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I didn't read all of these, in the first case by my own choice and in the second case because a printing error left out thirty pages. My opinions are only based on what I did read.
Bleeding Violet, by Dia Reeves. Despite an impressive level of sheer cracktasticness and lots of narrative momentum, I was unable to finish this bizarre YA horror novel.
Biracial (African-American and Finnish), mentally ill teenage heroine Hanna seeks out her long-since-vanished mother after her father dies and Hanna tries to murder the aunt caring for her when the aunt attempts to have her institutionalized. Mom turns out to be living in Sunnydale times eleven, a little Texas town overrun by disgusting monsters and their psychopathic slayers. Hanna, who is diagnosed as bipolar though she reads more like a high-functioning schizophrenic with a side of mania and sociopathy to me, frequently hallucinates and the town is surreal all by itself, making this an extremely strange read. I liked the inventiveness and energy, but eventually gave up due to a combination of extreme gruesomeness and every major character being a sociopath.
Bleeding Violet
Dull Boy, by Sarah Cross. I will hold off final judgment till I can obtain a copy which isn’t missing pages 90-123 (I requested one from the publisher), but my initial impression of this “teenagers with superpowers” novel is that it’s likable, readable, and fun, but suffers from paper-thin characterization and – I think this isn’t only due to the missing pages – abrupt transitions, which caused events to seem unmotivated and disconnected. On the other hand, maybe pages 90-123 provided character depth and motivations for everything that happened later. We'll see when I obtain an entire copy.
Dull Boy
Bleeding Violet, by Dia Reeves. Despite an impressive level of sheer cracktasticness and lots of narrative momentum, I was unable to finish this bizarre YA horror novel.
Biracial (African-American and Finnish), mentally ill teenage heroine Hanna seeks out her long-since-vanished mother after her father dies and Hanna tries to murder the aunt caring for her when the aunt attempts to have her institutionalized. Mom turns out to be living in Sunnydale times eleven, a little Texas town overrun by disgusting monsters and their psychopathic slayers. Hanna, who is diagnosed as bipolar though she reads more like a high-functioning schizophrenic with a side of mania and sociopathy to me, frequently hallucinates and the town is surreal all by itself, making this an extremely strange read. I liked the inventiveness and energy, but eventually gave up due to a combination of extreme gruesomeness and every major character being a sociopath.
Bleeding Violet
Dull Boy, by Sarah Cross. I will hold off final judgment till I can obtain a copy which isn’t missing pages 90-123 (I requested one from the publisher), but my initial impression of this “teenagers with superpowers” novel is that it’s likable, readable, and fun, but suffers from paper-thin characterization and – I think this isn’t only due to the missing pages – abrupt transitions, which caused events to seem unmotivated and disconnected. On the other hand, maybe pages 90-123 provided character depth and motivations for everything that happened later. We'll see when I obtain an entire copy.
Dull Boy