Blood Red Road (Dust Lands, #1)

by Moira Young

[lizarodz]

First, let me start by saying that I listened to Blood Red Road. I clarify that because I have seen some comments about the dialect used in the book, but since I listed, not read the book and from my point of view it was perfect. Although there are some parts of this book that I didn’t like, I really enjoyed Blood Red Road.

Saba is our protagonist and she is not very likeable. She is rude, has no manners, is stubborn, opinionated, violent, ungrateful and more. Saba’s fixation with Lugh was a little hard for me to identify with. I have siblings and I love them dearly, but Saba’s feelings for Lugh seem extreme (then again I don’t have a twin.) It seems to me that Saba was a mix of Katniss from The Hunger Games and Katsa from Graceling, but not getting quite there yet. I found hard to believe that a girl that was so sheltered and isolated could be this violent and resilient. Some of her faults can be attributed to said isolation, I mean when you live with only three other people as companions, I guess manners are not necessary. On the other hand Saba is strong and inspiring to others, and she did changed and grew up a little.

Emmi is Saba’s little sister and she is very sweet and a saint to put up with Saba! Lugh doesn’t take a big part of the book, so I’ll reserve my judgment for the sequel. Other characters were very well developed and are abundant. Now it’s Jack’s turn. Jack is kind of hard to figure out. He is a handsome dare-devil and knows a lot about everything (I think he thinks he knows it all). He is very easy going and doesn’t know what to do with Saba, but he is very good with people and especially with Emmi. I really liked Jack and I hope we can see more of him in the series.

Other than my few issues with Saba’s character the story is fantastic. It takes place somewhere in a distant future, where people don’t read (can you imagine?) and where people are very violent and life is hard and short (sort of like living in the wild west). The writing is beautiful, well paced, with enough for us to know the setting and background information, but keeping an air of mystery at the same time. I really enjoyed Blood Red Road and I am looking forward to book two, Rebel Heart, to be published in October of this year.