Pages: 459
Intended Audience: Teens
Genre: Dystopian
Notes for parents: Some mature scenes
The Back Cover
Saba’s world is shattered when her twin brother, Lugh, is captured by four cloaked horsemen. Determined to rescue him, Saba sets off into the lawless, wasted landscape left behind by the Wreckers. It’s a brutal world where Saba discovers some surprising things about herself: She’s a fierce fighter, a cunning opponent, and above all, an unbeatable survivor. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl warriors called the Free Hawks, Saba is off to save her brother—and maybe her whole world.
What the Back Cover doesn’t tell you:
This is the first book in the Dustlands series.
What’s good?
This is an intense, action-packed adventure with a swift moving plot and plenty of intriguing characters. This dystopian road trip follows 19-year-old Saba and her highly engaging 9-year-old sister Emmi as they search for Saba’s kidnapped twin brother. Although this is clearly a plot-driven story, characterization is excellent. I love the butt-kicking Free Hawks (a group of female warriors who deserve their own story!), the mysterious and highly intriguing DeMalo (a singular reason to read book 2), the awesome gladiator-like cage-fighting scenes (of which there should have been more!), Hermes the horse, Nero the crow, Ike and Tommo…
Best part: The story contained within Hopetown (the Pinches, the cage-fights, the Free Hawks, the escape). I wish that all could have been explored even more!
What’s not so good?
Oh, where do I start? Saba was unrealistically cruel to her sister without due reason or remorse. In fact, Saba was unduly rude and obnoxious with pretty much everyone. The king was a lame bad guy (Why would he live somewhere no one has heard of? And what was he king of anyway?). The giant worms were ridiculous. The Heartstone necklace was an absurd and unnecessary gimmick. The setting was sparse and grossly underdeveloped, and lot of the plot in the second half of the book was nonsensical. The love between Saba and Jack felt contrived, as did most things about Saba. There’s nothing in her background or what we know of her history to suggest she’d even make a good horse rider, cage fighter, or girlfriend.
Worst part: There are three writing techniques that I hate the most: writing in first person present tense; writing in the vernacular outside of dialogue; and not using quotes for dialogue. This book does all three. Not only does the author use an odd vernacular, but she misspells words to…what? Show us that Saba is illiterate? It was annoying and superfluous. This was a plot-driven story that would have benefitted greatly from a third person vantage point.
Recommendations þþþoo
Perhaps this book’s biggest problem was the hype. The cover itself has three reviews that compare it to The Hunger Games and a fourth that says Ridley Scott has already optioned the book (to make it into a film). I expected much more based on those quotes alone. However, while I wasn’t a fan of the author’s writing style choices, her characters were phenomenal. I desperately want to know more about Emmi, Tommo, the Free Hawks, DeMalo…but if I have to put up with Saba, gawdfersaken, and a lack of quotation marks, I’m not sure I can pick up book 2. It gets three checkmarks for characterization alone.
Young, Moira. Blood Red Road. [Toronto]: Doubleday Canada, 2011
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