A review by lynseyisreading
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
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 ★★★