Blood Red Road

Welp, that was pretty awesome. Dystopian future? Check. Badass survivor chick? Check. Superhot dudely love interest? Check. Cage fighting? Check. Girls cage fighting? CHECK. Fighting an Evil Overlord? Check. Giant man-eating worms? DOUBLE CHECK.

Beyond the superficial stuff and the similarities to Mad Max and his Thunderdome, I most enjoyed Saba's character growth. She starts off as quite selfish and a little too focused on her brother (was I the only one who found it a little weird?) but as her exposure to the world grew, so did she. She wasn't totally reformed by the end of the book and there's lots of potential for her in the next, so it felt organic and not forced. Beyond Saba, most of the supporting characters were well-fleshed, show more except for the totally bizarro Evil Overlord. I wish there had been some more exploration of his character. Why the Louis XIV getup? The gold face paint? Constantly referring to himself as the King?

I wasn't quite convinced that just because Saba was accustomed to physical labor that she would be a competent hand-to-hand fighter, but she was basically a berserker, so that's okay, I guess. I'd have liked it better if Saba hadn't got pantsfeelings for basically the first young, attractive dude she laid eyes on, but that's me quibbling. I probably would have been crushing on Jack too. I was not in love with the paranormal-ish aspects (rain spells? prophetic dreaming? the heartstone? Uh, yeahno) but otherwise found it pretty entertaining. A lot of the violence was weirdly sanitized, so it's probably okay for the slightly-younger-than-young-adult crowd.

Regarding the dialect, I generally hate, hate reading in it, but I didn't loathe it here. It was consistent and fitting, seeing as how very few people in this iteration of the future had ever even seen a book, never mind having had access to regular education. Of course, YMMV, but I found that it made the story feel more authentic.

If this does end up being made into a movie, I'll definitely be going to see it. show less

Wow.

Great premise. With probably the worst execution possible.

The writing style reminds me of the Chaos Walking trilogy, but it's almost an insult to Patrick Ness, because while the two styles share similarities in misspelled words, lots of dialect, etc., Moira Young's writing is just . . . really poor. She uses her style as a crutch to mask her very simple and awful prose. An example:

As written in the book:
"I ain't doin nuthin fer you, I says.
You ain't gotta choice, she says.
You cain't make me do nuthin, I says.
Oh you'll do ezzackly what I tell you, she says."

Now, without the "spice" of her misspelled words, it's just:
"I ain't doing nothing for you, I say.
You ain't got a choice, she says.
You can't make me do nothing, I say.
Oh you'll do show more exactly what I tell you, she says."

I don't really know if it makes a difference, but according to the high praise and 5-star reviews, it must. It's 459 pages of writing that reads like a first draft: barely readable writing, way too much that needs to be cut, underdeveloped characters, and random, aimless events plugged in for drama but that don't further plot/characters/etc.

So many things happen at breakneck speed, but it's all one pace. It's all without depth. No action has a consequence. People get hurt--they're miraculously healed so they can do something the story requires them to do. And then they remember they're injured when the love interest comes back into play. All plot points end with a feeling of "well, that was easy".

This book also wins an award for the most cheesy and sickening romantic device ever to be used in YA history: the heartstone. A rosy pink stone that heats up around the wearer's true desire.

:|

Not to mention, Saba (the MC)'s love interest is this cliche, cocky fellow who teases Saba relentlessly--but no, this book is so original, a breath of fresh air!! (and if Moira Young writes "My lips is tinglin" after a kiss one more time . . .)

But I need to give this book SOME credit. I mean, who doesn't love a teaspoon of ableism with their crappy YA post-apocalyptic romance? Enter the villain: the King. The King who is present in maybe 1/16 of the novel, who is always talked about as being "crazy" and also "the devil" but is never actually . . . there, until the end. Where you find out he actually probably does have some sort of mental problem, referring to himself in the third person and spitting over everyone when he talks. Don't you just love negative representation!

After finishing the book, I have a couple thoughts:

1. The entire 7/8 of the book was about finding Lugh. Saba wouldn't sleep, wouldn't eat, wouldn't bathe until she found Lugh. Well, she found him, and after a brief hug, she basically went, "Ok, now that that's taken care of, what's next??" I don't . . . understand.
2. I also don't understand Emmi. Was she just in the book to be beaten up in order to hurt Saba? It's ridiculous.

This review turned out a lot more sarcastic and cruel than I intended. But, as you can tell . . . this really wasn't for me. show less

Apocalypse plus positive Trudi review (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/204585288) equals irresistible read. She was right, it was high on the addiction scale; once I sat down to devote attention to it, I read until I ran out of pages.

The short form: a pair of fraternal twins, their younger sister and their worn-out pa father are scraping by in the the dustbowl of the 20s some apocalypse time in the future. They are miles from neighbors, except one who drinks a little too much moonshine char or whatever it is. Ma is dead, of course, from birthin' little Emmi. Lugh is the light of Saba's life, while poor little Emmi exists to be a target for her resentment for stealin' ma away. One day a giant red dust storm blows in, followed by show more four evil horseman and the neighbor. They steal Lugh away, and stubborn Saba goes after him.

Despite dialect prose of someone who has never had book learnin', I was soon captured by the stark setting and the fast moving plot. The focus is strictly on Saba and her experiences, and Saba is not one to ask many questions about her life or the way things are, so readers who want a thoughtful analysis of this destitute world will be disappointed. She more-or-less accepts the givens and works around them to achieve her objective. With the exception of her twin brother, she has very little emotional connection to anything. This makes for a strange dissociation, and a narrator who has more than a little to learn about empathy, emotion and caring. She also has a lot to learn about the negative side of people skills as well--understanding deception and manipulation--Young cleverly explores both aspects of Saba's deficit. Her indifference to Emmi's feelings show in every interaction. As the story develops, one of the joys is seeing Saba discover her care for her sister and willingness to accept her as a person.

Saba sets off across the wasteland, discovers past towns under shifting dunes of sand, and confronts a land-ship. In the edge-of-civilization Shantytown, she is forced to fight for her life, and I admire the way Young was able to walk a fine balance between survival and the horror of having to defeat other captured girls in the process. She meets a male scoundrel in the prison-yard, and is strangely drawn to him. Further adventures include escape from Shantytown (and in the tradition of the best heroes, burning the pool of scum to the ground as she escapes), temporary refuge in the Amazon camp, and setting across another waste inhabited by sand-worms to get to the drug fields were Lugh is being kept. Young has a marvelous vision of the post-apocalyptic landscape; as in all quest books, a significant part of the fun is the journey. Of course, there are more than a few hints dropped in this book to pave the way for the next--a common symptom in sequelitis. Why can't authors trust the strength of their world and their characters?

There is a background romance here, but the socially-impaired Saba is slow to recognize her feelings as well as the concerns of others. For me, that's all to the benefit in a young-adult novel; there only so much longing and angst I can take. Don't shoot me, kids, but I have to confess that the romance reminded me of [b:The Ladies of Missalonghi|550343|The Ladies of Missalonghi|Colleen McCullough|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1222189223s/550343.jpg|1486730] by Miss Colleen of the Thornbirds fame (see, that's how old I am). It honestly reminded me of a sweet, old-fashioned fake-hate romance, based on the Shakespeare kind with that couple I never saw--the one that has to do with the shrewish woman and the devoted guy who tames her. Maybe that's one reason this book transcends generations so well--it took a traditional theme, a quest story, and girrl-powered it up with female initiative, fighting and determination. Still, I feel like the romance piece kind of detracted from it. Oh, if only she could just admit she lurved him!

Still, I like it, and I love the band of merry Amazons even more, even if they don't know how to set a perimeter.

Three-n-halve stars. Brave heroine, emotional reconciliation with sisters and kickin' booty. Surely a movie waiting to be made.

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/blood-red-road-by-moira-young/ show less

It took me almost half the book to get into Blood Red Road. I didn't care about the characters, the plot dragged, and the dialect never stopped being annoying. But once the focus shifted from a self-absorbed sister and sibling squabbles to overthrowing a corrupt system, I was hooked, and flew through the rest of the book. Great action sequences. Plus everyone in this story seems to have a secret, and I really can't wait to uncover them in the sequel. And what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good revolution.

Allergy Alert: May contain spoilers.

Blood Red Road is the first book in the Dust Lands series and the debut novel by Young. This was a great first book and I can’t wait to see how she continues the series.

Set in a dystopian world where The Wreckers of a time before have destroyed their world; Saba and her family live in a poor, isolated way in an area going through a drought. Food and water is hard to come by and things are getting very tough and tensions are high. Just as her twin brother Lugh and her father have a huge argument a violent dust and lightning storm rushes in. On the heels of this storm comes a group of riders and they snatch Lugh and kill Saba’s father.
With only a few clues about the identities of the riders, Saba show more and her 9 year old sister Emmi must figure out who has taken Lugh and why. They will travel far further than they ever imagined and meet people that they could only have dreamt about. They take on a journey that is well above their maturity and skill level and they rise to the task magnificently!

I was very impressed with the flow of this book and the concept. I found that I had no trouble believing the realities of their world and the horrible things that happen in it. I was especially impressed that although this is a teen novel there was very little teen angst until at least 200 pages in and even then it was minor and not too whiny. show less

Review originally posted to www.books4hearts.com

If nothing else, Blood Red Road is incredibly unique and unlike anything that I can think of reading before. Fortunately, there's more to it. But, gosh, it's DIFFERENT. The inside of the jacket flap calls Moira Young's writing style 'poetic... minimal'. I whole-hearted-ly agree. It's poetic. It's unglorious in that it's simple, and very glorious in the way it flows. Which is like water. In a really smooth pipe? Wow. That was lame. Anyway, the point is, the pace is crazy fast and at times I wanted it to slow a bit so that I could soak it in and try to register what just happened-- but at the same time I was hungry for more and I didn't want it to slow down I just wanted to read it until it show more was over. At first, the writing style is startling. It's hard to get used to. There's no quotation words for talking, all of the speech and descriptions are crazy informal, it's improper, Sabba talks weird... but then all of a sudden that all falls away and you can see the story play out vividly and the writing begins to feel down home and informal but in the way that it's as if Sabba is sitting with you, recounting the story-- laying emphasize on parts that she felt important and glossing over some of the details, recounting like, 'and then he says', you know. That kind of feeling.

Beyond the voice of the book, it was brilliant as well. It's post-apocalyptic. While most post-apocalyptic line up well with dystopias because the fact that it's post-apocalypse creates a world that IS a dystopia, I'd struggle to call Blood Red Road a dystopia, and if I did call it a dystopia, I'd envision all of the normal dystopias that seem like they're dystopias sitting in a room looking normal and Blood Red Road wearing striped pajamas and singing or doing something else to stand out. Anyway, the world that Moira Young creates is very interesting. It's clearly sometime in the future, the characters often point out things that are 'post-wrecker' and from what they describe we're left to assume they're talking about the current world, now. Yet, the world seems old. The horses, the lack of electronics, the deserts, and the wildnerness; they all yield the impression that you're reading something about the ancient times.

The characters were complex. I didn't like Sabba at first and for her, Blood Red Road is rather a coming of age novel, she grows so much. The other characters were very interesting as well, although we don't see much of most of them and sometimes I wished I could get to know them all more.

So, overall, Moira Young is a creative genius. If you want a post-apocalyptic novel that wears striped pajamas and sings when it hangs out with the dystopian crowd; with complex characters, a brilliantly weaved world, and writing like nothing you've read, pick up Blood Red Road.
Thank you S&S for giving me the opportunity to review this book. Readers: As always, I promise receiving books for review in no way alters my opinion, and my reviews are honest (sometimes brutally). :) show less

Narrator Review:
Starting out, I wasn't sure I liked Heather Lind's different voices. However the more I listened, the more I got involved in the story, I started to realize that they were spot on! She has just enough difference in each character's voice to make them easy to distinguish. Best of all, she makes Saba sound like I thought she would. Tough. I loved it.

The pacing is perfect. Her speech is rich and well pronounced. It's honestly hard not to feel like the audio book of this is far superior to the print copy. I didn't just read this book, I got to live it.

Audio Book Rating: 5/5 - A must listen!

**********

Book Review:
Blood Red Road was a book that greatly surprised me. I wasn't expecting to fall in love but, without warning, I show more was sucked in to Saba's world. All that hype that you saw when this book first came out? Completely and utterly spot on. I absolutely adored this story.

Saba is a tough character to love. She's stubborn, fierce as all get out, and witty too. In other words, a recipe for my perfect female character. However her stubborn attitude more often than not causes her to make very rash decisions. I'll fully admit that there were multiple times I wanted to reach in and just slap her for a moment. I understood why Moira Young created her this way though. Saba is used to having to take care of herself. She's used to being a lone wolf.

That is, of course, until she meets Jack. Ah, Jack. Witty, lovable, and sometimes completely lost Jack. He was definitely my favorite character. The perfect opposite to everything that Saba was. Their relationship was rocky, it was real, it was amazing! All work and no play makes Saba a dull girl. Good thing Jack was around! Seriously though, every single character that travels alongside these two shines off the page. They are so well-crafted, that it is hard not to find yourself rooting for them as you read.

What else can I say to make you pick up this book? Refreshingly, Blood Red Road is unlike a lot of other dystopian novels out there. Instead of focusing solely on a society, with a bit of characterization thrown in, Young's book is all about the characters. You'll find yourself beside them as they fight to survive, tackle problems thrown in their path, and wrestle with the age old question of who they really are. It seems odd that this would work so well, but it honestly does. I was able to get so lost in Saba's world, that I honestly didn't want to come back out.

At the end of the day, if you are a reader of dystopian fiction this is a book that you're going to need to pick up. The twists and turns in the plot will delight you. The fierce, dogged pace of the story will make you feel like you're on the brink of exhaustion. Then you'll meet the characters and realize that there is no turning back. Moira Young did a fabulous job with this book. I'm just going to come right out and say I want more. Soon. show less