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le_vicieux's review against another edition
4.0
What an adventure!! This book was so fun, exactly what I needed to pull me out of my reading slump!!
this was set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world, it felt like a mixture between Mad Max and Gladiator, ugh it was so fun.
I fell in love with saba, she was one of my favorite YA female protagonists. She is so brave and fearless in a realistic way, focused on her goal and ready to protect those she cares about.
One of the things I extremely appreciated in this book was the fact that there is this really badass group of female fighters <333 their friendships are just *chef’s kiss*.
I personally didn’t have an issue with the writing or the absence of quotation marks, i got used to it pretty quickly.
I think the book wrapped up really nicely in the end so I’m not sure if there’s any need for me to read the other books in the series, espadrille after reading some of the reviews saying that it goes downhill
this was set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world, it felt like a mixture between Mad Max and Gladiator, ugh it was so fun.
I fell in love with saba, she was one of my favorite YA female protagonists. She is so brave and fearless in a realistic way, focused on her goal and ready to protect those she cares about.
One of the things I extremely appreciated in this book was the fact that there is this really badass group of female fighters <333 their friendships are just *chef’s kiss*.
I personally didn’t have an issue with the writing or the absence of quotation marks, i got used to it pretty quickly.
I think the book wrapped up really nicely in the end so I’m not sure if there’s any need for me to read the other books in the series, espadrille after reading some of the reviews saying that it goes downhill
sharonsm_28's review against another edition
3.0
Actual Rating: 2.5
This was an okay read. I thought the story was interesting. However, the writing style did bug me a lot. I thought Saba was a good character. She was a bit annoying in the beginning, but as the book went on she became more of her own character. Also, I really enjoyed Jack's character although I wanted to know how he fits into the story. I thought there were some action-packed moments and there were more parts where I was confused. Overall, an okay first book.
This was an okay read. I thought the story was interesting. However, the writing style did bug me a lot. I thought Saba was a good character. She was a bit annoying in the beginning, but as the book went on she became more of her own character. Also, I really enjoyed Jack's character although I wanted to know how he fits into the story. I thought there were some action-packed moments and there were more parts where I was confused. Overall, an okay first book.
magik_the_cat's review against another edition
5.0
First of all this really isn't that much like Hunger Games other than it being YA and dystopic (its post apocalyptic which falls under dystopic) and there is an older sister protecting a younger one. So the back of the book equating it to that is a bit of a lie. It's more Mad Max meets Cormac McCarthy and it's fantastic.
writings_of_a_reader's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. When I first tried to read Blood Red Road the grammar police in me would not let me enjoy it. It's written in a dialect that uses all sorts of improper speech and there are no quotation marks. So I decided to put it down and had even opened Goodreads to state that I just couldn't read it and leave it at that. However, before I had a chance to do that I looked at reviews friends had written and most of them had the same first impression I did, but were glad they kept reading instead of giving up after the first few pages. They all gave this book 4 and 5 stars, so I changed my mind and decided it was worth giving this book another try. I'm going to echo what they have all said. I'm glad I kept reading it! After I got into the story the dialect really fit the story and made it feel even more real for me. The main character, and all the rest are not very educated. They never had the opportunity to be, and so it makes sense for the main character to tell the story to us that way.
Some might categorize this as a dystopia. But I think it leans more towards post-apocalyptic fiction. One of my Goodreads friends said it reminded her of the Fallout games, and I can see similarities to that world as well. I wouldn't say there is anything really ground breaking or new about this novel, except maybe the way it's written, but it is a very compelling read. I really liked the ending and was kind of hoping it was just a stand-alone, simply because it does wrap up nicely and I would love to move on. I will be putting the sequels on my to-read list, but I'm not sure when I will get around to reading them.
Some might categorize this as a dystopia. But I think it leans more towards post-apocalyptic fiction. One of my Goodreads friends said it reminded her of the Fallout games, and I can see similarities to that world as well. I wouldn't say there is anything really ground breaking or new about this novel, except maybe the way it's written, but it is a very compelling read. I really liked the ending and was kind of hoping it was just a stand-alone, simply because it does wrap up nicely and I would love to move on. I will be putting the sequels on my to-read list, but I'm not sure when I will get around to reading them.
wheresweaver's review against another edition
5.0
Great book. I'm so glad it had a happy ending but just enough room for the next book to lead off. Can't wait.
lynseyisreading's review against another edition
3.0
This book probably had about as much right with it as there was wrong with it. Hence my middle of the road rating.
It was a pretty good post apocalyptic adventure story. Even if you have to ignore some rather large plot holes along the way. Like your main character developing amazing ass-kicking skills even though she's had one of the most sheltered upbringings imaginable, living on a scrap of dusty wasteland with only her brother, sister and father for eighteen years. Where exactly did she find wrestling classes there, hmm?
The pacing was not bad, either. Apart from the very beginning section when the cast was limited to only two or three characters, the rest of the book moved at a fairly good clip with some nice heart-pounding scenes mixed in with some quieter, more reflective ones.
The characterization of the main character was also quite good, even if she was very unlikeable. I believe that was intentional, however. Her selfish, stubborn nature improved a little bit along the way, but I was still only luke warm about her by the end. I intensely disliked her treatment of her younger sister and her creepy hero-worship of her twin. Having said that, I'm all for flawed characters and can happily read about a horrible person as long as they are interesting and make some progress. And she is, and she does, so that aspect was not bad.
There's a sort of love interest character introduced who is also quite unlikeable at the start. He actually makes more progress than the main character in my opinion.
I believe this book has been optioned to be made into a movie already and I think it will probably make quite a good one as a lot of the scenes will make great visual feasts. However, what you are supposed to get in the book version that you don't get in the movie version is more in-depth world-building and background info. But we didn't really get any of that. It literally read like a movie put on pages.
Because I liked the action scenes I may pick up the next one but it's not one I will be elbowing people out of the way to get my hands on.
3 Stars ★★★
It was a pretty good post apocalyptic adventure story. Even if you have to ignore some rather large plot holes along the way. Like your main character developing amazing ass-kicking skills even though she's had one of the most sheltered upbringings imaginable, living on a scrap of dusty wasteland with only her brother, sister and father for eighteen years. Where exactly did she find wrestling classes there, hmm?
The pacing was not bad, either. Apart from the very beginning section when the cast was limited to only two or three characters, the rest of the book moved at a fairly good clip with some nice heart-pounding scenes mixed in with some quieter, more reflective ones.
The characterization of the main character was also quite good, even if she was very unlikeable. I believe that was intentional, however. Her selfish, stubborn nature improved a little bit along the way, but I was still only luke warm about her by the end. I intensely disliked her treatment of her younger sister and her creepy hero-worship of her twin. Having said that, I'm all for flawed characters and can happily read about a horrible person as long as they are interesting and make some progress. And she is, and she does, so that aspect was not bad.
There's a sort of love interest character introduced who is also quite unlikeable at the start. He actually makes more progress than the main character in my opinion.
I believe this book has been optioned to be made into a movie already and I think it will probably make quite a good one as a lot of the scenes will make great visual feasts. However, what you are supposed to get in the book version that you don't get in the movie version is more in-depth world-building and background info. But we didn't really get any of that. It literally read like a movie put on pages.
Because I liked the action scenes I may pick up the next one but it's not one I will be elbowing people out of the way to get my hands on.
3 Stars ★★★
emleemay's review against another edition
4.0
This is the novel that I wanted Graceling to be. An alternate world/reality full of adventure with a hardcore warrior heroine, and here's the key bit, who doesn't feel the need to unsex herself (à la Lady Macbeth) and prove that she's not feminine. In fact, all the female characters are wonderfully strong and unforgiving, no damsels finally, and there's just a general sense of equality - pretty much everyone is a warrior without a masculinity v. femininity contest. Where Graceling seemed in some ways downright offensive to a 'certain type' of women, Blood Red Road has a heroine who is unapologetic of her gender and doesn't attempt to constantly prove herself by becoming stereotypically masculine.
Saba is a great heroine. She makes no pretense of being some kind of saviour or martyr, she simply has two missions: find her brother, and stay alive. She uses violence throughout, but only to accomplish her missions rather than some kind of demonstration of her worth. I also liked the love interest of the novel, even with all the unnecessary dithering about they both did with regards to one another, it seems romance is never straight forward.
The dystopian element of the novel had just the right amount of action and horror, without that "I'm just cruisin along through this awful, oppressive society" like in Matched, where it's damn near impossible to care about the characters because even they don't seem too bothered about the whole situation. It was a refreshingly quick take-off too. I prepared myself for a slow start when I encountered dust clouds in the first few pages (uh, do I care?) but the novel got to the action almost instantly with a murder and kidnapping - that's right, no Diana Gabaldon style digression from the main story, I've missed this kind of novel that get's into the thick of the plot right away.
Oh, and another thing... journies. I love journies in novels, when they're kept at a good fast pace you feel like there's constantly something happening. Though the books are actually very different from Blood Red Road, one of the main reasons I loved The Knife of Never Letting Go and Beyond the Deepwoods is because they had awesome fast-paced journies throughout. So, yeah, kudos for that.
I know some people who've read ARCs of this didn't like the language style, but I did. I've always liked different accents, dialect and colloquialism. It was different, but a good kind of different. Though, on that subject, I'd just like to finish with my own opinion of a bad kind of different:
[bc:Blood Red Road|9969742|Blood Red Road (Dustlands, #1)|Moira Young|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1305546612s/9969742.jpg|14692536]
What on earth is this bloody awful UK cover?
The US version is a million and one times better:
[bc:Blood Red Road|9917938|Blood Red Road (Dust Lands, #1)|Moira Young|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293651959s/9917938.jpg|14692536]
kasiej's review against another edition
4.0
There's so much to the book yet it went so fast that it felt like I was watching a movie. Very well done but a few things irked me quite a bit.
Warning: Spoilers!
I found the Dystopian society easy to run with in some areas and difficult in others. I liked the terminology for the previous society, "Wreckers". Now on the other hand, as exciting as the Tremor worms were, it felt a little too Sci-Fi compared to the rest of the book.
The main character is ...different. She's stubborn, rude, selfish, strong, determined, and brave. It's like she's awesome and irritating at the same time, lol. What I couldn't understand was how everyone happily put up with her shitty attitude all the time. It was supposed to come off as stubborn in an endearing way I guess. I adored Saba's pet crow. Nero was very creative and an entertaining spin on having a familiar that's not man's best friend.
So she's on a mission to rescue her brother and their twins, cool. Typical family love, search & rescue right? Not quite. Saba definitely has a brother complex/worship thing going on. It bordered on creepy a couple times.
The romance is as uncommon as Saba. You never actually trust Jack until she does and it came together so well. Not real sure how I feel about Jack though. He's shifty and smiles too much.
Extremely surprising plot twists all over the place. The synopsis was very general and so I wasn't expecting a lot of the sequences. It's brilliant how Saba escapes the gauntlet. The final chapters were action packed and super thrilling. Especially the final hunt Saba went on to put down the king. In the end people died and everyone went their separate ways. Splendid. You almost don't need another book but I already picked up Rebel Heart (~.^)
Warning: Spoilers!
Spoiler
Ok first off, the language/writing style took me quite while to get used to. Most words are written phonetically and the conversations were very simplistic. It fits the book extremely well since reading is unnecessary and schools are nonexistent. Eventually I found myself skipping over some words here and there. IE: I don't need to read "he says", "she says", "I says", every other line.I found the Dystopian society easy to run with in some areas and difficult in others. I liked the terminology for the previous society, "Wreckers". Now on the other hand, as exciting as the Tremor worms were, it felt a little too Sci-Fi compared to the rest of the book.
The main character is ...different. She's stubborn, rude, selfish, strong, determined, and brave. It's like she's awesome and irritating at the same time, lol. What I couldn't understand was how everyone happily put up with her shitty attitude all the time. It was supposed to come off as stubborn in an endearing way I guess. I adored Saba's pet crow. Nero was very creative and an entertaining spin on having a familiar that's not man's best friend.
So she's on a mission to rescue her brother and their twins, cool. Typical family love, search & rescue right? Not quite. Saba definitely has a brother complex/worship thing going on. It bordered on creepy a couple times.
The romance is as uncommon as Saba. You never actually trust Jack until she does and it came together so well. Not real sure how I feel about Jack though. He's shifty and smiles too much.
“Move fast, travel light, an never tell 'em your real name.” - Jack
Extremely surprising plot twists all over the place. The synopsis was very general and so I wasn't expecting a lot of the sequences. It's brilliant how Saba escapes the gauntlet. The final chapters were action packed and super thrilling. Especially the final hunt Saba went on to put down the king. In the end people died and everyone went their separate ways. Splendid. You almost don't need another book but I already picked up Rebel Heart (~.^)
narteest's review against another edition
4.0
I don't know how to class this. It's advertised as a post-apocalyptic novel but it might as well be a fantasy since there are no indications that this world is connected to the present world. Well, there are few hints, but not major.
Blood Red Road by Moira Young centers around Saba and her journey to rescue the brother stolen from her.
I really did enjoy this novel. It has adventure, romance, a stubborn protagonist and a cast of various interesting characters.
The way its written is the way in which each character speaks. Rather than standard English Young has adapted it so that you get the sense of Saba's voice. So there's, at first, a lot of seeming spelling mistakes, but in reality it's just Saba's speech patterns. Like, she says 'git' rather 'get' and so on. It's a little annoying at first, but you get used to it after a while.
The plot. It's all about Saba looking for her brother Lugh. Pretty standard, first the looking, then the finding which leads to the action. I have no bones to pick at, so it's pretty good overall. Though I think my favourite part is the beginning when Saba is heading to Hopetown up until the point where she leaves.
The characters. Saba is the focal so she has the most voice and character of them all. Saba is kick ass. Saba is also an asshole. She's harsh with her sister, though she grows softer towards the end. She generally only cares about Lugh. What I liked about her, most of the time, is that she has this fixed attitude which is like the centre of her character. It really made me like her. I mean she's focused, knows what she's aiming for. There are some characters who some times forgets this. At the same time though, I did hate Saba. Not because she was harsh with her sister, I think that's only natural, I mean she is a twin who has the closest ties with her brother. Growing a bond with Emmi would take a lot of time spent in each other's company and the growing appreciation for each other. No, why I hated Saba as well as loved her is that she says unnecessary cliched things, especially about going on the journey by herself. Then there was the change in Saba. She gets quite weepy towards the end, even though she's still pretty kickass.
Jack was hot-like Young really knew how to create the tension and attraction between Saba and him. I really like the first scene when they meet. Though they get a little cheesy towards the end, I still like their parting scene. Can't wait for them to get back together!
The others, if I look at the other characters, I'd say Emmi was my favourite. She's this bratty child who refuses to be left behind. Determined and brave yet as reckless as Saba sometimes. I guess I like her partly because Saba is so mean to her. But the fact that she stands on her own two feet and refuses to part with Saba, whatever her reason, is touching.
Then there's DeMalo - the chief tonton to the King, I'm only mentioning him because I've been reading something interesting about the next book. All I can say is this. I don't like him. And I know for sure I'm going to hate Saba for what she does. I just hope Young does everything well and good, and I can like her again at the end of Rebel Heart
This is probably one of the best novels I've read lately. I'm glad, it was exciting and fun, with interesting characters. Though the writing is not your usual descriptive chunks of words and are short sentences and paras, I don't think you ever feel lacking. If your imagination is like mine, then you don't need so many words! It just goes to show that Young can create the same feelings as another author who uses more words. Overall I really enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to the next one!
Blood Red Road by Moira Young centers around Saba and her journey to rescue the brother stolen from her.
I really did enjoy this novel. It has adventure, romance, a stubborn protagonist and a cast of various interesting characters.
The way its written is the way in which each character speaks. Rather than standard English Young has adapted it so that you get the sense of Saba's voice. So there's, at first, a lot of seeming spelling mistakes, but in reality it's just Saba's speech patterns. Like, she says 'git' rather 'get' and so on. It's a little annoying at first, but you get used to it after a while.
The plot. It's all about Saba looking for her brother Lugh. Pretty standard, first the looking, then the finding which leads to the action. I have no bones to pick at, so it's pretty good overall. Though I think my favourite part is the beginning when Saba is heading to Hopetown up until the point where she leaves.
The characters. Saba is the focal so she has the most voice and character of them all. Saba is kick ass. Saba is also an asshole. She's harsh with her sister, though she grows softer towards the end. She generally only cares about Lugh. What I liked about her, most of the time, is that she has this fixed attitude which is like the centre of her character. It really made me like her. I mean she's focused, knows what she's aiming for. There are some characters who some times forgets this. At the same time though, I did hate Saba. Not because she was harsh with her sister, I think that's only natural, I mean she is a twin who has the closest ties with her brother. Growing a bond with Emmi would take a lot of time spent in each other's company and the growing appreciation for each other. No, why I hated Saba as well as loved her is that she says unnecessary cliched things, especially about going on the journey by herself. Then there was the change in Saba. She gets quite weepy towards the end, even though she's still pretty kickass.
Jack was hot-like Young really knew how to create the tension and attraction between Saba and him. I really like the first scene when they meet. Though they get a little cheesy towards the end, I still like their parting scene. Can't wait for them to get back together!
The others, if I look at the other characters, I'd say Emmi was my favourite. She's this bratty child who refuses to be left behind. Determined and brave yet as reckless as Saba sometimes. I guess I like her partly because Saba is so mean to her. But the fact that she stands on her own two feet and refuses to part with Saba, whatever her reason, is touching.
Then there's DeMalo - the chief tonton to the King, I'm only mentioning him because I've been reading something interesting about the next book. All I can say is this. I don't like him. And I know for sure I'm going to hate Saba for what she does. I just hope Young does everything well and good, and I can like her again at the end of Rebel Heart
This is probably one of the best novels I've read lately. I'm glad, it was exciting and fun, with interesting characters. Though the writing is not your usual descriptive chunks of words and are short sentences and paras, I don't think you ever feel lacking. If your imagination is like mine, then you don't need so many words! It just goes to show that Young can create the same feelings as another author who uses more words. Overall I really enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to the next one!
almazantana's review against another edition
3.0
this was way more twisty than i expected, the writing was great and the characters were interesting, but i just don't think the story as a whole will stick with me for very long. that being said, i really did enjoy it