Slice of Cherry - by Dia Reeves (Paperback)

About the Book

Portero, Texas, teens Kit and Fancy Cordelle share their infamous father's fascination with killing, and despite their tendency to shun others they bring two boys with similar tendencies to a world of endless possibilities they have discovered behind a mysterious door.

Book Synopsis

Perfect for fans of Lisa Frankenstein and Bones and All, this "brutally beautiful" (Cassandra Clare) coming-of-rage horror novel about girl villains and monstrosity follows two sisters...and their growing body count--now with a brand-new look!

Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, confidantes, and accomplices. 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 their otherworldly East Texan town, where the weird and wild run rampant, they are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.

Despite their mother's efforts to curtail their worst impulses, Kit and Fancy eventually give into their deepest, most secret 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 any shred of evidence could get them caught.

So when Fancy stumbles upon a gateway into another world, she opens a door to the perfect body disposal...and to endless possibilities.

Review Quotes

"Brutally beautiful - not like anything else you'll read this year, or any other." - Cassandra Clare, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Clockwork Angel

"Brutally beautiful -- not like anything else you'll read this year, or any other."
- Cassandra Clare, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Clockwork Angel

"Reeves returns to her fictional East Texas town of Portero for a tale more gruesome, disturbing and shamelessly enjoyable than Bleeding Violet...Somehow, in this orgy of gore, a touching coming-of-age tale emerges, as the two emotionally stunted young women connect with community. The warm, fuzzy moral--that it's fine to be a serial killer as long as you're doing it to help others--will delight and entertain readers mature enough to appreciate that fictional morals needn't always coincide with real-life didacticism. This gleeful page-turner is a winner." - KIRKUS

"This is a memorable and utterly twisted coming-of-age story that reads like Dexter for (mature) teens, soaked in the paranormal--and blood."--Publishers Weekly

"Twisted and creepy, this book is not for the faint of heart. Reeves sets no boundaries for herself, as readers witness the strange mind of a serial killer, possibly changing all perceptions of love and murder. Horrifyingly beautiful, the small, monster-driven town of Portero is rendered in the most captivating way. " --Romantic Times

Reeves, Dia
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

About the Author

Dia Reeves (1977-2019) was the author of many sci-fi, fantasy, and horror novels for teens, including Bleeding Violet, Slice of Cherry, and Heartsick. She lived in Texas and worked as a librarian.