Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Genre: Dystopian, Apocalyptic?
Published by: Marion Lloyd Books
Pages: 417
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Series: Rebel Heart (#2) | Raging Star (#3)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Blood Red Road had been recommened to me multiple times, and it seemed exactly like the kind of books I loved, however, I didn’t completely fall  for the characters or the world, and I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed.

I found the main character, Saba, to be completely infuriating. She was incredibly stubborn, and it took her forever to realise that he friends were going to help her no matter what chivalry she though she displayed. Saba was a strong female protagonist, and even though she’s pretty naive to the ways of the world she handled every situation with a cool head. I think this was because she was solely focused on finding her brother. There was some character development, but not as much as I would’ve hoped. The majority of it came in the form of the relationship she had with her younger sister Emmi, who couldn’t seem to listen to anything anyone told her – at least this could partly be excused by the fact she’s only 9.

I really really really loved the secondary characters, though. Especially Maev, they helped to enrich the world and gave it a much more dystopian feel. The mixed bag of characters really reminded me of Fire & Flood, one of my favourite books of 2014, so if you want to read about varying character dynamics, then this is probably the book for you.

I can’t say I fell in love with Jack. Goodreads reviewers raved about the relationship, and I was so excite to fall in love with another kick-ass dystopian guy, but I can’t say I’m feelin’ the love. I mean, it was cute, if a little strange at times and I guess I just didn’t really buy it. To me the whole ‘heartstone’ will show you your true love sounded like an excuse to ignore any type of build up to the relationship. Bam! Insta-love explained by a magical rock.

The plot was pretty ciclic, with a job lot of repetition especially in character interactions. This made it seem as though the book was a lot slower paced than it actually was. Sometimes I found myself getting lost, because I could really picture to desert environment/barren landscape vs. the Cage. Was that supposed to be located in small town? I have no idea! The characters jumped from place to place, making each section of the book like it’s own novella. I’d describe this story as like a weird mix of Indiana Jones, Poison Study, and Fire & Flood, so, if that sounds like something you’d wanna read you should totally check it out!

One thing to be warned of is the writing style. There’s a lot of non-standard spelling, which really emphasised both accent and the fact that Saba isn’t ‘educated’ in a modern day sense, and helped to exaggerate the dystopian world. However, it can sometimes be difficult to read and the lack of speech markers to represent punctuation can really jolt the flow of reading.

I literally have no idea where the story can go from here, but I’m interested to find out! overall, I gave Blood Red Road, 3 stars it was a slightly more difficult read, but I enjoyed the majority of it. Not exactly what I expected, but still a must read for dystopian fans.