Blood Red Road (Dustlands) [Paperback]

I was recommended Blood Red Road after greatly enjoying the Hunger Games and Chaos Walking trilogies. As a 40 year old man, I am not really the target audience for "YA" literature. My 13 year old daughter reads "YA" books and it's nice to be able to talk about books with her, so when she gets excited about a book, I see if I want to read it too. I was greatly impressed with the afore-mentioned trilogies and was keen to further mine this genre, if it can be called that. Given the reviews BRR has garnered, I think I expected too much - Blood Red Road is fun, written in a compelling vernacular (similar to Todd's voice from the Chaos Walking trilogy) with some really good action scenes and an interesting heroine. However, I felt that the character development was limited; some of the characters were rather two-dimensional (in particular, the "baddies" of the piece), there were some gaping holes in the credibility of certain aspects of the story and there was far too much 'Mills and Boon'-level romantic prose. Without wishing to give away any spoilers, I also felt the final phase of the book pushed my ability to suspend disbelief too far.

I think I may have experienced the very best that YA has to offer in The Hunger Games and Chaos Walking - those books were not only great adventures, but also had deeper meaning and provided the reader with many important issues to think about, long after the books finished. If I seem dismissive, I do think BRR is better written and better developed than most any "adult" best seller. Moira Young has done a better job than I would expect from Dan Brown, for instance, but the book still falls short; it is, at best, an adequate time-filler, but I do not imagine that any of the characters or situations will stay with me beyond a few days. Great books stay with you forever.

Blood Red Road is a perfectly enjoyable adventure story and interestingly written and for that, worthy of three stars. However, to earn more than that (from me, anyway), it needs to offer the reader more than adventure alone, but also something to think about after the story concludes. I don't discourage you from reading Blood Red Road, but I think some of the cover sleeve comments and reviews are over the top in their praise. The publishers are hopeful that Hunger Games readers will pick this up for their Katniss-fix; a gross over-sell, I'm afraid.

An enjoyable adventure, but nothing more than that. Sometimes, that's all you want, so it's OK. But it's a league or two down from Hunger Games.

This book probably had about as much right with it as there was wrong with it. Hence my middle of the road rating.

It was a pretty good post apocalyptic adventure story. Even if you have to ignore some rather large plot holes along the way. Like your main character developing amazing butt-kicking skills even though she's had one of the most sheltered upbringings imaginable, living on a scrap of dusty wasteland with only her brother, sister and father for eighteen years. Where exactly did she find wrestling classes there, hmm?

The pacing was not bad, either. Apart from the very beginning section when the cast was limited to only two or three characters, the rest of the book moved at a fairly good clip with some nice heart-pounding scenes mixed in with some quieter, more reflective ones.

The characterization of the main character was also quite good, even if she was very unlikeable. I believe that was intentional, however. Her selfish, stubborn nature improved a little bit along the way, but I was still only luke warm about her by the end. I intensely disliked her treatment of her younger sister and her creepy hero-worship of her twin. Having said that, I'm all for flawed characters and can happily read about a horrible person as long as they are interesting and make some progress. And she is, and she does, so that aspect was not bad.

There's a sort of love interest character introduced who is also quite unlikeable at the start. He actually makes more progress than the main character in my opinion.

I believe this book has been optioned to be made into a movie already and I think it will probably make quite a good one as a lot of the scenes will make great visual feasts. However, what you are supposed to get in the book version that you don't get in the movie version is more in-depth world-building and background info. But we didn't really get any of that. It literally read like a movie put on pages.

Because I liked the action scenes I may pick up the next one but it's not one I will be elbowing people out of the way to get my hands on.

I purchased this book a while ago, thanks to a strong (though not unequivocally glowing) review by Times children's book critic Amanda Craig. During redecorating, the book got pushed behind some others, and I'd forgotten all about it until I saw it had won the Costa Book Awards Children's Fiction category. Inspired, to read it, I dug it out, and here I am.

On completion, my first thought was that it must have been a lean year for children's books. That's not to say 'Blood Red Road' is a bad book. It's an exciting read, but for me one with lots of flaws, and I'm surprised it won the judges favour (but hey - what do I know?). One of the biggest problems for me, is the novel's similarity to Patrick Ness' terrific Chaos Walking trilogy. 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' (the first book in the series), won the similar Costa approval, but for me 'BRR' is but a pale imitation. Both novels offer a dystopian view of the future and both take place in a frontier land reminiscent of the Wild West. Both use phonetic dialogue, and feature a despairing quest across a foreboding landscape. Both novels have a megalomaniac villain pulling the strings; sadly, in only one of the novels is this villain believable and it isn't 'BRR'.

The story is a simple one. Sometime in the far future in a broken world, Saba, Lugh and Emmi live with their father, by the side of a shrinking lake. Nobody else lives nearby. One day some soldiers arrive, kill the father and kidnap Lugh, leaving Saba and Emmi on their own. Saba vows to bring her brother back, and so begins the quest to find him. Saba is drawn from the Kantiss (of The Hunger Games) mould - tough, resilient, resourceful and a woman who refuses to know when she is beaten. Fans of the 'HG' will find much to like here, particularly in the early stages when Saba finds herself conscripted as a cage fighter.

There are some good things about this book. It is very readable, particularly in the middle third. The author uses her phonetic dialogue well. The manner in which each character talks, tells the reader something extra about them. I often find this type of writing difficult to get into, but I had no problems here. Young's cracked world is a well-drawn and interesting setting. She hints at where and when it might be, tantalising the reader, but never revealing enough to destroy the mystery. The shifting sands, uncovering and re-covering artefacts from a distant era, is a particularly effective device. There is also a crow who steals all the best lines.

The problems with the novel come from the heavy-handed way in which plot is driven forward. (The following paragraphs contain some spoilers, so you may not want to read them)
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Despite them both being prisoners Saba's sister can pretty much come and go at will. This allows Saba to send the messages she needs to orchestrate her plan. It's convenient but not convincing. Saba is brilliant at cage fighting. This is explained by a red mist that comes over her. It is just about works, but throughout the book, she remains an awesome fighter, and a crack shot, without any formal training. Then, for no apparent reason, somebody who has vital information for Saba, and a unique link to her, conveniently turns up in an adjoining prison cell. This prisoner reveals a few cryptic hints before being plucked away, before she can reveal too much and spoil the whole book...

The route taken by Saba's guide, to find her brother, isn't the fastest possible. The detour is just to pick up a couple of characters who add little to the story (apart from a contrived emotive bit at the end). This makes the whole quest a race against time. It adds tension but is contrived. This route takes the characters across what might as well be called 'The Plateau of Certain Death'. (Where the guide has already been, but seems happy to go back? Oh yes, and he doesn't tell anybody else about it, until it's too late for them to turn back). Then whilst on the 'PofCD', just as they are all about to be killed, something even scarier comes along, and frightens off the original attackers. Saba then kills this new beast and the day is saved.

Because Saba hasn't taken the quickest route, there is a chance that some earlier acquaintances might turn up. Would the cavalry turn up? It was all so contrived, and the baddie such a caricature, it was hard to care. A baddie, it should be pointed out, who Saba has two opportunities to kill and fails to do so. Okay, she didn't check properly first time, that's a believable mistake, but second time - a bolt to the head straight away was her only plausible course of action.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
I worry that the Costa prize recognition has made me take a look at this book a little deeper than I might have done otherwise, and I'm disappointed that it didn't stand up to close scrutiny. This is undoubtedly a page turner but I don't think it's destined to be a classic of post-apocalypse fiction. If it's that you're after, try the Patrick Ness books or even the recently published Pure. Both of these are far subtler examinations of power and loss.