient, someone who is just passing by and porterenses are used to see those leaving or dying too soon. But after she witnesses Wyatt using powers he is not supposed to when vanquishing a threat to the school, they become close. Now, Hanna thinks that the perfect way to impress not only the porterenses but above all her mother is to go on a hunt with Wyatt. When she comes back from the hunt, exhilarated, and unscathed, it is when things get really complicated.

Bleeding Violet is one of the best Young Adult novels I have ever read. The writing is lovely, the story is hands down amazing and the characters are everything I could have hoped for. Every time I open a book, I wish for the sort of all-encompassing experience that this book provided me.

I have read several reviews of Bleeding Violet around the internet and most of them focus their attention on how the story is weird , crazy and surreal. Yes, it is. To the point where I would say that the novel would definitely appeal to fans of QuentinTarantino and Vertigo’s graphic novels.

But although Portero is indeed an incredible setting and the situations that happen in this novel are really surreal, to me more than that surrealism, more than anything else what leaps from the pages are how REAL the characters are. Regardless of any gimmicks happening around them, or the way they might react to those situations, Bleeding Violet is extraordinarily realistic at a very basic level.

Take away the doors and the creatures (as fascinating and cool and vivid and creative as they are) and the book is a character-centric novel in which every.single.thing is character-driven. Everything that happens is because of these characters’ emotions and actions. Hanna is the main propeller of the plot, her emotional estate and that of those that surround her is what matter and what is at centre stage here.

Her need for motherly love and acceptance, to fit in start a sequence of events (which in turn re-set something that started a long time ago – but again, THOSE events wore also consequences of deeply felt emotions that converged in one horrible moment in time: greed, grief and fear). The way she speaks, thinks, reacts was …I don’t know. Awesome. I fell in love with Hanna from chapter one. She is so confident but at the same so lost. She has so many issues that need to be addressed and a definite mental illness that needs to be treated.

But Hanna is not the only character who has issues and deeply felt emotions: her mother, as cold as she was, was the result of a horrible childhood. Wyatt, had his own issues with authority and with heritage. This triad of characters and Hanna relationship with both and with herself are the meats and bones of the novel. On the romance side of things, how refreshing and realistic to see a couple starting off as any couple, dating and then having sex (because it is good and natural) sharing a connection and laughter without having to promise to be together- forever- and- ever- amen- because-they-belong-together. It is all the more believable when the two have to work through issues like still having feelings for an ex-girlfriend or not having feelings for any of the guys you had sex before. Or how Hanna sees the world in a confusion of colours and Wyatt tends to see it in black and white.

There are so many threads intertwined in the novel: deception, greed, power, sadness, death, acceptance, what is like to be biracial, what is like to be compassionate when you need to be ruthless, what is like to be young and have new ideas in the face of Tradition, what is like to love a mother who does not love you back. And it makes for a memorable, unique, fascinating, unapologetic, profoundly moving story.

Be aware though that this not a wholesome story. It is dark, gory, sensual, and violent. There are no definite, clear cut, simple answers. And it is certainly not for the squeamish ones: mental illness, teenage sex, a suicide attempt are present as well as moral ambiguity and not a few violent scenes.

I think it is testament to this writer’s ability (and perhaps fondness for her characters) that in spite of all the aforementioned violence and darkness, Bleeding Violent ends on a definite, unmistakable and believable high note. And as of now, this book has a secure spot on my top reads of 2010.

[~Tina~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read my fair share of paranormal books. I like my paranormal books. But, Bleeding Violet tops it off all the other paranormal books, with a screaming bang!!!

You could tell the author really likes her horror and had a freaken blast writing, -masterfully I might add- her own version of horror.
The things I've read before this book is chocolate pudding in comparison.
Maybe I'm over exaggerate a bit, maybe it's because I'm a chicken sh*t and tend to stay away from horror books, or maybe this book just scared the bejeezus out of me! I suggest, if your anything like me, read this one during daylight hours guys! And yet...I couldn't stop reading this bizarre, strange, wild and brilliant book!

I don't even know how to explain this book. It's dark, dysfunctional and disturbing as hell!
And that's goes for the plot, the characters, and the writing that pieced it all together. The entire flavor of the book was beyond creepy and I was beyond confused to why the things were even happening in the first place, but that's the beauty of this book. It doesn't matter why. It just matters that it is!
Y'all are just along for the ride;)

A twisted, maddening paranormal scream that will make you welcome a cold chill down your spine.
With an imagination like this, Dia Reeves will certainly plow her way through the hearts of paranormal lovers.

A Wickedly Masterful Dubut!

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so wickedly strange.... yet completely awesome. If I had to describe it with only word one, I think unique would describe it perfectly, or maybe crazy.. that would work too!

Hannah was unlike any other character that I've encountered in YA.... actually unlike any I've encountered in any genre. She's very nonchalant.... about everything! She could have killed her aunt, totally not a big deal. She hears her dead fathers voice in her head, oh and she sees him too... not a big deal. Possible existence of weird creepy things that go bump in the night.... er day, not a big deal. Like I said, very nonchalant! But that was what made her so fun to read about, there was no telling what the girl was going to do or say next.

The plot was action packed and the characterization was awesome. I hate Hannah's mother one moment and loved her the other. I could say the same for some of the other supporting characters as well. The writing was fantastic... I just was totally blown away. This novel is different, but in a good way. I don't really want to say too much about it, because figuring out what's really going on, is what makes the novel so much fun to read.

After reading this novel, I cannot wait to dig into Reeve's next novel Slice of Cherry!

[Karen Keyte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this book. The idea was really intriguing - a damaged girl, perpetually out of place, moving to a town where freak takes on a whole new meaning. Unfortunately, the execution of that idea left a lot to be desired.

The writing lacked any kind of rhythm and was workmanlike, at best. The characters were shallow, unconvincingly drawn and mostly unlikable. On top of that, there was no internal logic to their actions and reactions a good deal of the time. Their relationships (Hanna and her mother and Hanna and Wyatt, in particular) were two dimensional and often inexplicable.

I was also disturbed by the seeming unconcern the characters had for extreme violence. The fact that Hanna's mother Rosalee tortured and murdered a teenage boy (while they were both naked, no less) and then put his dismembered corpse in Hanna's bed, for instance, is mostly glossed over - even though it is clear that this action was not forced upon Rosalee by the spirit possessing her.

All in all, not a book worth recommending to anyone - too many problems.

[Rachel Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. You know the book I want to compare this to? Imaginary Girls. Not that the writing was anything near as haunting and lyrical, but because they both employ magic realism (though it's closer to fantasy here)(or maybe even SF - are those alternate universes, or what?) in a psychologically symbolic way, and both deal with uncomfortably intense family relationships.

This had some severely grotesque moments, and there's one scene that I want to say crossed a line for me, and yet I kept reading. Maybe it crossed the place where I self-consciously feel a line should have been, or where it once was and no longer is. Dunno. This is one I have to think about some more before reviewing fully.

And you know that for me, that's a GOOD thing. Thinky thinky thinky!

[Maura O'Dea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knocking a point for some (albeit period-typical) problematic descriptions. Not as good as Slice of Cherry imo, but still as dark, gruesome, and emotionally complex. The plot moves a little fast for me, and I think the way mental illness is handled could be better, but what I love about Dia Reeves is how her female characters are allowed to be bad people. They’re bad people, but I still like them, because they’re doing what they do for love—and aren’t we all???

TLDR: girls should get to have a little murder, as a treat

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is weird. Delightfully, unabashedly weird.

Take a bipolar and hallucinatory 16-year old and drop her into the only town on the planet where the paranormal activity out-weirds anything her troubled mind can think up, and you have the setting of this novel. Hanna battles her own inner ghosts while dealing with the very real monsters of Portero, Texas. However, none of this compares to her struggle to obtain the love of a mother that abandoned her as an infant.

This novel is very dark and graphic. Language, sex, violence, gore, homicidal rage, mental illness, suicidal tendencies - all are prominent throughout the text. That said, I found this story engrossing. Despite the very heavy themes throughout, Hanna is engaging, even charming. Obviously very troubled, but engaging nonetheless.

Reeves' style is sometimes lyrical and very easy to read. There were a few passages where descriptions felt out of place to me (a girl's pink skirt "fluttered prettily" while she was weighing down a murderous flying monster), but most of the language flowed well. The characters are engaging and all have signature quirks. My one qualm is that one of the primary antagonists, the Mayor, isn't introduced until near the end of the novel, and falls a little flat of what she's been built up to be. Most of the other characters are quite well done.

Though there is a good deal of gore/violence here, there is also Hanna's quest to be loved. After the death of her father, she's longed to feel a strong emotional connection to another person, and she searches for it desperately in a mother who is by all appearances cold and unfeeling. One of the main pulls of this story is Hanna's desperate struggle to achieve even the smallest glimmer of affection from her mother, or from anyone.

I can see opinions of this book varying widely based on personal taste and any triggering issues readers may have. Hanna displays a very blasé attitude toward sex, death, and blood that some will find unnerving or distasteful. She also has a long list of mental issues which may or may not be portrayed accurately. I personally found the novel unique and enjoyable, albeit disturbing, but I could easily see where other readers might be turned off. If any of the aforementioned issues are likely to upset you, I'd advise passing on this one.

If you feel you can handle the themes and you are interested in a unique paranormal YA novel with a fresh voice, try this one out.

[Heather G Gentle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't in good concious give this book more than 2 stars. Probably 1.5 would be more realistic. The ideas and "world" created were really unique and interesting....the creatures, the technology, the doors.
And I did laugh once when the author wrote "Everyone seemed stunned to realize that the Mayor had gotten her ass kicked by a necklace".

Otherwise-- I spent most of the time feeling very uncomfortable reading this book. I was wondering who this was written for?
12-17 year olds? I'm willing to bet if I polled my friends, who have 12-17 year olds after reading this book I wouldn't have one that would agree to let them read it.
Sex upstairs in the parents house in the shower while they are home and know it? Mom and daughter discussing which of them has slept around the most? And thinking it's cute and funny? ( and yes-- I realize Mom wasn't "herself"-- but was this necessary?). Torturing people?
And yes-- I know "kids are into this stuff" these days. Just because kids are "into it" doesn't mean it's SMART! Shouldn't we be encouraging kids to be smart and make good decisions. I guess I just think authors should write more about characters who can be positive role models instead of encouraging kids to keep thinking bad decisions are just fine.

YSLA Nominee? Really? Scary.

Ok-- steps off soapbox....

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could not have been more fun! It was dark, twisted, violent, and funny. The world is so ridiculously imaginative that the story was completely unpredictable. I'm feeling like I wrote the exact same review for the author's other book "Slice of Cherry" and they have a very similar feel. They are both set in the same strange town of Portero and the author has built an incredible world that I was dying to get back to. I sincerely hope that these two books aren't all we see of Portero and its residents. I'm hooked!

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurz und knapp
Bleeding Violet ist anders als alles bisher Dagewesene. Dia Reeves’ Einfallsreichtum ist einzigartig, morbide und vor allem kreativ. Themen wie Sex oder Gewalt umgeht sie nicht, sondern schildert sie nüchtern und ehrlich.
Ihre Welt und deren Charaktere mögen nicht jedem gefallen, aber wer sich nach etwas Neuem sehnt, wird hiermit glücklich werden.

[4,5 STERNE]

Lang und breit
Jeder von euch kennt vermutlich Alice im Wunderland, eigentlich hätte man so auch dieses Buch nennen können, nur eben „Hanna in Portero“. Außerdem ist in Portero alles düsterer und brutaler als im Wunderland und Hanna ist lange nicht so naiv wie Alice, dafür um einiges attraktiver. Ach und seltsamer ist es in Portero auch, viel seltsamer.

Dia Reeves’ erster Roman ist wahrlich und wahrhaftig abgefahren und hat mich in eine Welt entführt, die ich vorher noch nie gesehen habe und die ich mir nicht einmal in meinen eigenen Träumen hätte ausmalen können. Am Anfang wusste ich gar nicht, dass das Buch so viele übernatürliche Elemente/Kreaturen enthält. Ich lernte Protagonistin Hanna kennen und obwohl ich sie auf Anhieb mochte, kam sie mir auch seltsam vor. Es stellte sich schnell heraus, dass das an ihrer mentalen Krankheit lag. Hat mir schon mal ausgezeichnet gefallen, denn Charaktäre, die nicht ganz richtig im Kopf sind, versprechen immer eine spannende Story. Mit diesem Wissen war ich am Anfang hin- und hergerissen, ob Hanna sich jetzt manche Dinge nur einbildet oder ob sie tatsächlich geschehen. Je weiter das Buch fortschritt, desto sicherer wurde ich mir aber, dass Hanna keineswegs halluziniert. Die Stadt Portero schafft es einfach noch seltsamer zu sein als dieses mental instabile Mädchen.

Hanna selbst halte ich für eine wunderbare Protagonistin. Sie ist im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes wahnsinnig und unberechenbar, aber trotzdem liebenswert. Mir hat es gefallen, dass sie sich über ihre Weiblichkeit im Klaren ist und diese gern zu ihrem Vorteil einsetzt. Obwohl sie romantische Gefühle für einen Jugen entwickelt, lässt sie sich nicht von ihm auf der Nase herumtanzen und versucht nicht es ihm ständig recht zu machen. Wenn er etwas tut, was ihr missfällt, zeigt sie ihm das und kommt auch ohne ihn wunderbar zurecht.
Eine weitere tolle Eigenschaft an Hanna ist ihr Optimismus. Obwohl sie in eine Menge verrückte und manchmal aussichtslose Lagen gerät, gibt sie nicht auf und versucht aus allem das Beste zu machen.
Hanna verkörpert sehr gut die generellen Zutaten des Buches. Auf der einen Seite bekämpft sie Monster und begibt sich auf gefährliche Missionen, auf der anderen Seite sieht sie dabei stets gut aus ohne tussig zu wirken.

Was Dia Reeves besonders gut gelingt sind kleine Details, die Symbolik transportieren. Farben spielen im Buch zum Beispiel eine wichtige Rolle und werden immer wieder in Beschreibungen aufgegriffen. Damit hat die Autorin nicht nur die Umgebung deutlicher gezeichnet sondern auch eine besondere Note hinzugefügt.

Wie gesagt, seltsam ist für diesen Roman das Schlagwort. Erstaunlicherweise wird es nach fast jedem Kapitel noch absurder. Die Autorin schmeißt mit so vielen einzigartigen Originalitäten um sich, dass ich manchmal einfach pausieren musste, um das Geschehene erst mal einwirken zu lassen. Ich habe wirklich lange keine so originell Welt betreten dürfen.

Bei all der Merkwürdigkeit kommt auch die Liebe nicht zu kurz. Es wird nicht nur vom Verliebtsein in einen Jungen erzählt, sondern auch von der komplizierten Liebe zwischen Familienmitgliedern, insbesondere zwischen Mutter und Tochter. Sowohl Hanna als auch ihre Mutter Rosalee sind zwei unheimlich komplizierte Figuren, die beide ihre Laster mit sich umherschleppen. Dennoch versucht Hanna immer wieder auf ihre Mutter zuzugehen und die Entwicklungen, die beide durchmachen, habe ich mit klopfendem Herzen verfolgt.
Auch an Spannung fehlt es nicht. Gerade als Hanna von ihrem Freund Wyatt zum ersten Mal mit auf die Jagd genommen wird, sind meine Augen über die Seiten geflogen, weil es so gruselig und aufregend war. Durch die Vielzahl an fiesen Monstern könnte das Buch teilweise auch ins Horrorregal einsortiert werden. Wer sich von so etwas leicht abschrecken lässt, sollte Bleeding Violet mit Vorbehalt genießen.

Dia Reeves beschreibt ihre Welt und Charaktere mit den genau passenden Worten. Wenn es um Sex- oder Gewaltszenen geht, nimmt sie sich ein wenig zurück und beschreibt diese so kurz und prägnant wie möglich. Bei den ekligen Kampfszenen hat mir das gut gefallen, die brauche ich nicht auf drei Absätze ausgewälzt, schon gar nicht, wenn sie so blutig und gefühllos ausfallen wie in Portero.
Bei den Sexszenen fand ich diese Kurzfassung etwas schade, da mir bei der ersten Szene dieser Art erst gar nicht klar war, ob die beiden es nun wirklich tun oder nicht. Da hätte ich mir doch ein paar mehr geschmackvolle Details gewünscht.
Zu viele Details werden leider in einer späteren Szene offenbart, deren Sinn mir bis jetzt nicht ganz klar ist, aber auch das schiebe ich auf die Ausgefallenheit dieser Autorin.

Die Kameraden
Band 1: Bleeding Violet
Band 2: Slice Of Cherry (am 04.01.11 erschienen)

In Portero gibt es nach Bleeding Violet einfach noch zu viele ungeöffnete Türen. Das hat sich auch die Autorin gedacht und deshalb ihren zweiten Roman in der gleichen Stadt angesiedelt. Bleeding Violet ist Gott sei Dank in sich abgeschlossen und wird in Slice of Cherry nicht fortgeführt. Ich kann es kaum erwarten nach Portero zurückzukehren und neue atemberaubende Abenteuer zu erleben, egal mit wem.
Laut Dia Reeves’ Website hat sie auch schon einen dritten Portero Band begonnen über ein Mädchen, das kein Herz hat.

Die Unbeantworteten
keine offenen Fragen

Die Optik
Das Cover passt perfekt zum Inhalt. Es zeigt die wichtigeste Farbe – Violett/Lila und verdeutlich außerdem die verführerische, geheimnisvolle Note des Romans.
Für die deutsche Ausgabe wurde das Cover beibehalten, allerdings wurde der Titel in einer anderen Schriftart gesetzt, die lange nicht so elegant aussieht wie die des Originals.

Die Zusatzinformationen
Dia Reeves’ Weg zur Veröffentlichung liest sich wie ein Märchen. 2005 nahm die Autorin am NAtionalNOvelWRItingMOnth teil, in dem sie den ersten Entwurf von Bleeding Violet schrieb. Nach immerhin zwei Jahren der Überarbeitung hat sie im Juni 2008 begonnen einen Agenten zu suchen und es dauerte nicht mal einen Monat bis sie einen fand. Den Juli verbrachte sie mit einer letzten Überarbeitung und bereits im August schaffte sie es gemeinsam mit ihrem Agenten den Verlag Simon Pulse von der Veröffentlichung des Romans zu überzeugen.

Die Doppelgänger
Neverwhere von Neil Gaiman ist nicht ganz so wahnsinnig verrückt wie Bleeding Violet aber ebenso kreativ und düster. Außerdem spielen auch hier Türen eine wichtige Rolle.

[Arely A · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book feels like a wattpad story a 15 Yr old obsessed with the dark side of tumblr wrote, it’s twisted but not that well developed. Not sure how I feel about how it talks about mental illness or hyper sexuality.
And the fantasy world is cool, but it lacks depth.
The writing is sort of all over the place. Yet I still wanted to finish and had some sort of morbid curiosity to find out the ending.
Also the relationships in the book are a car crash, but it is refreshing to see a different type of mother-daughter relationship.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I read the first few pages, and saw Hanna talking to her father, who wasn't there, I was hooked. This book is just brilliant, and absolutely mental, but in a really good way!

Portero is crazy, really just so odd! With every new occurance, and each new creature that made an appearance, I was thinking "Are you serious?!" with a huge grin on my face. I've reviewed a fair amount of urban fantasy novels, and so I'm used to reading about strange creatures and happens, but Bleeding Violet is written in a way that makes you stop and think "What?", and it's just so awesome! I think it must be Hanna's narration. Being diagnosed and misdiagnosed with several different mental illnesses, as the story goes on, Hanna is never sure if the things that are happening are real or made up, and it's her surprise and yet easy acceptance of what's going around her that make it a little more surprising for the reader than other urban fantasies. You know, I think I would go as far as saying the creatures and events that happen may more be conventions of a high fantasy, where as the characters, relationships, and just everyday goings on are very normal, or conventional of an urban fantasy. It's the meshing of the two that is just so awesome, yet so bizarre!

Don't read everything I've said so far and assume this novel is a silly little fantasy where crazy things happen. There's nothing silly about it; Bleeding Violet covers some very serious issues. Hanna's mental illness is just written so well. Hanna's off-hand acceptance of the things she know can't be right - the actual things that aren't "real" - is jaring. It's disturbing to read Hanna's thoughts on things such as suicide, and her actions when some things happen. It's so powerful!

Another issue covered in Bleeding Violet is that of identity. Specifically, racial identity. Hanna's mother, Rosalee, is black, and her father, Joosef, is a Fin. Hanna spent the first years of her life in Finland, without her mother, and knows a lot more about Finnish culture, and references are made throughout the book. At one point in the book, Rosalee makes her a meal, and there's something on her plate she doesn't recognise. When Rosalee tells her it's Grits, she asks "Is it a black thing?" There's an underlying, very subtle thread of Hanna feeling like she's only half herself, for not knowing about her black heritage, and for not having her mother around, but also that she's an outsider because of her Finnish background, and the cultural differences between her and her peers.

And then there's the unrelenting, desperate need to be loved. With her father dead, and a mother that doesn't seem to want to know her, Hanna feels quite lost; what is life without a parent to love you? The things Hanna goes through to try and impress her mother, in order to make her love her, or get a passionate reaction out of her is heart wrenching, and it's so sad to watch her get rejected time and again.

It's not all serious and heavy though. There is plenty of action, which is very well thought out, just amazing, but you'll be more surprised by what's happening at the time, and wowed by it after the fact. If I was to criticise this book in any way, it would be that the action scenes were just a little longer. It's not a huge deal, I just like me a bit of danger!

The characters are also brilliant! Hanna herself is strange, as you've probably guessed, but it's hard not to love her and feel for her! She's got such a great voice, and can be really quite amusing at times with her strange way of seeing things. Rosalee is just brilliant! Cold and unfeeling at times, which will knock you for six, but it's great to have such a character that'll make you react and feel so strongly! Wyatt, Hanna's love interest, is pretty sweet, really, but I doubt he'd like to hear that. He's clever, quick, and very powerful though, and a combination of Hanna and Wyatt together, well, it makes great reading!

This really is a very powerful, strange and beautiful book! I absolutely adored Bleeding Violet, it's zany and quirky, but very poignant and touching. Such a great ending! You have to read this book!

Unfortunately, Bleeding Violet isn't being published in the UK so far, but British readers will be able to order a US copy from Amazon UK.

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not since I read Holly Black’s TITHE five years ago have I encountered a story as unique and fascinatingly compelling as Dia Reeve’s debut novel, BLEEDING VIOLET. Indeed, BLEEDING VIOLET defies adequate description and categorization, blending snark, relationship issues, and the supernatural into a sexy paranormal read that will be hard to forget.

From page one, Dia unapologetically yanks readers into a dark and twisted world where monsters and mental illness are simply Hanna and Portero’s way of life, confused people be damned. While this total immersion in the world of Portero may be initially jarring, once I began figuring things out, I felt like I had been let in on a terrific secret, and I LOVED being in Hanna’s world. It’s brutal and shocking, and not for one second can you look away.

Hanna is a protagonist like no other, with her crazy thoughts and her way of looking at the world. She’s slightly disturbing yet inexplicably alluring, the kind of girl you know you should stay away from but who part of you almost wants to be. Hanna is fearlessly original in her interactions with the Porterenes: the awkwardness of her developing relationship with her mother is well drawn, and I found Hanna’s budding romance with Wyatt, a local boy with an important job in monster-policing, to be one of the most well-developed romances I’ve read in recent YA literature. From beginning to end it’s no fairy-tale relationship: there’s no immediate rush of physical and soul-mate attraction, but rather the blossoming of it through witty repartees.

BLEEDING VIOLET is not for those who like their reading fluffy. It’s dark, unapologetic in its occasional gory and weird scenes. Some may disapprove of Hanna and Wyatt’s physical relationship (though personally I found it sexy and well done). Others may be too hopelessly confused by the first couple of chapters or the occasional vagueness of the plot to connect with it. But if you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind dark read, I will find it hard to resist thrusting this book into your hands. Read it, and maybe you will savor it like I did!

[Tynga · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Sara Grochowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm kind of in love with this book. Every time I try to write my review though, I can't find the words. I think I've been left speechless. Or there are too many words and feelings bouncing around in my head. BLEEDING VIOLET pullled me in by its jagged teeth and I read it at a breakneck speed and with wide eyes. I'm not sure I've ever read such a strange tale; it was completely unique.

As I was getting ready to read BV, I kept hearing comments about the book. Other reviewers kept mentioning that it was such an odd book. I'd have to agree with this sentiment. It is hard to determine exactly what characteristic of the novel other reviewers are referring to when they say it is strange, in comparison to other supenatural and horror YA novels, but for me, it was Hanna. Dia Reeves' main character is not, in my mind, your typical YA character, nor your typical horror narrator. There is an unshakeable calm about Hanna and her ability to accept unexplainable phenomena is rather impressive. In the novel, Hanna has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, and, after a shopping spree during a manic episode and a violent outburst, has run away to a small town in search of her estranged mother. Shortly after she arrives, Hanna discovers that she might have just found the one place that is crazier than she is. Does Hanna run away screaming? Nope. She doesn't even flinch. I loved that Hanna is such a strong character, at least on the outside, but she still has a soft center. Her ultimate goal throughout the book is to gain love and acceptance from her mother, who left Hanna and her father when she was only an infant. This is what makes Hanna a YA character and a character that a reader can connect with. The fact that she fights back instead of cowering in the face of freakish monsters and evil spirits... those traits just make her a badass. But the fact that she has Bipolar Disorder definitely sets her apart from other YA characters - and explains some of her behavior and tendencies.

There is also a romantic plotline in BV. I found Hanna's relationship with Wyatt to be both interesting and engaging. It was interesting because of Hanna's personality, her past, and, in ways, her future. Hanna's past relationships barely passed for actual relationships and her entire future, as far as she was concerned, seemed to be focused on her mother. So throwing Wyatt into the mix had interesting side effects. In addition, I simply enjoyed their love story. It wasn't typical, but it still made me smile and root for their budding relationship.

The superatural elements of BV were impressive. The novel has a definite horror vibe - I think it could definitely be made into a movie - and at times I felt like covering my eyes and reading through my fingers. BV isn't one of those books that will keep you up at night with the light on, but it is filled with creepy crawlies. And evil spirits. And hidden doors to other dimensions. Portero, Texas isn't my dream destination, but I can't help but be fascinated by it.

Ratings (out of 10):
Plot: 10
Characters: 10
Writing: 10
Romance: 10
Originality: 10
Total: 50/50 (A)

Bleeding Violet is an amazing debut from Dia Reeves and if it isn't on your to-be-read pile, add it now! Start of 2010 with a great novel, start 2010 with Bleeding Violet!

[Seanean · Rating 1 out of 5]

There could have been so many great things about this book. There are new creatures and lore to play with. However, the author just didn't seem to know how to handle it.
She makes Hanna (the main character) a manic depressive, but only really as a contrivance. See... Hanna has lived a relatively "normal" life until she moves in with her mother. Normal in the sense that every town she's lived in has followed the rules of nature as we know them. Her mother's town, however, is one of "hidden doors" that allow all sorts of freakish creatures through. So, by making Hanna "insane" to start, the author gets to avoid having her character react to the insanity around her. Hanna acts as if nothing is wrong in this new town. In fact, she's genuinely excited even as her mother is possessed and her boyfriend gives her a potion to appear dead and then lets her be fed to a giant monster.
There's also a number of references to sex and not being ashamed of nudity, as if she's trying to show how un-prudish she is and/or can be.
Overall, the whole book is a mess. The resolution is horrid. And I fear that there will be a sequel.
This one goes on my "avoid at all costs" list.

[Cyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what kind of read Bleeding Violet was going to turn out to be. I’d been searching for some PoC-centric horror, and when I came across a list with Dia Reeves’ name, I was surprised to find her work categorized as YA. I’ve heard almost nothing about either of her books, despite being subscribed to half a dozen diversity-in-YA accounts on Tumblr and Twitter, where charts of minority-written and -starring books come down the feed almost constantly. Why aren’t more people trying to get me to read this???

The summary is a little vague on details, but thanks to my amazing selective skimming techniques, all I took away was the possibility of a heroine who may or may not be hallucinating all of the supernatural things happening to her. It’s a premise I’ve been waiting like half my life to see executed, and it’s kind of what I got, except that Bleeding Violet is the story of what would happen if that character moved to Night Vale.

And I fucking loooooooooooooooooooooved it.

**minor spoilers**

The Style
I mention Night Vale because that’s an easy frame of reference for both Portero (the town that our heroine Hanna moves to) and the particular flavor of storytelling/horror Bleeding Violet favors. It is all about the casual weirdness. Portero is a hive of strange – creatures that live in the windows and turn people to glass, invisible doors that open to different locations, keys that can grant wishes, boys who can turn to ooze, an omnipotent mayor – but it’s not strange to the people that live there. For them, it’s just a fact of everyday life, so that’s how the book presents it. There’s no big reveal moment, no long info dumps about Portero being, I don’t know, a Hellmouth or something to explain why weird shit happens there. Weird shit just happens, and because Hanna is Hanna, she rolls with it.

It’s surreal, basically. The story establishes from the beginning that the characters are not necessarily going to react the way you think they will, but there’s still a baseline and their actions still track with who they are as characters. Similarly, I said that “weird shit just happens”, but I don’t want to give the impression that this is a lawless land of random encounters and plot convenience magic, because it’s not. Despite its messy tango with reality as we know it, Bleeding Violet works within the parameters it establishes, and is actually quite careful about set up and pay off, so that everything makes sense and feels earned.

The style was right up my alley. I LOVE casual weirdness, and in this case, I think it gives Bleeding Violet a totally unique tone and perspective that I haven’t seen before. I love that this book doesn’t hold your hand, it just sets you on your way with Hanna as your unreliable guide.

Most of all, I love that Portero’s weirdness is not the focus of the story. Portero’s weird is no threat to the world at large, and the city doesn’t need to be fixed or rescued itself, tyvm. I kept waiting for Hanna to be some prophecied scion meant to do something special for her long-lost kingdom, but that never happened, either. The conflict is refreshingly intimate, down to earth, and entirely character-focused.

Hanna
Hanna is basically everything I ever want in a YA heroine. I loved her. She’s boundlessly confident, forward, and open with her emotions, which is an incredible feat when you deal with as much rejection as she does in this novel. She’s secure in her beauty and isn’t shy about acknowledging it, she’s feminine and stylish and crafty – basically, Hanna has every perky cheerleader trait that YA’s terrible internalized misogyny has told us for years that it’s ~terrible to have~, except that Hanna rocks it all and doesn’t get shamed for it.

It’s fucking revolutionary.

But wait, there’s more! Hanna’s also got some hardcore determination and motivation; she’s clever and resourceful, and willing to go to some pretty extreme lengths to get what she wants. This being the book it is, Hanna’s not a pure shining ray of uncomplicated goodness; Bleeding Violet is dark, and all of the characters do things that would probably make them creepers or bad guys under different circumstances, but that amorality appealed to me. I like complicated female characters, and we get them so goddamn rarely. Both Hanna and her mother were a treat in that respect.

I also appreciated that Hanna was allowed to be pretty sexually liberated. Granted, there are caveats to this that I’ll get in to later, but I liked that Hanna and her love interest Wyatt had sex, and that there was very little ceremony to it. There was a very responsible conversation, but they didn’t have to court for four books or declare their undying love, they just liked each other and wanted to connect. Also neither of them were virgins! Both had had multiple partners!

Holy shit you guys! It’s teenagers who want to fuck, and have sexual histories like actual teenagers! EVERYONE GET YOUR FAINTING CUSHIONSSSSS!

Hanna’s mental illness is also a pretty significant part of her character, but I’m gonna get to that in detail towards the end, so we’ll put a pin in it for now.

The Story
Did I mention that the core of Bleeding Violet as a story is the relationship between Hanna and her mother?

Yeah, her mother. Not her boyfriend, not her father, not her male mentor, but her mother. It’s what drives the plot, what drives Hanna. Everything that she does is in a desperate quest for her mother’s love, and it’s so fucking refreshing to see.

Basically, Hanna has been raised her entire life by her father, first in Finland, and then in the US, until he dies and she’s shipped off to live with an aunt. Knowing her mother’s address from an old postcard, Hanna runs away to live with her mother in Portero, only to find that Rosalee vehemently does not want her there.

The relationship is super messy. Rosalee is cold and callous and distant to everyone, but especially to her daughter, who is relentless in her insistence that Rosalee will love her. Meanwhile Hanna is creepily obsessive, impulsive and desperate to prove herself worthy of Rosalee’s affection. Rosalee is cruel, actively pushing Hanna away again and again, while simultaneously offering moments of kindness and affection in spite of herself. Hanna laps up every bit of it, collecting each crumb as evidence that her mother has to feel something for her, pushing herself on Rosalee far beyond the point that most people would have given up.

It’s obviously not the healthiest of relationships, but it’s not meant to be. Rosalee and Hanna are fucked up people with their own traumas and issues and hangups. But seeing the lengths that they eventually go to for each other – how Rosalee struggles against the way she’s lived her entire life, how Hanna clings to the woman despite her devastation every time she’s rejected, the way Hanna fights for her during the climax – makes the story incredibly gratifying. I love seeing women fight so brutally for each other, I love that this book makes that relationship so important, I love that the climax is this great supernatural realization of their conflict and Rosalee’s struggle, I even love the ending. This shit is great.

I suspect that I could kind of go on forever about all of the things I liked about Bleeding Violet: I liked the world, I liked the love interest and Hanna’s relationship with him, I liked the magic and the monsters, I liked Rosalee’s backstory and characterization, I liked that Hanna’s being bi-racial and bi-cultural wasn’t ignored, but didn’t define her character, either, I loved the way the story played out… I love a thousand different things about this book, and if I tried to list all of them, it would just be me recapping the whole thing beat-for-beat and clapping like an overexcited infant, and that would be stupid because you guys could just read it and experience everything for yourselves. The selling points are the ones I’ve gone in to detail about already, and suffice to say that there’re more where that came from.

So, given that gushing enthusiasm, is there anything here that could possibly rain on the parade?

Well, potentially.

Hanna's Mental Illness
Here’s where we get in to sticky territory, because I am not familiar at all with bipolar disorder. Not how it manifests, not what its symptoms are, not how it works, none of it. Still, I think it would be irresponsible to not touch on this at least a little, because there were some parts of Hanna’s depiction in Bleeding Violet that gave me pause.

I’d also like to warn that I’m going to be using the word “crazy” quite often, not out of disrespect, but because that is literally how the book bills Hanna.

**note** I've been told that the name used for Hanna's illness in the book is outdated and potentially triggering, so I've changed it to use the current term.

The first is the violence. Again, I have no idea how bi-polar disorder manifests, but Hanna is introduced to us as a violent character, and that violence is specifically tied back to her mental illness. She starts out the book arriving at her mother’s home in Portero in the middle of the night, casually chatting with her dead father in her mind. She breaks in to the house because her father tells her that waking her mother would be getting them off on the wrong foot, and makes a snack in the kitchen until her mother rises to investigate. Eventually it’s revealed that Hanna is covered in blood, having hit her aunt over the head and left her for dead before making her escape to Portero.

Now all of this does an excellent job of establishing the tone of the book, Hanna and Rosalee as characters, and the weird, surreal vibe, but it also establishes Hanna as violent, impulsive, and pointedly remorseless about the whole thing, all of which is at least partially because of her illness. Hanna demonstrates a consistent willingness throughout the book to go to violent extremes – she offers to burn a house down to make her mother happy, threatens to kill herself and “paint the walls with her blood” if she can’t make Rosalee love her, and even, at one point, hits her mother across the head with a rolling pin, nearly killing her.

So yeah, the whole “mentally ill people = violent” trope is in full force here.

Beyond that, I have no idea how well the things we’re meant to attribute to Hanna’s mental illness line up with how bipolar disorder works, or how accurate a portrayal it is. It’s entirely possible that Hanna’s mental illness was just a collection of “crazy”-seeming traits that came out the most interesting on paper. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what all we’re supposed to be attributing to the mental illness in the first place.

For me, the problem is that in using Hanna’s bipolar hallucinations and erratic behavior as a way of setting the tone of Bleeding Violet, and the baseline for what her character is willing to do, the book makes it hard to sort out what we’re meant to see as a facet of her mental illness – as, potentially, her “damage” – and what we’re meant to see as just Hanna. This can have problematic implications, because all of the more extreme aspects of Hanna’s personality can easily be attributed to her “crazy”.

So things that I loved, like Hanna’s casual approach to sex, can be seen as – and in retrospect, probably was, at least partially – part of her mania. The same could be said of Hanna’s confidence, her forwardness, obviously her violence, and her obsessive pursuit of her mother. And none of that would be a point of weariness for me, if the book at least made clear that we weren’t supposed to be viewing what I would consider Hanna’s positive decisions (like sleeping with Wyatt) with the same level of side-eye scrutiny as her more obviously creepy ones (you know, like sneaking in to her mother’s room and stitching “I love you” into her mattress). But the book is never entirely clear on that, and in fact, Hanna’s slightly unhinged approach to the world is as much of a source of the surreal as Portero’s casual impossibility.

So look, I appreciate that the characters are not held to some black-and-white moral binary and punished accordingly. I get that they are meant to be people with flaws, and that they all have their weird (I mean, Hanna’s mom eventually surreptitiously stitches “I love you too” under her pillow). But the Gaussian filter that Bleeding Violet puts over its story and characters leaves room for…troubling implications.

Or I could be overthinking it.

I hunted around online to see if I could find reviews that specifically addressed the mental illness aspect of the book, but came up more or less empty-handed except for this review over at Active Voice. If anyone knows of any others, particularly by people who have experience with bipolar disorder, I’d be very interested in reading them and hearing any opinions on the subject.

So, all that being said, is Bleeding Violet ableist? I honestly don’t know. What little I could find on the subject seems to point strongly towards yes, but being fairly neurotypical and having little-to-no knowledge in this area, I can’t say for sure.

This is a toughie. Bleeding Violet has almost everything that I’ve been asking for from YA: a complex heroine, a fascinating world, a great story, great atmosphere, emphasized female relationships, an interracial romance that is not poc/white person, and all of it comes from an amazing black lady author. However, the potential for ableism and a negative/inaccurate portrayal of mental illness is not just there, it’s front and center; it’s the filter through which we view the rest of the story. So while I still tentatively recommend it, it’s not the 100% no-reservations recommendation I wish we could have had.

THREE AND A HALF STARS

Find more reviews like this at You'reKilling.Us

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das war seltsam und absolut anders als erwartet. Irgendwie konnte mich die Geschichte fesseln, auch wenn ich mich mit den Charakteren überhaupt nicht identifizieren konnte. Die ganze Zeit trug mich die Frage, halluziniert sie das alles nur? Oder geschieht es wirklich? Wer weiß?

So etwas habe ich in jedem Fall noch nie gelesen. Der Titel "Niemals war Wahnsinn so verführerisch" passt meiner Meinung nach überhaupt nicht zur Geschichte, und lässt eine ganz andere Geschichte vermuten.
Wer Urban Fantasy mag, sollte hier mal einen Blick drauf werfen...

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give this 2 stars not because I don't recommend it, but because it's a hot mess of odd character and narrative choices and super inappropriate situations. It's still highly enjoyable. If you like Riverdale, you'll love this book.

[Katieb (MundieMoms) · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

Dia Reeves did an amazing job with introducing us to Hanna, the main character who has bio-polar, schizophrenia and a few other diagnosis. 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 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.

What Hanna's new school mates don't except, is that Hanna's dwelt with weird on an every day basis and fits in well with this East Texas town. 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 to Wyatt take her on a hunt, which no one does. Hanna will do anything to prove to her mom that she can stay in this town and 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 "demon slayer".

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 while it will take a lot of time to build their relationship, she does love her. **spoiler free** as there is a lot more to her mom than what I'm writing about.

*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*

3.5 stars from me!!