Dia Reeves

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are more than simply sisters: they’re practically the same person. The daughters of an infamous killer, the girls keep to themselves, yet are always aware that their father’s tendencies may manifest in them as well. So when they begin to kill—only those who deserve it, of course—the sisters are not all that surprised.

What shocks Fancy, however, is when Kit begins to want to branch out beyond their close relationship. The more Fancy kills, the more she tries to show more hold on to the way things were, the more things change. Turns out there are some things more horrifying than killing, and that may be acknowledging the real world.

Dia Reeves is like a bucket of cold water on YA lit’s face…and I mean that in the best way. Her debut novel, Bleeding Violet, turned paranormal inside out and made it fascinating, in a sexy and gruesome sort of way. Her sophomore novel, SLICE OF CHERRY, is like a twisted childhood fantasy come true. Which is to say that I LOVED it.

As she did in Bleeding Violet, Dia kind of simply throws readers to the wolves and makes you fight to understand and be sympathetic to what’s going on in the story. In a world where some YA writers seem to “baby” their readers, this is a refreshing challenge. Things are not outright explained to us, but rather allowed to unfold gradually over the course of the book’s many pages. SLICE OF CHERRY focuses greatly on the horrors of the human psyche. I mean, Portero is weird enough on its own, but Kit and Fancy’s sociopathic behavior could technically happen in any normal American town, which is the truly creepy part of this novel.

The characters in SLICE OF CHERRY are fantastically messed up, definitely out there in a caricature-like but still completely understandable way. Little time is wasted on backstory, on explanations of what made the girls the way they are. Instead, they—especially Fancy—believe so thoroughly in their oddness that they leave us no room to question how they came to be that way…and that was totally fine with me. We don’t need complicated psychiatric explanations because they are so fully realized, their bizarreness so beyond our comprehension of typical human behavior that they successfully straddle the line between the real and the macabre.

SLICE OF CHERRY is in a genre all its own. If Bleeding Violet didn’t convince me that Dia is a genius, then this book most definitely did. This book will appeal to anyone who has even a pinch of darkness to them, who ever felt like they were weird and enjoyed things that no one else seems to. show less

Kit and Fancy Cordelle aren't like other girls their age. They are the only offspring of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, who is currently on death row. Ostracized by their classmates and neighbors, Kit and Fancy don't let this ruin their fun as they spend most of their time together committing horrific acts of violence. Kit fully embraces her dark side, but Fancy is more reluctant because she doesn't want to end up like her father. When she is guided to a way where evidence won't be a problem show more by one of her ancestors, Fancy and her sister are free to indulge in whatever dark fantasies they choose. Instead of going around killing people randomly, they put the word out that they want to kill people who deserve it and they get quite a few offers. Things seem to be going wonderfully until Kit falls in love with Gabriel Turner. She now wants to spend all her time with him and continually rejects Fancy. Fancy wants everything to stay the same and resists any sort of change vehemently, especially when Gabriel's brother, Ilan, starts to show interest in her. Can she get Kit to see the error of her ways or will she just have to be used to being alone?

I was first introduced to Dia Reeves' work with Bleeding Violet and I unexpectedly loved it. I've been wanting to read Slice of Cherry since I heard about it and I devoured it in about a day. I would rank it just a little below its predecessor. I absolutely love the town Portero and its odd, quirky inhabitants. They see strange things every day, from monsters to dismembered people in the street. Needless to say, it takes a lot to shock a Porterene. Dia Reeves creates a world unlike any other I have ever seen. The mixture of horror and fantasy is both seamless and utterly harmonious. There are real life horrors, like serial killers and sociopaths, juxtaposed with fantastical ones and they blend very well together. The horrific actions of the sisters don't really seem out of place in a world where people on a regular basis get lost behind magic doors or eaten and tortured by monsters. When word gets out about their twisted good deeds, their neighbors actually start treating them as heroes rather than ostracizing them as they had before. Each chapter is followed by an entry from Fancy's dream diary, which inevitably contains something more twisted and dark than happens in reality. This adds an extra layer of psychological horror and gives the reader a peek into Fancy's psyche.

Although there are two main characters, Fancy is the most prominently featured one. At the beginning of the novel, I had trouble differentiating between the two sisters because they were so much alike. As the novel goes on, Kit starts to create her own identity, with her own hobbies and activities, and embraces her journey to adulthood. This angers Fancy and she tries as hard as she can to create a stasis around her, including wearing her outgrown, childish clothes to resist her growth into a woman. I related to both Fancy and Kit at different points in the novel. I find it a great feat of writing that Dia Reeves can make two such unapologetic murderers into relatable, sympathetic characters. Fancy's frustrations and her relationship with her sister remind me of the horror film Ginger Snaps, where Ginger is developing into a woman and Brigitte tries to stop her sister's seemingly horrific change into an unrecognizable monster. Fancy feels a void inside of herself, which she tries to fill with murder and mayhem, but she still feels empty and despondent. The emptiness stems from her resisting the flow of time, life, and love and the loss of her sister.

Slice of Cherry is a wonderful novel chock full of dark and twisted goodness. Be warned that there is graphic violence and torture throughout. If you are sickened easily or have a weak constitution, this book is definitely not for you. For all of you others that revel in such madness, enjoy. show less

Hanna is not an easy heroine to like. She does certain things that people may find unforgivable, or at least wish she had paid a greater consequence for. I know some people who also think that the book perpetuates stereotypes about the violence and promiscuity of the mentally ill and young black women.

I definitely see where these people are coming from, but for me, Hanna's violence and unashamed sexuality are separate, if still somewhat linked, to her identities as a young woman with show more bipolar and a black woman. And I loved her. I loved having a heroine who suffers from mental illness, who saves the day neither in spite of nor because her condition. I love the fact that there wasn't a supernatural explanation for her condition, unlike many contemporary fantasy/paranormal novels where the character's mental illness is revealed to be some kind of supernatural power. I loved the painful, fraught relationship she had with her mother, and how that was the primary driving relationship in the story, despite the romance.

Bleeding Violet is not a book for everyone. But if you don't mind violence and are interested in spunky, kick-ass heroines who deal with mental illness in a creepy, fantastic setting, I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot. show less

Hands down, this is the most unique book I’ve read in a long time, possibly ever. There’s no vampires, werewolves, witches, angels, gods, or anything else you’d recognize. Every crazy monster in this story is new. At least they are to me, so I’m making the assumption that they’re totally original. If they’re not, then at least they’re obscure enough that they haven’t made their way into popular folklore. But I’m working on the belief that they’re straight from the mind of show more Dia Reeves.
Honestly, it’s difficult to discuss this book. It’s a little bit like waking up and trying to explain the wildest dream ever to a friend, and the only response they offer is a blank stare and an occasional look of shock. So instead of exploring the actual plot of the story, I’ll stick to the characters.
Hanna’s well-versed in crazy: she’s recently been diagnosed as bipolar, but she’s seen so many psychiatrists and had so many diagnoses that she could be ten types of crazy. Portero, it turns out, is crazier than Hanna. In any other setting, Hanna would be a wild-child in need of attention, but in Portero her behavior is actually advantageous for staying alive. When she attracts the attention of Wyatt, a guy from her school who is part of the Mortmaine (the group that keeps the town safe, mostly), instead of sitting back and looking at him in awe, she wants him to take her along on a hunt. Wyatt struggles with his role in the Mortmaine because he has new ideas on how to fight, but apparently the Mortmaine is very rigid about these things. Hanna and Wyatt’s relationship is a turbulent one: they don’t fully trust each other, yet they’re passionately attracted to each other at the same time. Throw in a clingy ex-girlfriend, and there’s more than enough drama to fill the pages of this book.
But the story isn’t really about Hanna and Wyatt. Hanna’s reason for going to Portero was to find Rosalee, the mother she never knew. Rosalee is distant and uncaring, and she’s sure that Hanna won’t last in Portero. When things between Hanna and Rosalee take a strange turn, Hanna makes it her mission to solve Rosalee’s problems. Once a secret is revealed, their relationship is both improved and more stressful.
Yes, there are some gory scenes (blood, severed body parts, torture) , but those didn’t bother me as they served to advance the plot. However, there were a few parts in the middle of the book that slowed the book up. While these events helped to create a moral dilemma (and subsequent psychological torture associated with the choice) for Wyatt, it seemed to weigh down the middle of the story. But overall the pacing of the story allowed for a quick reading of the book. While many will hate this book, I think it’s an outstandingly creative story, and I found it to be utterly enthralling. show less