“Do you think that doing the right thing will always be pretty?”
It's been a long time since I read Crimson Bound and I can't remember much of it, but I like the concepts and atmosphere in this Red Riding Hood inspired story.
Richelle is the type of heroine that I usually like. She's a fighter, angry, vulnerable at times, flawed and full of complexity, but she lacks the spark that I was looking for and felt distant at times. I could understand her reasoning and although her actions are frustrating, they suit her character arc, but I couldn't get a sense of her emotions and what she's all about. Richelle is a Bloodbound which means that she has to make a choice to kill someone in three days or die. The choice and its potential consequences brought internal conflict and character development, but after a certain point, Richelle's grappling, anger and guilt became too much.
The secondary characters aren't that compelling. The only character that stands out, aside from the love interests, is Amelie, Richelle's friend. Their friendship isn't perfect, but I like the parallels between them and the different ways they go about protecting each other.
I'm conflicted about the love interests: Erec and Armand. They're both complex and interesting characters in isolation (also, yay for disability rep), but as love interests, they're meh. I didn't feel the chemistry between Richelle and either of her love interests, maybe because she's so guarded and distant, but the relationships didn't occur organically and seem forced. However, the way that the love interests are used to progress the plot is interesting and though the twists are predictable, the story is still engrossing.
The best part of Crimson Bound is the worldbuilding and concepts. There's a magical and dangerous forest, terrifying creatures, a fairytale atmosphere and a story-within-a-story. The Forest is cool, but it's also quite abstract and difficult to visualise. I also like the story of Tyr and Zisa and how it was interwoven into the plot, but it can be confusing at times.
Crimson Bound is engrossing, has good worldbuilding and deals with concepts in an interesting manner, but I was expecting to like it a lot more.
“She had won them the sun and the moon, but she had become a monster.”