The Girl in Red
Ratings29
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings29
Average rating3.5
From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a postapocalyptic take on the perennial classic "Little Red Riding Hood"...about a woman who isn't as defenseless as she seems. 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....
Reviews with the most likes.
I was very annoyed by this book. The thing I love about little red riding hood is the mystery element. Finding out the grandma is the wolf, but also speaking to the wolf. I love the adaptations that make the wolf something other than the bad guy the most.
This didn't really even have a wolf element. It was more just every bad guy was an animal or something. It was very mild. The main character was also really unlikeable. She was ‘so much smarter' than everyone else. The whole of the people apparently could not think of all the things she could. Honestly, it was so annoying.
The whole he/she-ing of the kids was also super dumb. Have you ever heard of the word ‘they' perhaps. For fucks sake. We didn't even get to see the fucking grandma. The ending was anti-climactic and the way the story was told with all the flashbacks also made all the main plot points be right next to each other, even though they were really weeks apart. I didn't like that either.
3.5 rounded up.
Decent story, vaguely reminiscent of a zombie novel without actually being one. The disability representation (Red is an amputee) was pretty well done as far as I can tell, it's not treated with undue theatrics nor as a throwaway attempt at diversity in which the character's disability actually has no disabling effect it's just a character who also happens to be disabled, that was pretty refreshing.
I had a couple very minor issues with this book but overall, I freaking really liked it. It had great representation with the main character being biracial, the repercussions of being black in a world of prejudice, as well as being an amputee. I loved how her prosthetics, both physically and emotionally were discussed and the trails and tribulations it caused, especially is an apocalypse! Christina Henry did something really special by taking a genre that I love, filling it with diversity that it often lacks, and then combining that with the loved story of Red Riding Hood. This doesn't mean much but it has my stamp of approval!
Dit begon nogal meta, met lockdowns, een snel verspreidend virus en domme mensen die dom zijn. Gelukkig voor ons houden de overeenkomsten daar op. Terwijl wij weer een quasi gewone wereld hebben, stortte de wereld in dit boek volledig in. De tv is uitgevallen, de radio is uitgevallen, geen communicatie, geen instructies van de overheid, afgezien van opgepakt worden in quarantainekampen.
Red is een overdreven pragmatisch karakter en is vanaf haar geboorte volledig voorbereid op een situatie als deze. Helaas voor haar is haar familie dat niet. We volgen Red op haar reis naar haar grootmoeder, met aangrijpende flashbacks naar de dagen van dat begin van de crisis. Ze reist door de wildernis en komt onderweg meer dan alleen wolven tegen, want het lijkt erop dat een dodelijk virus niet het enige gevaar is dat op de loer ligt in de mensheid.
Ik vond dit echt leuk bedacht. Het was verfrissend om te lezen vanuit het perspectief van een personage dat geen idiote beslissingen neemt wanneer de wereld lijkt te eindigen.
De auteur schuwt gruwelijke scènes niet en over het algemeen was dit een meeslepende, interessante lezing. Maar hoewel het verhaal vrij langzaam vordert, heb ik het gevoel dat er wat meer verkenning van wat er aan de hand was, ontbrak. Ja, het verhaal gaat vooral over Red, haar denkprocessen en hoe ze haar bestemming probeert te bereiken, maar ik had echt gewild dat we wat meer hadden uitgezoomd en meer hadden geleerd over de oorzaak van de crisis en hoe ermee wordt omgegaan.
Dus ja, hoewel het boek het verhaal van Red uitstekend vertelt, kan ik niet anders dan toch een beetje teleurgesteld te zijn over het einde.
