Blood Red Road

Blood Red Road: 4 out of 5 stars

'Saba lives in Silverlake, a wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms where her family scavenge from landfills left by the long-gone Wrecker civilisation. After four cloaked horsemen kidnap her beloved twin brother Lugh, she teams up with daredevil Jack and the Free Hawks, a girl gang of Revolutionaries. 

Saba learns that she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Saba and her new friends stage a showdown that change the course of her civilisation.'

First off, I really enjoyed this book. Like really really enjoyed it. I started off knowing absolutely nothing about it -- which is always a good way to start -- and at about page 120, I was in love. 

Where can I even start with the things I love about it?

Right, so let’s start off with the way it’s written. It’s written in a dialect that anybody can associate with. To me, I read it in a northern accent (naught being specific to this) as well as a kind of cockney one sometimes. But that’s because I’m English. I’ve been told my Americans that to them, a southern american accent is appropriate. I think, to anyone, they can connect the accent with whichever “uneducated” accent they like (don’t kill me northerners, I meant literature-ally). This is great. I read the first two chapters outloud and then I could read it in my head. 

I like Saba. She’s like Katniss Everdeen standard but she’s everything that Katniss isn’t. She feels remorse (most of the time), she’s uncaring, she even says that she doesn’t really care about her little sister to the point of where if Emmy was kidnapped instead of her twin brother, she wouldn’t have gone after her. This is a great flaw to have. It takes her away from the normal heroines and makes her real. There’s a point in the book that I wasn’t expecting at all where she becomes a Cage Fighter. I wanted to see a lot more of this, but that’s just me. She quickly becomes a killing machine which I kind of liked. I do think though that sometimes she still had hope where perhaps she shouldn’t have. Like after she thought she killed the King, she never doubts that Lugh has died. And she doesn’t link it to twin telepathy or anything. I thought that Lugh would be dead if the King was but that thought never crossed her mind. 

Jack - the love interest and not much else. I personally don’t think the story would be much different without a love interest. He was kind of pointless in that aspect, and I don’t care about him. At all.

Maev - I got a major crush on Maev as soon as we met her. Like major crush. So much, I’d like a companion novel please. Also, she needs to be in the second book please. Also, can we drop Jack and have Saba and Maev in a relationship? Cheers. 

I had a couple of dislikes, but nothing to stop me from recommending this book to everyone ever. Okay, so first off. The heartstone. Blerg. It made me wanna throw up in my mouth a little. Here we have this strong heroine, she knows what she wants. She wants to save her brother. But she gets given a heartstone that will draw her to her hearts desire. She states that she already knows who that is; her brother. Until she meets this random bloke and instantly falls for him. Okay, so I kind of get what Young was trying to do here. Prove that Saba is just an *ordinary* girl despite how kickass she is. That’s fine. I don’t mind her falling in love, just because someone’s awesome doesn’t mean they can’t fall in love. What I object to is the way she acted around Jack. The woman turns bright red whenever he speaks to her at first. Oh, and when he’s about to pull his trousers down, she runs. LEGIT RUNS. RUNS AWAY. WHAT IS THIS. Oh she can fight and kill people, no problem, but RUN. RUN FROM THE PENIS. OH MY GOD A FLACID PENIS, BETTER RUN. Seriously? It’s a non-Saba reaction imo. 

The end. Talk about drag. Also Ike’s death. Pointless and fast and unclear about how it happens. By that point I was so bored that I didn’t care he was dead. This needed super tightening. 

I will be going onto Rebel Heart and I hope to see more of Lugh. Saba idolises him. I really want to see his flaws, even maybe her being let down by him. Right now he has a golden halo around him that I kind of want to see shattered just to make him human. 

All in all, the only reason this missed off 5 stars is because I got a bit bored at the end, and that terrible romance