Reviews with content warning for Racism - Die Chroniken von Rotkäppchen - Allein im tiefen, tiefen Wald

gory and greatly entertaining!
a story that keeps you on your toes. reading this for the second time made me realize quite a few details that i hadn't noticed before.

the characters were great - diverse without feeling like some sort of caricature. i loved red and her attitude, loved the dynamic between her and adam (their conversations and banter were so painfully real for siblings) and her whole personality in general. her family was nice, and the two kids, too.
henry is just so good at writing children. they seem almost lovable when she writes them.

and i liked the story. sometimes the inevitable encounters with soldiers and so forth felt a little forced and unrealistic, maybe even a bit repetitive (but that might also just be because of my already having read the book once).
one of the major plot twists (

these slug parasite monster thingies

) was a little random, i guess?? entertaining, but really random.
(

i mean, these thingies were introduced in the middle of the book and then it wasn't even resolved in the slightest. just i know this book is about a deadly virus, but by the way, some government lab also created an otherworldly weird science-fiction ass, human-eating monster that nests in people's stomachs. like whuuut

)

but whatever, it's fine. great book, great characters, great story.

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steffi_23's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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aerolich's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ladykatka's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

First off, I love Christina Henry, I have purchased all of her books to date and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them including this one, even if I didn't really care for the ending. I think this was a really clever update and modern version of Red Riding Hood, it was well told and easy to read. That being said when I got to the penultimate chapter I was left thinking how is she going to wrap this up. And it turned out that it was more of a non-ending than an ending.

Red says a couple times in the book that she is not the main character in a movie, that becomes abundantly clear at the end when we are provided no answers what so ever on the virus, or the creatures, or the camps, or the lack of women, or anything really. This book is in desperate need of an epilogue.

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Overall really enjoyed it. I loved that our main character, Red, is mixed race and enjoyed the brief discourse on race and how some people, even in times of crisis, will gladly let their racism fly. In the beginning when one antagonist basically asks Red her ethnicity upon first meeting, it reminded me of so many people doing it to me. It's annoying to say the least.
I think as a retelling of a fairy tale, it was quite good too. Loved that it was a dystopian kind of setting although it wasn't the best idea for me to read a book on a respiratory pandemic while living through C19 and seeing parallels to how some fictional characters acted and how real life people are acting. Humans are predictable I guess.
<Spoiler>since Red and the kids were able to make it to grandma's safely and that the grandma seems to be alive and safe, I'm believing some of DJ's family made it to him as well. He was such a kind man and he deserved the best
I do wish we got a little more about the

creatures that burst out of people like how it escaped the lab, what even was the point in creating the creatures, how they got inside of people, how they would get rid of them

but reading this after reading Near the Bone it seems the author likes to leave stuff like that pretty open.
This isn't a perfect book, there was a lot I feel could've been cut down since I could glance through paragraphs and still not miss any of the major story, and it was a little slow here and there, but I was def interested in it the whole time and needed to know what would happen.

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ericadawson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The author's sparse and straight to the point writing style was great for a dark retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. It was gorey without being over the top, and I enjoyed Red's character--her flaws were front and center, even if she could be harsh on herself, her family, and potential allies alike.

I enjoyed the voice and the pacing--the story is more about Red and the kind of woman she becomes than it is about her getting to her grandmother's house. Despite the sheer amount of loss she suffers through, the book ends on a very hopeful note. I enjoyed the fact that Red's opening up to other people and allowing herself kindness ends up leading to her making it to her grandmother's house. I like that the author also keeps the plot in perspective--whatever is going on with the world isn't for Red to figure out. She just needs to get somewhere safe.

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evaag_2796's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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