Review: Blood Red Road

Blood Red Road, by Moira Young. The GoodReads summary:

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 a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

I don’t know what I was expecting going into this book, but whatever it was, this book was so much better than that! I’ll deal with the thing that bugged me the most first off, because it’s super noticeable right away and, honestly, it almost made me put down the book. I’m talking about the dialect Saba uses to tell her story. It’s always “an” instead of “and” “ezzactly” instead of “exactly” and tons of things are misspelled. It’s supposed reflect the fact that Saba is completely uneducated and from the middle of nowhere, but it drove the grammarian in me crazy—at least it did until I got so sucked into the book that I stopped noticing it. And that’s saying something since it’s an inherent part of my nature to notice bad grammar.

This book was an adventure from start to finish. There really isn’t ever a dull moment. This book is definitely dystopian, but I thought it kinda had a high fantasy feel to it—not that there’s any magic or anything, but the story’s all about Saba’s quest and the band of friends she picks up along the way, and those are elements I attribute to high fantasy. Anyway, back to my point about it being an exciting book, I’m not kidding. I mean, there’s CAGE FIGHTING, for pete’s sake.

Saba is, no joke, the toughest heroine I’ve ever read about. She could take Katniss on with her hands tied behind her back and her eyes closed and still win. And admittedly, it was a kinda hard to like Saba sometimes. She’s prickly and standoffish and really doesn’t know how to interact with people. But considering her upbringing, it’s not really surprising, I guess. Sometimes I had a hard time with how mean Saba could be to her little sister, but their developing relationship is a big part of the story, so I could deal with it. Strangely enough, despite Saba being so pissed off and grumpy all the time, I didn’t have any trouble connecting with her (oh, wait—maybe it’s BECAUSE she’s so pissed off and grumpy that I could relate to her). Anyway, what I’m saying is don’t let my description of her personality dissuade you from reading the book, because Saba’s actually pretty kick-A.

Jack is awesome and the complete opposite of Saba, personality-wise. Which is why they’re so freakin’ perfect for each other. And let me tell ya, there is no insta-love going on here. Their relationship is a really rocky road, to say the least.

And can I just say that I really hope DeMalo shows up in the next book? He’s only in this book for a total of, like, 5 minutes, but I’m already convinced that that man is too ridiculously sexy. I NEED to know more about him!

Overall, this book kicks butt. If you’re a fan of action-y dystopian books like The Hunger Games and Divergent, I think you’ll like this one. Even if you not a fan of action, I still recommend it on account of it’s so surprisingly awesome.

Rating: 4 / 5