When I first heard of news that bestselling author Tonya Hurley had written a contemporary teenage book about martyrs and saints, I was of course intrigued, given that such topics often are not considered the basis of teen-fiction novels and so I knew I'd be in for a surprise with Precious Blood. And I was right – a strange surprise.
With deliciously dark undertones running throughout the novel and a compelling concept, it follows the story of three teenage girls who find themselves in the emergency room of a hospital, each girl having suffered some sort of trauma prior to their arrival: one's an unloved celebrity, one an ambitious rockstar, and the other a distressed romantic suffering from suicidal thoughts. However their fates become linked when it becomes apparent that all of the three girls, during their stay at the hospital, are left an antique bracelet, associated with Christian prayer. Little do all three realise the true identity of the boy who seems to be leaving the bracelet – the mysterious and captivating Sebastian – which results in the girls, now linked by their matching gifts, being led to an abandoned church where they come face to face with Sebastian.
This is where the novel really picks up. Precious Blood employs a great deal of interpretation regarding Christian saints with Sebastian playing the role of the original Saint Sebastian who guided those "lost" before ultimately paying the price for his deeds. Sounds confusing? It sort of is. So be warned: if you're looking for a straight-to-the-point and neatly structured story, perhaps Precious Blood is not the book for you.
As I said before, this was a "strange" read for me, particularly due to the originality of the plot – that's not a bad thing at all, but maybe it's a bit like Marmite: you either will love it or have the completely opposite reaction. I might have to say that in order to fully appreciate the plot, I felt that the story needed to be more fast-paced: perhaps the 420 pages of the book could have been condensed to create a more punchy and more hardhitting read hence causing less of the ambiguity that frustratingly seemed to linger for the first half of the novel.
It is however an interesting (to say the least) story, in very simplified terms, about three modern-day saints, who begin a new volatile journey together, one that is mingled with religious "gothiness", violence and grim humour sure to tantalise the tastebuds of many fans obsessed with eerie cult fiction; being set in the modern day makes it much more accessible to those making the transition to the darker side of fiction too.
All in all, a read that might leave you craving the next installment but will definitely render you puzzled, thrilled and helpless – all at the same time, making it a fascinating mind-taunting read!
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
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