Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Title: Blood Red Road

Author: Moira Young

Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic, Fiction

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Date: June 7, 2011 

Pages: 549 pages
Series: Dust Lands, #1

Reading Level: 12+

Content: Kissing, Mild Cursing

Description

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 a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

Review

Saba is an eighteen year old girl who has never been beyond her miniscule dried-up hovel of a home world. She knows nothing of what exists in the outside world. There are only a handful of people she has met in her life, three of which include her father, her twin brother, Lugh, who she is her sun, and her useless and annoying little sister, Emmi.

After her brother is taken by strange men who kill their father, Saba begins her trek across the unknown to fulfill her promise to her brother to find him. Going on nothing more than sheer determination and stubbornness, Saba knows that she cannot quit, cannot give into fear, she must be strong. Those who have helped her, now rely on her; Jack, the handsome stranger with a crooked grin, the revolutionary Free Hawks, and her little sister, Emmi, whom she discovers isn't as helpless as she had originally thought.

Along her quest, Saba learns to guide herself, accept help from those around her, and just who she is, a survivor.

I just finished this book about 2.8 minutes ago and had to immediately sit down and share my experience with this story. I wanted to eat this book after I was done reading it. Crazy, yes, but I really did. I wanted to know more about the characters. I wanted to experience theirs lives more fully. After hugging the book to my chest, kissing the cover, and sniffing the bindings, eating it was all I had left. I did not eat the book. It was a loaner from the library. Alas, I do believe they would be rather irritated with me if I ate their book. Besides, I do believe that it would taste most unsatisfactorily the same as many other books. Depriving me of the essence I was seeking to being with. Besides,  my fiber quota has been met for the day so there really is no need to digest the pages. Although, I feel that is exactly what I did while reading it. Devoured it. Savored it. Swirled it around in my head and let the aromatics overwhelm my senses.

The style in which the story is written is broken and harsh and wonderful and fluid. I was so worried the first few pages that this was going to be a difficult read. Trying to understand and stay in the story. It truly fell away into a musical masterpiece that I lost myself in.

And then there is Jack. Who is he? What does he know? Should we trust him? I'll let you figure that out for yourself. What I will tell you is that there were times in the story where I felt like I had just had my first kiss. All warm and tingly, a little light-headed, and completely lost in the moment. **Sigh, Swoon, Smile**

Bonus Material

Movie rights for this book have been sold to director, Ridley Scott, with a tentative release date of 2014. (I will now be putting this on my IMDb.com watchlist!)

Book Trailer for Blood Red Road.