Review: Blood Red Road

Title: Blood Red Road
Series: Dustlands
Author: Moira Young
Goodreads Link: Goodreads Description
Rating: 3.5/5

Warning: Minor spoilers below.

I am going to start this off by saying that I did enjoy this book. However, it took me until about halfway through to do so. The reason why was not because the plot was not interesting until later, but because of the use of poor grammar and spelling. I understand that Moira Young used that as a tool to emphasize the characters' lack of an education, and it was an interesting tool to use. For me, however, it made it difficult to get through, because I'm a stickler for proper spelling and grammar. The lack of quotation marks was sometimes confusing, as sometimes I had to think about where the quotation began if it was included in a paragraph with narration.

Towards the end of the book, I realised the lack of quotation marks helped me pick out each character's 'voice', meaning I was able to say "Okay, that part is Saba's narration, and this is Jack beginning to speak here". I was able to train myself to see the difference between each character's way of speaking, which was actually pretty cool towards the end.

However, the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading. This book is not one of my favourites, but it was enjoyable. We are told the story from Saba's point of view and see everything through her eyes. I felt that at sometimes, the way Saba was, I did not get a full feel for the other characters, but that also could have been because I was so focused on trying to ignore the grammar that I missed her initial descriptions of each character. It may take me a second or third read for me to truly appreciate this story.

Do I recommend this book? If you can put up with the grammar and spelling issues, then go for it! Saba tells an interesting story, and the post-apocalyptic land Moira Young created is certainly intriguing.

Am I looking forward to the rest of the series? Ask me again after I re-read this book; I'm still digesting it. It left off in a way that I could be satisfied not knowing anymore (meaning no huge cliffhanger), but I did read the second book's synopsis and am intrigued as to what happens next. We'll see.

(Also, can I just point out that I love the hardcover edition's cover [seen above] a lot better than the paperback's and others that I have seen. I hope the next books don't all follow the paperback's theme of a cover)