I have read a lot of books in the YA-Fantasy genre and I have met, in my readings, countless protagonists. Some of them memorable and others, not so much. I can sincerely say that until this point, until Bleeding Violet, I hadn’t met anyone as unconventional and as interesting as Hanna. She transcends stereotypes and expectations of what heroines should be and is not afraid to be her own individual self. Many people will have trouble with her character because in Hanna’s world, morality is gray (or perhaps, more appropriately, purple) and she does what she wants to, damn the consequences. Dia Reeves takes us on a wild purple ride in Bleeding Violet. She takes all the set down, trusted and oft-traveled paths in fantasy storytelling and turns them upside down. The dialogue is biting and crisp and the plot has more twists and turns than Lombard Street. I was aware that I was reading from the viewpoint of someone who is not actually sane in the expected sense of the word but Reeves does not use insanity as a viable excuse for Hanna’s individuality. In fact, she makes no excuses for it and is entirely unashamed of it. Reeves shows us Hanna through her skewed logic and at the same time, inserts a raw vulnerability in her by revealing her longing for a mother. Her mother. And when this desire for a response to her need of maternal love and acceptance leads her down a road she would not (perhaps) otherwise travel, my heart twinges. Because who can’t remember doing stupid things just because you want to be accepted, because you want approval? I hope that this is the first of the series because, whether people agree with me or not, Hanna is a far more interesting, far more vibrant heroine that Bella can ever hope to be. So for the originality, both in characterization and plot, and the sheer insanity of it all, I give it five stars.
