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Publication Date: January 5, 2010 Publisher: Simon Pulse Author: · Dia Reeves Related Sites: · More from Simon Pulse · More from Dia Reeves Grade: A

Hanna Järvinen is the kind of girl who wears only purple and bashes people upside the head if they make her angry. The doctors call it bipolar disorder. She prefers the term manic-depression. It's more descriptive, you know?

After one of her episodes, Hanna's aunt threatens to send her back to the hospital so she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of the mother she's never met. Mom is less than thrilled to find Hanna settling into the upstairs bedroom without permission and tells the girl she can't stay because she'll never be able to adapt to life in Portero. Hanna, biracial and bicultural, "a walking billboard for adaptation," convinces her mom to give her two weeks to figure out how to fit in. Really, how hard can it be?

Hard. There is something very wrong with the town. The black clad, earphone wearing Porterinos denounce anyone who stands out as a Transie, and Transies don't live long on their own. But Hanna will do whatever it takes to survive, even if that means assisting with exorcisms and battling gruesome gelatinous monsters. Armed with her dead father's voice for guidance, a wooden swan for protection, and a ghost-killer named Wyatt for friendship, Hanna struggles to make a home for herself in the bizarre and twisted Texas town. She'll paint the walls with her own blood if she can't find a way to stay, if she can't find a way to win her mother's love.

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The truck driver let me off on Lamartine, on the odd side of the street. I felt odd too, standing in the town where my mother lived. For the first seven years of my life, we hadn't even lived on the same continent, and now she waited only a few houses away.

Unreal.

Why didn't you have the truck driver let you off right in front of her house? Poppa's voice echoed peevishly in my head, as if he were the one having to navigate alone in the dark.

"I have to creep up on her," I whispered, unwilling to disturb the extreme quiet of midnight, "otherwise my heart might explode."

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These few initial lines reeled me in to the point where I had to set aside other books slated for review, because all I kept thinking about was Bleeding Violet. Reeves has written narrator Hanna as violent, yet likable; intense, yet matter-of-fact. Her portrayal of bipolar disorder feels spot-on, and readers get the full rollercoaster ride as Hanna vacillates between euphoria and crushing depression.

Portero, Texas is a serious creepfest of a town, with monstrous presences the likes of which I've never encountered. Kudos to Reeves for getting creative with the book's dark elements instead of packing the pages full of zombies and werewolves. And I do mean dark. The book has its share of violence and death, with a little sex sprinkled in for good measure. While some of the pages are a little disturbing, nothing feels gratuitous.

Because Bleeding Violet contains a lot of fantasy elements and Hanna isn't exactly a reliable narrator, it's sometimes hard to tell what's real and what's all in her head. Over time, I found myself melding with Hanna's consciousness and really seeing things through her eyes. And I couldn't put the book down. Not even when it grossed me out, not even when it scared me. The writing style is hypnotic; the storyline is addictive. Bleeding Violet is one of the most unique YA novels I've ever read, an unforgettable tale of insanity, bloodshed, possession, and love.