BLEED by Dax Varley is a teen/young adult paranormal suspense novel. Miranda comes to "Suicide High", called this because of all the suicides in the last few months. Miranda also has stigmata. She knows it is a rare thing but always wondered why her. She meets four other teens at the school that have other paranormal/supernatural traits/abilities. She soon finds out why she bleeds and what she needs to do with it and what it has to do with "Suicide High". Great plot, characters, twists, suspense, and great fantasy. This book does not promote suicide in case someone is worried about this. ( )

Miranda's wrists gush out blood. She doesn't know why or when it will happen. As if that isn't bad enough she has just enrolled at a new school which has been nicknamed "Suicide High" thanks to the increasing amount of suicides happening lately. It's here she bumps into a cute boy named Jake and learns that he has the power to predict the immediate future. Jake's friend, Sam, eats the sins of the dead. Two of their classmates also have special powers. Topher can heal by touch. Xyan can speak and understand all languages. When it becomes apparent that something or someone is behind the suicides, these five team up to destroy the evil that's running through their school.

This isn't the kind of book I usually read but it sounded interesting. Definite points for originality. Xyan got on my nerves. I hate when I don't know what the characters are saying because of different languages. I didn't care for the last few chapters but overall the book wasn't too bad. ( )

Sometimes you find a hidden gem and Bleed by Dax Varley was exactly that. Never heard of the author or the book before, but it was triple whammy when I saw the cover, the title and the synopsis. I was very intrigued and wanted to read it. What should clue you in on how much, is that I’ve had this book for just over a week and I’ve already read it. That’s actually very rare for me, it’s been a long time since I’ve read a book so quickly after purchasing it. I was in the mood for some horror and this book was my first choice. It was not a very scary book, but I did get a little of that creep factor, as well as a lot of ‘ew’ moments.

The story follows several different POV’s. We have five protagonists whose lives have lead them to converge on the same school, a school that’s been recently experiencing a bout of suicides and have taken on the moniker of Suicide High. After working their way into forming a group, they eventually figured out they’re dealing with a Demon that’s been terrorizing civilization for centuries and it’s always been their job to send it back to hell.

Miranda
After a little prologue peek into the story, we start out following Miranda on her first day at a new school after relocating from a very small town, where her father was disgraced. Miranda was nervous, not just because she’s the new girl, but also because of her affliction as a Stigmata. The meaning of a Stigmata was re-imagined for the plot of this story, so I won’t go into what that actually is, just that it means that Miranda bleeds from holes in her palms when she comes in contact with overwhelming, I’m gonna say, situations, it varies. Right away Miranda meets Jake and then later received a threatening letter that would make me march immediately to the administrative office to turn it in. Well, that didn’t happen, so the story continues.

Jake
Then we have Jake, the confused Psychic and Miranda’s love interest. He was the level headed task master of the group. At first I couldn’t understand Jake’s psychic abilities, he seemed confused too, when it was explained it did actually makes sense and is sort of a new way to see psychic abilities. He basically has Deja Vu Psychic abilities. Very surprised the others weren’t more frustrated with him for not just being a plain old psychic.

Sam
Sam’s the Sin Eater and all around flirt and funny one in the group. The first time I heard of a Sin Eater was from a TV show, so that wasn’t new to me, but it was to the group. It caused a lot of problems for Sam, it cramped his style majorly, especially his flirting.

Topher
Healer, nerd and the one with the saddest past of the group. Topher was reluctant to join the group, but with everyone needing constant healing and his need to help, he kept getting pulled back in.

Xyan
Last but not least, we have Xyan, snarky and full of attitude, and even more reluctant to be a part of the group. Xyan was the Linguist or the Speaker of Tongues, no specific title was given for her ability. She can speak any language, but probably wishes English would be there when she needs it most.

Overall
I really like this ensemble, there were a few other secondary characters that these characters were able to play off of really well. A parent or two made appearances, but since approximately 85% of the story took place in the school, those characters were teachers and students, obviously the demon would have to be one of those. I think the author did a good job throwing me off the scent of the culprit, when I thought of who that might be, it seemed too obvious, and decided to just be surprised. I was surprised and not surprised, meaning that the twist and turns got me all turned around and made me not so sure, but my original guess was correct. The romance wasn’t all-consuming, but I thought Miranda’s and Jakes romance was very sweet and tender.

The creepy and grossed parts were when the guys had their confrontations with the demon, he terrorized them and tried to take them down one by one, and even if it was creeptastic and gross, it brought the horror and action to the story. The negative thing about this story was the naiveté of the characters. I tried to understand that they were new to this and didn’t know better. A good example that did have me scratching my head was when the guys thought that they might have found the culprit, they had him arrested and thought, good, job done. I was yelling at them, don’t be foolish, it’s a freaking demon your dealing with, you need to banish it, that means killing it. Other than that I really liked these guys and the story as a whole. I felt that the characters and more about the demon aspect could have been delved into more, but it’s a Stand-Alone and with that, it was still a really fulfilling story, and I’m left with wanting more. ( )

I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

With a title like Bleed I should not have been surprised by the gruesome beginning of this story. I doubt I’ll ever read a prologue as shocking and disturbing as this one, and it really set my expectations for the rest of the book. I am happy to tell you I was not disappointed. Bleed wins the creepy and weird award and oh, I enjoyed every gory minute of it!

The quick of it is this: Miranda is a new student at Century High, aka Suicide High. She is stigmatic, she bleeds from her palms spontaneously and her condition has ruined her first day of school. . .and most of her life. If that’s not bad enough, she and her new group of friends must use their extraordinary abilities to find out a way to stop the supernatural force terrorizing Century High before it’s too late for all of them.

I’ve read a good amount of young adult horror and while Bleed had the makings for a predictable premise, I was really surprised by how Varley kept me on my toes. There were hints here and there that led me down the right path, but I really was taken by surprise in the end. And holy cow was the bad guy a weirdo!

It’s rare that I come across a young adult novel that has a good mixture of action, horror, and romance without a lot of drama to muddy the experience. While Bleed had its fair share of high school drama (where would YA be without it?), very little of it was the relationship drama that makes me want to slam my head against a wall repeatedly.

Jake kept an even pace, loping alongside her. “You know, you could blame me if you want.”

She cast him a questioning look. “And why would I want to do that?”

He cut his eyes to her and shrugged. “Because I’m Jewish. If my people hadn’t killed your Jesus-guy in such a ‘creative’ way, you wouldn’t be so holy.”

She held up a hand. “Is that a pun?”

Jake chuckled. “There you go. I knew under all that hemoglobin was a sense of humor.”

Each of the main characters wormed their way into my heart for one reason or another. Each of them have their own secrets, hardships and best of all – they had weaknesses like real human beings. I felt for them and I fell in love with them. They were all charming in their own ways, too!

I was fascinated by the abilities the main characters had, especially Miranda. I never knew that stigmata was a real condition, so when I googled it I was surprised by how many people have conditions like hers – though for most people who are stigmatic, the bleeding isn’t only in their hands. Yikes! Can you imagine having to live like that?

Bleed was such a fun experience for me. I am kicking myself for waiting so long to read it! I definitely want to read more from this author. I recommend this book to young adult fans who love a large helping of weird with their horror. ( )

I'm not usually a fan of YA horror, but I absolutely love this story! The whole concept was very interesting and not what I expected. Five friends, each with a different special ability, try to figure out why so many of their classmates are committing suicide. This story had me guessing from every turn and the ending just brought it all together. A must read! I recommend this book and author.

I received this free book in exchange for an honest review. ( )