Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves Review

Title: Slice of Cherry
Author: Dia Reeves (Twitter)
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publish Date: January 4, 2011
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Horror
Pages: 505
Source: Personal Copy

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that’s just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.

It’s no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire—the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren’t killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities….

Kit and Fancy have a fascination with death. They have a penchant for killing, as did their father, and they gladly do so without fear, without remorse and without any hesitation. There is a rush when they do it, and it's a high unlike any other. But all such things come with a price, and when Fancy finds the door to another realm, she might just have opened the door to the perfect hiding place for all their crimes. After all - they are sisters above all else, but daughters of a serial killer first and foremost.

I'm a fan of horror, and I don't know why I put off reading Slice of Cherry for so long, but I was finally convinced the other day. Dark, disturbing and immensely satisfying, this novel is a masterminded tale of horror to the finest degree. Dia Reeves gives us a pair of equally quirky and terrifyingly realistic girls in whom we must invest ourselves to fully understand not only their psychoses but their crimes, as well. The darkness of Slice of Cherry is, indeed, all-encompassing and, at times, acrid, but there is something dangerously alluring that will invite you in, as well.

When I started reading Slice of Cherry, I have to be honest and say that I wasn't all that excited about it. While I love watching (ok, not so much watching as squealing in fear) horror movies, but I'm always wary about a horror novel. If it's too scary, there tends to be a lack of character development. If it has perfect characters, we often lose the terror aspects of the book. With this novel though, we get the best of both. Kit and Fancy were pretty much opposites, and Kit was absolutely foul. She was a brat and the depth of her disturbia was fully evident. Fancy was a bit of an oddball. Though in her teens, she dressed and often acted far younger than her age. It was almost as though she was trying to never grow up - only serving to add to the already creepy nature of the novel. What really intrigued me most was that yes, these two girls were sadistic and cold-blooded, but there were also developing layers of emotional depth that we uncover throughout Slice of Cherry, as well - ones which keep us reading long after we think we should have stopped. I will say, however, that I did end up having somewhat mixed feelings about the book though, simply because it really is truly terrifying and disturbing. The author never shies from the brutality, or the torturous aspects of the novel, which is really, utterly sadistic. It works in the schemes of things, but it also served to make my blood run cold at times. So, on one hand, the mission was accomplished. On the other hand, I felt filthy having read it.

Overall though, I can't really fault Slice of Cherry for truly embodying the genre. Despite my qualms with the gruesome nature of it - it does work, and I think a lot of readers will really get what the novel is giving us. I give this book a 3.5 out of 5, and I definitely recommend it to fans of upper YA, especially those who enjoy horror. Please bear in mind that this is a horror novel and readers will encounter incredibly disturbing content.