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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Book Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

My Rating
Book: Blood Red Road (Dust Lands #1)
Author: Moira Young
Publication date: June 7th 2011
Synopsis:
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.
Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.


My Review:

I received a copy from the author to read and review in return.

After I finished reading Divergent, a wonderful, hectic and adventurous dystopian novel of a tough girl surviving in a distorted society, I was once again searching for that book which had the dystopian similarity, however this time I was also looking for something completely different plot wise... And then I found Blood Red Road. I actually stumbled upon this book when I was browsing through some reviewers on YouTube. I soon found out that at that time there weren't a lot of reviews on this book, but the ones which were out were all extremely positive. So you can expect at what level my expectations were.. and I can tell you from  the bottom of my heart that these expectations are definitely met!

Pros: 
This book had so much to offer: romance, thrill, drama, chaos, deception, fighting and more! What I liked most from this book was the amazing and distinctive plot, the protagonist (Saba), the accompanied characters, the romance and more! I will touch upon the pros which I felt were the strongest in this book...

  • The writing style: I found the writing style genius! At first it seemed that almost every word was misspelled, the structure of most of the sentences were formulated incorrectly, when a dialogue took place there were no quotation marks, and so on! But knowing obviously that Moira Young, the author, did this on purpose, it portrayed a solid and covincing atmosphere for the reader. The characters living in this dystopian, unstructured world are not educated as you and I are. They speak in slang and the words are truly written in the way in which they are pronounced. Some reviewers found this very tricky to get used to and it took them a couple of chapters to get into the story... but personally for me, after 2 pages, it was as if this writing style was natural and most normal! It really helped me engage more in the ambiance of the book and helped me get an idea of the nature of the characters and the deviant world they live in.
  • The Protagonist Saba: Saba is the protagonist of this book. She is an amazing bad ass character! Her spirit mildly reminded me of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games. She is very stubborn, but strong (emotionally and physically), extremely devoted, and mainly a very spunky kick-ass chick! She is completely blind-sided by what she is capable of and how strong she truly is. She is very independent which shows throughout the book as she always wants to solve problems without any help... this also quite portrays her as sometimes selfish and irresponsible. I recognize these traits of hers and they are very believable seeing her circumstances. Moira Young describes her feelings and emotions so vividly that I felt them as if they were my own. When her brother, Lugh, is kidnapped and she is compelled to find him to what ever extent, her true colors genuinely shine through. In the beginning of the book you can hardly sympathize for her, but once the ruthless and unpredictable plot develops, you cannot but help feel for Saba, and root for her all the way through.
  • The Plot: Kidnappings, mysterious villains, corrupt horrid cities, cage fighting, rebellions, giant lethal worms... what more can you ask for?? The plot had a consistent thrill which made the book extremely fast paced.

    From one mysterious and unpredictable happening to another, you were not able to go through the book without a chill going down your spine or shouting "WHAT?! REALLY?!" at the end of each page/chapter.  The characters Saba meets on the way of her dangerous journey are so well thought out by Moira Young, to each which you either totally hate or love! The book made me laugh, shout out in disbelief, cry (okay, silent tears :3), and hoot every time a hint of romance appeared.
Cons:
The cons which I am going to elaborate on have no influence on the 5 stars I have given this book. I believe Moira Young has done an exceptional job, so not in any means did these cons hinder my positive perception over this book.
  • The cage fighting: Even though I really enjoyed the cage fighting experiences Saba had to go through, I found that it was a little unbelievable how everything seemed to continuously work out for her in the fights. The 'hot red' which Saba describes as her inner fury, would always come out which made her perform at such strength and cage-fighting-expertise, that I found it was a little unbelievable how such a girl all of a sudden had such fighting talent.
  • The final stage: the second to last action-packed stage of the plot was a little confusing for me. I found it somewhat hard to picture the setting they were in and how they managed to get away with (almost) everything. I am not sure if this has to do with the fact that Moira Young did not describe it as vivid as the other setting she depicted, or that I simply did not read well enough to grasp the idea of the circumstances (I still believe the latter...). However, I cannot stress enough on how this book was an amazing thrilling ride from the very beginning until the very end!

All in all, this book deserves a 5/5 star rating. It is definitely a quick read, action-packed, and an phenomenal book out of the ordinary! Pick it up at the bookstores now! I am sure you'll love it!

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like a really good book, I have it on my wishlist :)

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    1. Great to hear! I have a good feeling that you will love it! :)Thanks for stopping by! :)

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  2. I've been going back and forth trying to decide if I should read this one or not forever. A lot of people are really bothered by the dialect and I think I would be too, but then the story itself sounds so exciting and thrilling I can't help but be drawn to it. Hmm.. I'll probably have to end up giving it a chance, 5/5 can't be argued with. Thanks for the review! :)

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    1. Hey Linny!
      It really depends per person! Some people did not like the writing style as it was hard for them to read or to get into the story, but some really loved and actually preferred it as it gave them a great sense of the atmosphere of the book! So you either hate it or love it;) But none the less, if I were you, I would definitely give this book a shot!

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  3. Hey
    This was a great review, so detailed. :) Sort of help me make my mind about reading this book

    Came here from goodreads and followed you. Mind following me back?

    Read that also

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    1. Hey Alone!

      Thanks, I am happy my review helped you :) I would definitely go for this one! I will check out your blog and follow you ;) Thanks for following me and see you around!

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