This is dedicated to Lyrical_Love 22 cuz she really really wanted this book, and stole it a couple times from me. :D
Note: There will probably be spoilers. And I will probably compare this book to the Hunger Games series. I love the Hunger Games, and anything in this review is not meant to berate the Hunger Games or tear them down in any way.
Book: DustLands: Blood Red Road
Author: Moira Young ( authors.simonandschuster.com/Moir... )
Genre: Dystopia
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Number of Pages: 459
Price: $5.36 - $26.63 (The highest price was for the audio CD, which was $26.63, the actual paper and kindle versions are much cheaper.)
Inside Cover: Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.
Review: I was originally skeptical of this book. On the front cover, there's a review that says: "Better than The Hunger Games... This book will blow you away." I was like: That sounds good!
But then I look at who wrote the review. MTV. And I was like: Meh, it's probably good, but it may not live up to that review. I"m sure the people at MTV are smart... but it's still MTV. However, more reviews on the back cover and the inside said much the same thing. Honestly... it was better than the Hunger Games. In my opinion, please don't read it and not like it and then get mad at me.
Saba, Lugh, Emmie, and their father all live in the middle of a desert. Saba and Lugh are twins, born on midwinter under a full moon. Emmie is their nine year old sister. Their dad is just a bit crazy. Lugh is quickly captured by warriors called the Tonton. Their father is also killed in the same attack. Saba buries their father, with the help of Emmie. She then goes in search of Lugh. Throughout the book, she's put in a number of really tough places. She spends a few weeks in a gladiator pit fighting for her life. There's other stuff that I won't spoil for you guys.
(This is where I start comparing Blood Red Road with the Hunger Games, please don't get angry.) Unlike the Hunger Games, Blood Red Road isn't super dramatic. In the Hunger Games, there's a lot of: "Children are torn from their families, facing death or murder. Emotionally scarred and insane people under the brutality of the Capitol. Fear and war." Stuff like that. In Blood Red Road, it's a bit more like this: "A kid gets kidnapped, so his sister treks across the land and fights and kills people to get him back."
Saba just does stuff. Her brother is kidnapped, so she gets on a horse and goes after him. It's not a big deal to her, seemingly. But when you read it it's kind of shocking. Oh wow she just decided that she would let other girls die in the gladiator fights so that she could get out. Wow she just ran into a fire to rescue a guy she doesn't even know, oh okay. With Katniss, I find a lot of building up and struggling and that kind of thing. I'm not saying Katniss is a bad character. I just find Saba's view very fresh, as opposed to these hero types that are always doing amazing things. The fact that Saba just does stuff that's amazing without thinking about it is amazing.
In the book, there are no quotation marks around speech. At first, it was a bit annoying. However, it became normal after awhile. It seemed to me that Young was painting the book, rather than sculpting it.
Blood Red Road was incredible. It was so good... one of my friends tried to steal it from me three times. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who liked The Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, Legend, etc.
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