Reviews

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold

avidbooknerd2028's review against another edition

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3.0

Thank you Harper Collins Canada for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I thought this book was a Red Riding Hood retelling. I thought this book would have a badass heroine.
This novel only did one of these things....

I understand why it could be considered a Red Riding Hood retelling, however, I think it was so far off it shouldn't be considered one. Maybe I read into the title to much and made assumptions I'm not entirely sure.

There was a badass heroine and I loved her with everything I could have. She takes the information she is given and just works with it. She doesn't shy away even though it seems like the craziest thing to ever happen.

However, I did not enjoy the way the author uses description in this novel. There were some parts that were just too described when it didn't need to be. Then when there was something you wanted more information about, she didn't give enough description. There were loose ends left untied, and information I wanted answers to.

All in all I thought this book was "meh", it didn't wow me.

jaydiebug's review against another edition

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1.0

This is VERY LOOSELY inspired by "Little Red Riding Hood."

The feminist message is supposed to empowering and talks about consent, but it was executed poorly.

l1ndz7's review against another edition

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3.25

This is a feminist retelling of Red Riding Hood written in second person. It touches on toxic masculinity, women empowerment and shame. 

It uses menstruation as an empowering tool instead of something to be ashamed of, which I appreciated. It definitely feels taboo to talk about. Judging about the amount of reviews saying how gross it was that menstruation was a component of the story, I wish talking about it was more normalized. At first, I was taken back by how much menses was mentioned but once I understood the purpose, it didn’t bother me as much.  

This book portrays toxic men as wolves which was great but her message at the end of the book implies that the only way to deal with this is to treat men the same way they’ve treated women. I don’t agree with that message at all and judging by the reviews, a lot of people heard the same message. At first, I thought this book was portraying all men as wolves but it was refreshing to see that our FMC had a wonderful, loving, supportive bf the whole book. 

I wish this wasn’t categorized as YA because there is explicit content in here that I wouldn’t let someone as young as twelve to be reading. I would categorize this more as new adult.


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whut_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Loved it and the concept. For 5 stars, I would have preferred there to be a greater discussion around picking apart the root of mysogyny in relation to the male perspective. But overall, I quite enjoyed it and the themes it explored. 

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clowdywings's review against another edition

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I hated this. I hated Damsel, so why'd I pick up this? I have no clue. If you're a fan of Damsel and the author's writing style, then great! I don't enjoy it. I don't like her stories. I understand feminism. I understand the need to protect yourself against gross sick men. But she took that to a whole new level and omg... It was bad. Never going to read this again.

sklewis's review against another edition

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

4.75

corinna_fourhousesreview's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

3.0

This dark and twisty feminist re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood was an intriguing portrayal of toxic masculinity, and the power of women taking their power back and working together. When people communicate and don’t keep secrets or feel shame, especially around sexual harassment and assault, you can take the power back and use it. The author used menstruation as an illustration of this and helped normalize it. I liked the dichotomy it portrayed on women vs men being murdered in the woods and how society viewed each situation differently, despite all the similarities. Overall the story was well crafted and included the discussion about getting to the boys/men before they became “wolves” but the impression at the end did seem to condone that murdering all the toxic men was the answer. We might need to come up with a different solution than that…..re

the_dire_raven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

maaartha's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0


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