Blood red road by Moira Young
Dust lands book one.
Available now
www.scholastic.co.uk
What's it about?
In a wild and lawless future, where life is cheap and survival is hard, eighteen-year-old Saba lives with her father, her twin brother Lugh, her young sister Emmi and her pet crow Nero. Theirs is a hard and lonely life. The family resides in a secluded shed, their nearest neighbour living many miles away and the lake, their only source of water and main provider of food, gradually dying from the lack of rain. But Saba's father refuses to leave the place where he buried his beloved wife, Allis, nine years ago. Allis died giving birth to Emmi, and Saba has never forgiven her sister for their mother's death.
But while she despises Emmi, Saba adores her twin brother Lugh. Golden-haired and blue-eyed, loving and good, he seems the complete opposite to dark-haired Saba, who is full of anger and driven by a ruthless survival instinct. To Saba, Lugh is her light and she is his shadow, he is the day, she is the nighttime, he is beautiful, she is ugly, he is good, she is bad.
So Saba's small world is brutally torn apart, when a group of armed riders arrives five day's after the twin's eighteenth birthday snatch Lugh away. Saba's rage is so wild, that she manages to drive the men away, but not before they have captured Lugh and killed their father.
Other books in the series (Link to my review)
Rebel heart - Book two
My review
Blood red road took a little getting into for me, just because of the way it is written, it took me a while to figure out Sabas accent so I could get it right in my head and the book doesn't use quotation marks for speech so sometimes I didn't know if she was saying things out loud or thinking them. But once I got past the initial awkwardness, and with the mark of a great book, I eventually didn't even notice the things I'd struggled with in the start.
Saba is a great character, I liked her act before she thinks nature and hot headedness, she made for an unpredictable character and kept the book alive, although I didn't always like her, it was great to see how she cared for her brother so much she'd do anything to get him back. But on the other hand she was the opposite to her little sister, in a way I can see why, but still, it wasn't nice.
One of the things I really liked about Jack was that he called her out on these things when no one else would.
Generally, the story itself isn't too complex, Sabas brother is kidnapped and she sets about to find and rescue him and events ensue along the way, but its the events that lead up to us meeting new characters and getting to the end that made the book good, it was an adventure.
At each turn, I didn't know what I would be getting, who I'd be meeting and how it would affect the group dynamic or interfere with Sabas quest, it was very exciting and following Saba on her journey really set up the world she lives in and continually builds the suspense.
Its a good start to a series and left me wanting to find out more and see what happens next for Saba, Jack and everyone else involved.
My thoughts on the cover
First off, I love the red, its always an eye catching colour and I really like the way the girl is in silhouette with her hair blowing in the wind, its a very cool cover.
Favourite quotes
'If you save somebody's life three times, their life belongs to you. You saved my life today, that makes once. Save it twice more an I'm all yers.
I'll just hafta make sure that don't happen, I says.'
'He drops the torch. He pushes me aginst the wall. Then his mouth is on mine an he's kissin me like he's starvin or dyin of thirst or somethin.'
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