Well, It's Definitely Something
Blood Red Road
By Moira Young
The Dust Lands Series, Book 1
# Pgs: 480
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Overview:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.
Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetic writing style, and an epic love story—making Moira Young is one of the most exciting new voices in teen fiction.
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Review:
Do you like mindless violence?
A dystopian society novel?
A post-apocalypse fiction?
Or how about a really weird book?
You're gonna want to check this book out then, 'cause it's seriously interesting. Moira Young took a serious risk with writing this book in the way that she did, and for me, at least, it turned out quite well. From the first few written words, you're drawn in to the story just by the accent that Young writes in. Rather than perfect English and the odd accent just when a character speaks, Young carries the accent throughout the entirety of the novel. Now, I'm sure there are books out there just like this one in that aspect, but this is admittedly the first time I've ever read a book written like this. Young writes this book so that it's almost like it's bridging the fourth wall (or whatever it's called). In Young's book, Saba is talking to us. She's relaying to us the story. It's kind of difficult to describe just what I'm trying to say unless you've read the book. It's not so different that characters relay the story to us as the reader, but I mean Young specifically wrote the book as if the entirety of it is just one long (rather one-sided) conversation.
You have to read it to understand it, but regardless the different way that Young wrote the book is something that I can appreciate. It took some getting used to, but in the end I couldn't have imagined the book written in any other way.
In case you can't tell by the cover or the overview, this book is a dystopian society type of novel. These kinds of books have been in lately, I've noticed, though it's not like I have a problem with it. I love to read these kinds of books. In fact, this book is a perfect example of the type of book I like to read.
Dystopian, a bit of crazy (okay, a lot of crazy), a dash of romance, a plethora of adventure, faintly reminiscent of Spartans; there's nothing fluffy about this novel at all. It's all hard edges and rooting for the home team. Very interesting aspect to read from.
Saba, as a main character, is a riot to follow. You feel as much sympathy for her as you do annoyance regarding her choices and situation. For over half the novel, you're under the impression that Saba hates her little sister and is only keeping her alive for Lugh's sake. Yet, there were many chances that Saba had and many choices that Saba made that made it so obvious to me that she couldn't have done what she had done if she didn't love her sister (even the tiniest bit). I understand though, from the many other times that I've read stories in which one or both of the characters has a twin, that when you are a twin you almost become caught up in your own little bubble of twin-hood. I don't know if that has any support to it, and yet that's the only way I can think of to describe Saba's and Lugh's relationship as siblings. For years they'd been caught up in their own little world as brother and sister, and Emmi disrupts that just as much as Saba blames Emmi for their mother's miscarriage, if not more than, and so Saba holds it against her.
Of course, we can't continue on without discussing the casual flirtation between Saba and Jack. Jack is portrayed as this mysterious, handsome, tough and gentlemanly kind of guy. He catches Saba's eye when the two were, ahem, imprisoned, and from then on is able to keep it. It develops slowly, but it's cute to watch as Jack nonchalantly (and un-obviously) pursues her with the excuse about the "rule of three".
It's obnoxious to a point to read about Saba's infatuation with getting her brother back. It's like she's obsessed with this idea that things can return to the way that they used to be, or that things can become better than they used to be once Lugh is back safe and sound. As the reader, we know that, of course, in these kinds of situations nothing can return to the way that they used to be. They say that things get worse before they get better, which is quite obvious what the second book in this series is leading up to... the worse.
But that's for another time.
Regardless, this was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The plot ideas, the character construction (Saba's stubborn nature specifically), the development of the story from beginning to end, and the quite original way in which Young had written this novel kept me reading this thing from beginning to end tirelessly. If I had to rate this book, I'd give it a four out of five. The mindless violence, while enjoyable, was sometimes difficult to believe in that one character couldn't have done something like what occurred all on her lonesome.
I'd recommend this book to lovers of dystopian societies, mindless violence, adventure, a touch (really more like a brief brush than a touch) of romance, and just something that's different to read should read this book. This book was seriously a good book, and very different to read. I loved it.
Thanks for reading; sorry for babbling, leave a comment below if you're interested. Thanks again!
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