Reviews

This book was….. interesting. I have mixed feelings about this book.

I did enjoy the story that was being told. How she turned sexual predators into actual predators trying to murder girls. It had a good message and the story was interesting.

But…..

I hated the narration style. “Your toes grip the earth, the path of pins and needles the best they can. You dig in your heels. One second. Your fingers tighten on the branch. Your muscles assess the heft of it.“ I’ll stop there. I imagine it was very repetitive to write. I know it was very repetitive to read.

The constant menstruation talk was just too much. Just way way too much and so graphic. The first scene in the car was very cringy.

temporary_escaper's review against another edition

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2.0

The message of this book is so important and one that needs to be talked about more, but I just felt uncomfortable with the way it was talked about. One of my main issues is that she doesn’t put trigger warnings or phone numbers to call for hotlines. I walked in and hit every one of my triggers. This book is labeled YA but the issues talked about, and the sex Ed talk is definitely OLDER ya.

I also had a problem with the second person POV. I felt like it made it very simplistic. Especially since I couldn’t relate to the character, it made all the “you”s very pointless and at times annoying.

booksandfabric's review against another edition

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3.0

I liked this book but it was a bit strange to me.

ink_drinker4eva's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

3.5

emleemay's review against another edition

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4.0

You are the hunter, and this wolf, though he thinks he is the predator, is your prey.

[a:Elana K. Arnold|5772357|Elana K. Arnold|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1331582486p2/5772357.jpg] is one of my favourite writers of the twisted and disturbing. I eagerly seek out her new books and always find myself feeling a little shaken at the end. However, I've said before of [b:Damsel|36260155|Damsel|Elana K. Arnold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518818837l/36260155._SY75_.jpg|57912874] that it should have been marketed as an adult book, and I think that is even more true of this one. Arnold's novels get these gorgeous YA fantasy covers, but I think it leads them into the wrong hands.

In [b:Red Hood|43721070|Red Hood|Elana K. Arnold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561406538l/43721070._SX50_.jpg|68041410] I think this is even more of an issue. This is a fantastic, gory, messed up fairy tale, but it also doesn't fully work as a high school thriller, in my opinion. Though I will say the honest depiction of menstruation is definitely something teens are missing.

Sixteen-year-old Bisou Martel has pretty much given up on getting her period when it suddenly arrives at the worst possible time-- homecoming dance, when things are getting sexy in the back of her boyfriend's car. In a moment of panic, she gets out of the car and runs away into the woods. There she encounters a vicious wolf, and somehow kills it. The next day it all seems like a bad dream, but when the dead body of one of her classmates is found in the woods, Bisou has to wonder: is she responsible?

There is a tree at your back. It rises behind you like all of history—your history, the history of girls in forests, the history of wolves and fangs and blood.

It is a very loose Red Riding Hood retelling, which I personally prefer. I have no interest in reading the same story over and over again. It's also very chilling and creepy, even outright scary in parts. I love how Arnold uses fairy tales to tackle issues young women face like periods, relationships, toxic masculinity, and the threat of violence, without seeming didactic or preachy. [b:Red Hood|43721070|Red Hood|Elana K. Arnold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561406538l/43721070._SX50_.jpg|68041410] is searingly critical of rape culture and "incels", at the same time as celebrating loving, consensual sex and relationships.

The problem is, I think the conclusion - the "message" of the book, if you will - doesn't sit quite right for me. It is clearly supposed to be about sisterhood and female empowerment, but it comes across as an endorsement of

Spoiler

murder

. I also feel that the YA label doesn't help. Would this have been as jarring as an adult novel about

Spoiler

vigilante justice

? I can't say for sure, but I feel like it maybe wouldn't.

I will still recommend this to fans of the dark, twisted and gory, but I will need to add a caveat that I don't fully support the message so no one thinks I'm a psychopath.

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tamekia's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

pages_oflau's review against another edition

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1.0

After the disappointment of Damsel, I really had high hopes for this one, it sounded amazing. But it just wasn’t.

Yes, I finished it in less than 4 hours. No, not because I enjoyed it. Because I practically skim read it.

I don’t know how this is marketed as YA, I feel like it definitely needs to be adult. I’m 28 years old and reading the content of this book has literally left me feeling sick to my stomach. I feel like there needs to be content warnings AT THE BEGINNING and the back of this book because it’s just way too much. And I don’t get triggered but this book literally is just way too disturbing and vile to be considered for YA.

I’m going to be honest, it goes reaaaaaal in-depth about how one inserts a tampon...like there’s a WHOLE paragraph on it. And basically the main plot revolves around when women get their monthly cycles. I mean...it was uncomfortable reading it and I’m a woman. And I think what made it even worse was it was told in second person POV literally like ‘You open your legs. You push the tampon inside your body.’ I just...couldn’t.

The characters were just flat and there was no character development, they were all boring and just seemed to do everything conveniently.

The ending was rushed, the book was 355 pages and the ending was literally from page 340? I don’t understand.

This book is full of trigger warnings so be aware of that going in. I just didn’t care or read it that in depthly to take a note of them because I wasn’t even going to waste my time reviewing. But one of my goals this year was to review every book I read. So here we are.

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