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A review by huntress_fainne
Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
3.0
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by the outcome, seeing as this book is YA, but there are still many things I would have preferred to be different. This book was a spin on two fairytales - one of which is Little Red Riding Hood, a tale that is a favourite of a close friend of mine. I liked how this kept to the original version of the story, and made the MC much tougher than one would normally expect for the heroine of that tale.
Aside from that, I didn't really like her. She was . . . not whiny, exactly, but she was supposed to be "guilty" and "troubled" and "conflicted" and she never really felt like that. We were TOLD that that's how she was far to many times, but it was never shown.
I was almost turned off of the book immediately, because of the prologue and how the first chapter started. It wasn't handled well. The prologue either need to encompass much more, or it need to cut out a lot to fit with the first chapter and not make me go "I'm going to have to read this whole bloody book to get the great yet obvious reveal of what occurred and to have things explained". We either needed more information, so the questions weren't as great and annoying (yeah, I get it, it's supposed to draw you in, BUT ....) or it needed to cut out massive parts of it, and thus leave even bigger holes in one's knowledge of what occurred between the prologue and the first chapter. The way it is written now, does not work very well.
This is the downfall of the book. Far to much telling. I didn't feel like much was real. The only time it worked was in the parts that were another character literally telling a story. Then it was okay. It fit, it felt nice, it was well done. The rest of the time, the telling was bad. I never felt overly invested, or like what the characters felt were real.
I'll move on to what I hate the most: THE ROMANCE. This was just plain bad. It was in there purely because of YA cliches. That's it. I never once felt like the MC and her supposed love interest shared anything. There was one scene that they almost had chemistry, but guess what? IT WAS RUINED BY TELLING US DIRECTLY HOW THE MC FELT. There was no subtly to it at all. It was bad. That scene could have been good, but it was handle rather poorly. The rest of the time, I didn't see any chemistry between them, and the romance was so obvious I knew it would happen even before the characters had learnt each other's names.
The only part of this horrible cliche that was interesting, was the "love triangle" aspect, as that character WAS interesting. Heck, I didn't even expect the twist that was thrown in with him. I felt it was stupid and forced, but if things had been handled differently, it would have been a great twist. They made a villain into an anti-hero. Anti-heroes are great. This is why I enjoyed him, and enjoyed hating him.
Now for more things I hate: that the MC was resurrected. Why did she get this option? No clue! How does their realm of the dead work? No idea! Is there a separate soul and body, are they connected, are they the same thing? Dunno! It made no sense. The mythology of this world was never delved into enough to explain how this could in anything be possible. She should have stayed dead. Would it have sucked for her? Yes. Would it have been a good ending? Yes. Because victory does come at the price of sacrifice, and this book should have kept to that and not given us the "happy, everything will be okay" ending.
I also didn't like this thing at the very end with white threads. What does it mean? No idea. Heck, up until the climax, the red thread seemed like a one-off, very rare occurrence, but it kinda, sorta, wasn't? It was badly explained as to HOW, and the white threads were even more random. It was just a strange, unneeded detail to draw attention to. Could've deleted those bits and nothing would be lost.
Basically, the book had some okay moments, and I liked what it was trying to do, and it was an interesting plot. But the writing was bad, the characters were weak, and the plot had some issues at the ending, but mainly it's the writing and the characters. I liked the plot. The rest was tolerable. I suppose it's not the worst book, but neither is it the best.
Aside from that, I didn't really like her. She was . . . not whiny, exactly, but she was supposed to be "guilty" and "troubled" and "conflicted" and she never really felt like that. We were TOLD that that's how she was far to many times, but it was never shown.
I was almost turned off of the book immediately, because of the prologue and how the first chapter started. It wasn't handled well. The prologue either need to encompass much more, or it need to cut out a lot to fit with the first chapter and not make me go "I'm going to have to read this whole bloody book to get the great yet obvious reveal of what occurred and to have things explained". We either needed more information, so the questions weren't as great and annoying (yeah, I get it, it's supposed to draw you in, BUT ....) or it needed to cut out massive parts of it, and thus leave even bigger holes in one's knowledge of what occurred between the prologue and the first chapter. The way it is written now, does not work very well.
This is the downfall of the book. Far to much telling. I didn't feel like much was real. The only time it worked was in the parts that were another character literally telling a story. Then it was okay. It fit, it felt nice, it was well done. The rest of the time, the telling was bad. I never felt overly invested, or like what the characters felt were real.
I'll move on to what I hate the most: THE ROMANCE. This was just plain bad. It was in there purely because of YA cliches. That's it. I never once felt like the MC and her supposed love interest shared anything. There was one scene that they almost had chemistry, but guess what? IT WAS RUINED BY TELLING US DIRECTLY HOW THE MC FELT. There was no subtly to it at all. It was bad. That scene could have been good, but it was handle rather poorly. The rest of the time, I didn't see any chemistry between them, and the romance was so obvious I knew it would happen even before the characters had learnt each other's names.
The only part of this horrible cliche that was interesting, was the "love triangle" aspect, as that character WAS interesting. Heck, I didn't even expect the twist that was thrown in with him. I felt it was stupid and forced, but if things had been handled differently, it would have been a great twist. They made a villain into an anti-hero. Anti-heroes are great. This is why I enjoyed him, and enjoyed hating him.
Now for more things I hate: that the MC was resurrected. Why did she get this option? No clue! How does their realm of the dead work? No idea! Is there a separate soul and body, are they connected, are they the same thing? Dunno! It made no sense. The mythology of this world was never delved into enough to explain how this could in anything be possible. She should have stayed dead. Would it have sucked for her? Yes. Would it have been a good ending? Yes. Because victory does come at the price of sacrifice, and this book should have kept to that and not given us the "happy, everything will be okay" ending.
I also didn't like this thing at the very end with white threads. What does it mean? No idea. Heck, up until the climax, the red thread seemed like a one-off, very rare occurrence, but it kinda, sorta, wasn't? It was badly explained as to HOW, and the white threads were even more random. It was just a strange, unneeded detail to draw attention to. Could've deleted those bits and nothing would be lost.
Basically, the book had some okay moments, and I liked what it was trying to do, and it was an interesting plot. But the writing was bad, the characters were weak, and the plot had some issues at the ending, but mainly it's the writing and the characters. I liked the plot. The rest was tolerable. I suppose it's not the worst book, but neither is it the best.