BOOK REVIEW: Pierced by J.C. Mells

BOOK REVIEW of Pierced by J.C. Mells

I was given this book free for an honest review, and I have to say this is an extremely interesting read. Interesting and bizarre. In a good way. It’s not like anything I’ve ever read.

Imagine the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Betty Crocker.

That's Pierce in a nutshell.

Pierce has been on the run for two years from the man who held her captive in a vampire compound for almost a decade. Life on the run would be a lot simpler if she didn't suffer from several social disorders and 'quirks', have a ten-year-old brat in tow, as well as have two characters from a 1945 classic film living in her head and guiding her at every turn.

One thing that struck me from the moment I started it was that this girl was different. It’s told from a first person perspective and so from the get go I was plunged into the inner workings of her complex mind. She sees things different to everyone else, she can remember everything in perfect detail and her recollections are like a word photograph, down to dust and how many tiles there were.

I love this much detail. I love being able to picture a scene or a person that vividly and author Mells writing allowed me a full on image from the head of her character.

Pierce is a girl on the run, young, scarred, suffering abilities that manifest to human understanding as a cocktail of mental illnesses, trying to leave the past in the past and survive it when it tries to snatch her up. This book is relentlessly gritty and too close to reality to be comfortable.

Despite the dark aspects of the storyline (most of it is pretty dark) there is humour and it is threaded through the shadows of the plot enough that the bad never feels overwhelming and, let’s face it, we’ve all had voices in our heads at some point. They just probably haven’t been as entertaining as the ones Pierce has.

The supernatural elements came across as more background noise to the character’s lives, rather than the major point. At times I would completely forget about it until something happened or the word ‘vampire’ would slip into a sentence.

I didn’t totally feel the romance in the book, Pierce is a bit too damaged and raw to entertain the notion of it, but she needs it. Needs something more than 10 year old Mia to get attached to.

This book wasn’t an easy read, it took me some time. I’d have to stop and absorb whatever I’d just read but it was worth it, even if I did get confused by the pie making recipe. I’m fairly sure I could make that dish from those pages alone :)

If you’re looking for something completely different, graphic, detailed, angst-ridden and tragic then this is for you!

I awarded this book 4 Throbbing Hearts. I couldn't really award this book a heat rating.

Disclaimer: I got this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Available from Amazon