Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Slice Of Cherry by Dia Reeves

Published January 4, 2011 by Simon Pulse

Hardcover: 512 pages



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….         

Slice of Cherry was a pretty good book. Nothing spectacular, but it was good.

I think my main problem with the book was Fancy, which is really a bummer because she's the main character. For the most part, I regarded Fancy as a stupid, whiny girl who was trying too hard to never grow up. The girl is fifteen and wears little-kid-type dresses, wears bows in her hair, and black patent shoes. Really, if you tried hard enough, I suppose you could pull the look off, but Fancy's dresses are actually from when she was a little girl. Actual, kid-section sized clothing. For a kid. A kid. And, it also bothered me that she was so clingy to her older sister, Kit. Her clinginess is understandable because of their situation (which I'll explain in a sec) but at times it was a bit much. Fancy insisted on having Kit talk to other people for her, going everywhere with Kit, and, most of all, not letting Kit have a life with anyone but her. Yes, I know, poor Kit.

Speaking of Kit, I liked her. She was a strong, stubborn girl that knew what she wanted. Kit was a little phsyco with describing how killing made her happy, but every story needs a good phsyco, right? It was annoying when she let Fancy always get her way, but in the second half of the book (which I'll also talk about later) she had more of a backbone *thumbs up, Kit!* She also seemed more like a "real" person to me. Plus, she had a sense of humor.

So, like I promised, their situation: Kit and Fancy's dad, Guthrie, used to murder/torture people in their cellar without anyone knowing. Guthrie tortured the victims by cutting them in various pieces most of the time, which would eventually kill them, and then hide the body parts in hiding places throughout Portero. *shudders* Despite everything, Kit and Fancy always remembered him as a good man and your average loving father. Their mom, Madda, found Guthrie in the cellar holding a severed arm, and, naturally, she flipped out, the police came, and next thing you know, Guthrie's got a one-way ticket to death row. From then on, it had always been just Fancy and Kit hanging out doing their version of sisterly bonding, while Madda worked long hours to support them. So basically, sisters miss dad, mom works a lot, sisters stick together. Bam.

Iian and Gabe are the boys of the book, and happen to be brothers. Gabe and Kit fall in L-O-V-E (it's not surprising and happens super fast so it's not a spoiler) and you can practically see them saying, "ohmygodyouaresoamazingiwanttomarryyouiloveyou," every time they see eachother, or at least I could. Yeah, they're that in love. Fancy, being dumb, hates Gabe for no reason except for the fact that she saw him doing something strange one time and that he starts to spend time with Kit. Fancy: "KIT! WHAT THE HECK? I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME! YOU LIKE GABE MORE THAN ME! I'M NEVER GOING TO SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN! WWAAAHHHH!" and Kit: "Fancy, shut up." Iian liked Fancy, and I'm supposing he's either a) blind or b) really in love with Fancy, because, um, hello? It's Fancy! I won't say much more about that though.

The other problem (I promise this is the last) I had with the book is the magic. Yes, fantasy books are generally my favorite, but the magic in this book didn't click for me. I was expecting more murder, less magic, but that just didn't happen. Every time something even remotely magical happened, I was like, "Wait, what?" I don't know, it just didn't seem....right. Clarifications please?

And finally, I thought the first half of the book was slow and kind of lame. In fact, if it wasn't for the first half, this book would have gotten four shiny gold stars, not three. The second half was when stuff really started happening. Romance, mystery, semi-sensible magic, more murder, "THANK GOD!" moments with Fancy, and a satisfying ending.

This was a....good book. Read if your thing.

3 out of 5 stars