Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves
published January 2011 by Simon & Schuster
512 pages (hardcover), YA
YA Reading Challenge ; POC Challenge

Kit and Fancy are the daughters of the Bonesaw Killer, living in Portero, Texas, where reality and fantasy (or rather, horror) are confused easily. Fancy's the baby of the family, and at fifteen, she has yet to learn how to properly dress herself or experience emotions like a real-life human teen. Kit and Fancy have been the closest of sisters, sharing secrets and animal anatomy experiments, but Kit's got a boyfriend, and that means that Fancy is no longer privy to every detail of her life. Sure, their dad's in jail for hacking people up, and perhaps they have a knack for the family trade too, but the girls aren't immune to the hazards of growing up.

Other reviewers get into the gory details of this story, but that's not what it's about for me. I'm okay with the torturing, the killing, the twisted dark sides that Kit and Fancy possess, so plot-wise, I have no trouble reading about the disturbing ways of life for these Portero residents. Kit can communicate with the dead and Fancy can create a "happy place" to transport the evildoers of their town to. So what? What intrigues me are the characters themselves - their motivations, self-perceptions, and attempts at growth. This, Ms. Dia Reeves does well. Fancy hates people beyond her family and is so child-like that it's almost comical - until she gets a good look at herself and nearly unravels. Kit is such a flower, blossoming in her strange world, trying new things and spending more time away from the comfort of her home. This is a story about two sisters paving their own paths in life, while still attempting to hold on to each other.

I loved this book. More than I loved Bleeding Violet. But like I said about that one, it's not a book for everyone. People have compared it to Dexter, and I guess if you need to compare it to something, that works. Except that Portero is nothing like Miami.

Five purple crayons because I'm still a little dumbfounded by how much I love love loved this book. Will read again. Need to buy my own copy. 

Reviewed elsewhere:
La Femme Readers ; Dear Author ; Steph Su Reads ; Good Books and Good Wine