Review: BLEED LIKE ME by C. Desir

If what you’re looking for is fast-paced, edgy, dangerous, and real, look no further than BLEED LIKE ME by C. Desir.

Simon Pulse, October 2014.

The author has referred to this book as a story about a teenage Bonnie and Clyde, and the reader can absolutely see the influence. It’s the story of a Amelia Gannon — Gannon to her friends — with parents so involved with her younger siblings that she almost disappears (unless her mom needs help). Gannon has found that cutting herself relieves the stress of her life. She hides the habit from her family and her friends — though she doesn’t have many. She hangs out at her hardware store job, at the shed where her boss lets her work on woodworking projects, and at the skate park. It’s among the skaters that she meets Michael Brooks, a foster kid who soon convinces her to run away with him.

Brooks seems like a true Romeo. But the problem with Romeo and Juliet has always been the ending. And while Brooks seems to care for Gannon, Gannon isn’t sure if he can give her the life she imagined — or one she can live at all.

Tragic, powerful, and unputdownable, BLEED LIKE ME is a sophomore novel that proves C. Desir‘s staying power in the YA contemporary canon. This is one to read for fans of Ellen Hopkins, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Cheryl Rainfield.