The Violet Hour

Whoa...that escalated quickly.  

The Violet Hour by Whitney Miller is a fast-paced YA horror novel.  Harlow Wintergreen is the daughter of the leader of a religious organization called VisionCrest.  She has been hiding something deep down, though- a voice telling her to do horrible things, and giving her gruesome, violent visions.  As she and others in VisionCrest tour Asia on a PR tour, the voice is gaining more and more control.  People are dying.  What is in her, and what can she do to save her friends...and herself?

This novel caught me right off the bat!  They had me at Harajuku...and didn't let go after bleeding and eye gouging.  I have to admit, I giggled a little bit at the first mentions of the voice- "Obliterate.  Exsanguinate." I just kept picturing a Dalek running around inside her skull.  That quickly dissipated, though, as things escalated.

There are a lot of music subculture things in this novel- to the point where I meant to look up the history of Japanese Punk (and in writing this, am reminded of that again).  Music plays a huge part in character connections.  If you have ever read the manga Nana, you'll picture it a bit in the first part of the book.

For the dystopian aspect- Japan is now the Socialist Republic of Japan, China is the most democratic country in the world, and people can be drugged up on a SOMA-like pill to function compliantly.  

At times a futuristic, dystopian story, at others a novelization of some Junji Ito creeptastic manga mixed with del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth.  I pretty much loved it.  Kind of rethinking my desire to go to Asia right now, but...(just kidding, it's still totally at the top of my bucket list). 

I've always been intrigued by cults- not to join one, just their beginnings, followers, etc.  I did a grad school project with a YA bibliography about cults.  This cult is different, because it's not based on typical allegory or misinterpretation of texts...there's an ancient supernatural aspect. 

If you like Indie music, dystopian darkness, gruesome horror...this is for you.  Sure, there's an awesome sidekick, and a bit of a love story- but there's so much more.  




The Violet Hour is published by Flux.  Digital ARC provided by NetGalley.
Released: 03.08.2014