Thank you to NewSouth Books for this book in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn’t look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.
There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there’s something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined.
Red doesn’t like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn’t about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods….
Review:
Damnnn Red is a badass!
Let’s start with the major attraction about this book, it’s dark. I kid you not, you know how hard it is to find a dark YA book that doesn’t suck and isn’t weird?? Trust me, it is really hard. Henry is a master of writing a dark YA book that has a captivating story, and you hang on every single moment of it.
Think of little Red Riding Hood and imagine Red in the situation where a deadly outbreak of disease plagues the earth and it’s either kill or be killed. There is no sugar coating the descriptions of the dead bodies, there is no softening the murder of horrid coyotes of humans, there isn’t mellowing out a raw kill. I love it.
The story shifts between the start of the outbreak and Red’s current situation in the apocalyptic world. However even with the switching back and forth between the past and present, the pace doesn’t slow, in fact it is constant and leaves you gripping to the book tightly with anticipation.
I am a massive fan of retellings and Henry is honestly my favourite when it comes to putting a dark spin on a classic tale.
Honestly, I loved Red in this book! Not only is she a complete bad ass, but she has a prosthetic leg! I love it when characters that are usually underestimated but power on and prove people wrong. I love for it.
Overall, I couldn’t fault this book at all. It was a brilliant and dark story and fantastically written. If you haven’t read Henry’s work what are you doing with your life?
Rating: 5/5
Publisher: Titan Books
ISBN: 9781785659775