- Cassandra Clare, #1 "New York Times "bestselling author of "Clockwork Angel"

Slice of Cherry

Simon Pulse, 2011 [512p] R* Gr. 9-12

Always close, sisters Kit and Fancy bond even more tightly after the Bonesaw Killer, their father, is convicted of multiple murders. They rarely even notice the fact that they are outsiders (even in the wacked-out town of Portero, where portals let in monsters and the townsfolk are never surprised by anything) as they fill their days with increasingly violent acts. Those acts seem to feed something in each of them, even though they also rid the town of bad guys (though occasionally their standards slip to include someone who could, perhaps, have done just fine with a stern talking to rather than . . . death). In come two brothers with enough secrets of their own to rival the girls', and suddenly romance mixes with gore, and love threatens to separate the sisters. The use of entries in Fancy's dream journal as chapter starts is a bit contrived, but it nevertheless works well to add insight into Fancy's brain, revealing her to be less obviously violent than Kit but much more disturbed overall. While the girls quietly use a parallel universe to perform horrific murders, their mother, a strong, proud woman who both loves her girls and occasionally fears them, keeps them in check and attempts, in her own eloquently mysterious ways (some supernatural, some strict maternal) to save her girls from whatever it is they need saving from. Reeves' women are stunning--brazening through life on a mixture of sexuality, vulnerability, instability, and brilliance that serves them well as they encounter monsters literal and figurative, internal and external. Fans of Reeves' first novel, Bleeding Violet (BCCB 3/10), will relish a second, though no more complete, glimpse at the deeply fascinating town of Portero and its bizarre, memorable residents. AS

--"Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books", January 2011