Reviews

Red by Jack Ketchum

billymac1962's review against another edition

3.0

It's been quite a while since I've read Jack Ketchum. Offseason and The Girl Next Door were okay reads about twenty years ago and I wasn't really inclined to read him again until Red flashed across my radar somehow.

Those previous novels were three star reads for me, but this one was a bit higher.
Red is the name of our protagonist's dog who meets a brutal fate. The story follows Avery Ludlow's search for justice.

It's a very quick read (much quicker than I thought it was going to be, as the Kindle edition's last 35% is a bonus novella), and this is a very quick review.

3.5 stars.

annie__bananie's review

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

shawn_of_the_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

peaches2520's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

miskatonickid's review against another edition

3.0

Liked the story. But (maybe it was the edition I got or something) the spelling and grammar was atrocious. And I’m not great at all with spelling or grammar or anything but this was actually distracting. Sometimes there’d be random letters in the middle of the sentence and it would take me out of the story, and little random spelling errors. I wonder if anyone else experienced this.

lallie91's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

ejhorton7's review against another edition

5.0

Something a bit different from Ketchum but it was good! I have hella respect for Av and how he handled the situation. I can’t even imagine being put in his situation and being told by the justice system that there’s nothing they can do. Finding out that he was sick at the end was really a bummer but I almost cried when his neighbor brought him the puppy! Definitely a perfect ending.

chimps's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

2.25

tarah_'s review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.5

maryreay's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.0