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 … 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….
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Hmmm… this book.
I love the idea of a Red Riding retelling set in a virus-devastated world (despite current circumstances). And I enjoyed other books by Christina Henry. So, I was really looking forward to reading this. If Henry had stuck with the main storyline, this would have been a 4-star book easy. But for some reason, the virus wasn’t enough – there was also something that left people with their chests burst open. That part was unnecessary, in my opinion, and a bit convoluted. I don’t know why she felt it was necessary.
Other than that, the book was great. I loved Red’s determination and refusal to let anyone get to her. I also loved her rules for the apocalypse, and her tendency to capitalize things – Things People Used to Do and the rule of Not Separating. Red reads A LOT and watches sci-fi movies and I loved that about her too.
Overall this was a good book and I still love Christina Henry.
This is not the type of book I normally read- a post apocalyptic rendition of Little Red Riding Hood. I found though that I couldn’t put the book down- so compelled was I to see if Red could make it to her grandmother’s house! It’s quite an engaging twist on a traditional fairy tale!
I had to let this book sit in my brain for a bit before writing this review. There wasn’t anything hugely momentous that needed to settle or anything, but I really wanted to think about this one, because I’ve read Christina Henry’s other retellings before. I’ll start of without spoilers, but there will be a few at the end of this review, so you have been warned. I’ll have that part clearly marked too, of course.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book because of the writing in general. The world was nicely detailed, and the characters were solid. When Henry wanted to show a bit of a horror element too, she knew what she was doing. The subtlety and buildup to the ending was great, but the ending itself was just okay.
Okay, spoilers from here on out, you have been warned! The subtlety and buildup to the secret, chest bursting monsters was good throughout the book, but the monster itself felt generic to me. I was worried about this too, of the 4 other books of Christina Henry’s I’ve read (Alice being my favourite) the endings aren’t that great (especially in Alice actually, but Lost Boys was perfect). The monster that ripped its way out of people was a generic creature with lots of teeth, and it died fairly easily.
Red herself was a good character, with realistic flaws, I really liked her. Her main goal was to just stay alive in the post apocalyptic world and reach her Grandmother. Now this is a spoiler, she reaches her grandma’s house at the very end, but the story cuts there before we see granny.
I couldn’t help but wonder why? It’s just her grandma’s house. It wasn’t build up to be this being cliffhanger moment. It’s just her granny.
Now, I do like the ambiguous “are they really safe?” ending, but it didn’t have to be there. It kind of felt unfinished.
Spoilers have ended here, by the way. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some action, and a light read. It didn’t take long for me to get through it, which was nice. I would also tell that person to not get their hopes up too much though.
This book started with promise, but it ended up leading nowhere. It has no story arch and no conclusion. It has a series of events, and then it ends.
It’s a Little Red Riding Hood retelling set in post-apocalyptic America. Most of the population has been wiped away by a mysterious virus. Red believes that the safest place is her grandmother’s remote house, and she sets out to walk there through forests to avoid being taken to government quaranteen camps. She succeeds. The end.
In Little Red Riding Hood, the journey through the perilous forest is only a part of the story, and not even the major part. The important part is when she reaches the safety of her grandmother’s house, only to find out that the wolf has reached there first. That’s when the story happens. We don’t get that part in this book. We get the perilous journey about two thirds of the way, and an epilogue; we get two encounters with the army ready to take Red to a camp, but not the third, the important one that should take place after Red believes she’s reached safety. The reader is left hanging, wondering if this could possibly be the entire book. But it is.
The major revelation to Red seems to be that she’s the Huntsman, not the Little Red Riding Hood. That’s not enough to carry a book. We never learn what the wolf is. There’s the virus, but then there’s a monster too. I don’t know why the book needed both, especially since they only serve as a catalyst for the story. It would have been a different matter, if it had turned out that grandmother has the monster incubating inside her too, but the story never reaches that part of its arch, ending just when we learn what the monster looks like — though not why it exists in the first place.
Red is a disappointing figure too. She has all the makings of a diverse, something for all character, but nothing is made of any of it. She has a prosthetic leg, so she’s not physically perfect. It’s the Chekhov’s gun alluded to throughout the story (‘I hope my leg don’t give up on me’, ‘I hope I won’t trip’), but it’s never fired. She never falls because of it and it never lets her down at an important moment. She walks and runs with a heavy backpack on without trouble, she kicks and defeats grown men without any problems from her leg, and it never even chafes, forcing her to stop. So what’s the point of that vulnerability for the story? Nothing.
She’s black, though with such a light skin and straight hair that she can pass as a latina. She doesn’t have a black woman’s identity — not that I know what that would entail — and apart from some rednecks who attack her parents at the beginning of the book, the fact that she’s black plays no role in the book. So what’s the point of her skin colour for the story? Nothing. And on top of everything, she’s bisexual. Why, when there’s no romance, sex or sexual violence even (not that it was needed), would it matter that she’s attracted to both men and women? It doesn’t. So Red only looks good on paper. Her diversity has no purpose or impact on the story.
This is a deeply flawed book at its root. But you don’t really notice that until it abruptly ends without delivering what it builds up to. So I gave it three stars. I was going along with the story right to the sudden end, rooting for Red. I just wish the rest of the story would have been there too.
This post-apocalyptic twist on Little Red Riding Hood will keep you turning the pages and laughing-as much as wincing. People become who they really are during crisis filled times and you can really see that in this amazing book. I loved it. And I really hope this story keeps going…Excellent read!
This is a wonderful written story full of imagery and stunning scenes as Red sets out to make her way to Grandma’s house come hell or high water, in this post-apocalyptic novel. She may be a lone women with a prosthetic leg walking over 300 miles, but she’s and with an
ax. She isn’t going to let any men, coyote or wolf, get in her way. This book does have some surprises for you, I wouldn’t ruin it for you but you’ll wish for sequel.
“I am going to my grandma’s house, and if you try to stop me I will slice off whatever I can reach and leave you here to bleed to death.”
With alternating timelines that reveal the decimation of the world, Red is our consistent main character who shows that being a woman in a man’s ravaged world is her very underestimated strength. She doesn’t need guns or an intimidating appearance or even all four limbs. She has serious smarts and fierce intuition. The Girl in Red is a violent, post-apocalyptic retelling of the little red riding hood from once upon a time. Girls are stronger now, and their grandmothers can take care of themselves, too. Check it out.
This is quite the riveting story. It gets weirder, scarier and more believable as I read!
Red is a pegged-leg, petite woman. She is by no means frail, quite the opposite. With courage, intelligence and caring heart she manages to live through true terror—a terror where no one is safe. She has watched so much Sci-Fi, she identifies with many scenes on TV through her ordeal. She’s a planner, likes control and has a ruthless sharp-wit about her that does her in good stead.
When the Cough comes to town, she is prepared for the worst; she has been carrying her knapsack with everything neatly packed for weeks (a quick getaway, if necessary), getting in shape to carry all the weight, and keep herself balanced.
All hell breaks loose just a day before her family and her want to leave to travel by foot, some 350 miles through forests and backroads to her grandmother’s house. Tragedy strikes. Decisions are quickly made. The Cough follows, dogging Adam, her brother, and her every step. Can she outrun the Cough? Can she outrun desperate men? Can she keep Adam from giving up? Is there anyone she can trust? All these questions had me coiled on my chair.
Adam, Red’s brother, appears to be very shallow, but surprisingly, he eventually gets my admiration.
I haven’t read anything from this author before. I notice she tends to take fairy tale stories and creates a Sci-Fi thriller from it. This is one story I could read again. I’m hoping to read a sequel—the ending could be just a catch-your-breath moment. Red may be safe, but is the world? Well written, a real thriller with just the right amount of humor that I didn’t pass out holding my breath!
It’s full of magic and passion and courage, set against a convincing historical backdrop… Henry’s spare, muscular prose is a delight. I loved this novel.
This book caught my attention because I love new takes on old classics. This was a fun and different version of The Little Red Riding Hood. Once I started it was hard for me to put it down. I really enjoyed the writing and look forward to reading more from Ms. Henry. This is definitely a must read!
The Girl is Red, is as one would expect a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood from acclaimed author Christina Henry. Much like with her previous retellings, this novel is as masterful in the way it reinvents the classics in modern, fantastical and unexpected ways. Henry has proven time and time again just how talented she is in the way she utilizes elements from the original tale to craft her own unique story. The elements that Henry uses, both big and small, add up in a way to bring to life this new fresh way for her to tell a story. It is not an exact retelling, but the nods to the original are subtle enough and loud enough to connect it back to the original while maintaining its own identity. Henry also uses those elements in a very modern fashion, different than with her previous retellings this one has a more modern feel to it as it steps away from the fantastical just a little to take the story towards a postapocalyptic direction.
The modern feel to the story allows the pacing and narrative to build up the tension of the story in a remarkable way. The story goes back and forth from the past to the present, and yet this does not slow down the pace of the novel, it only adds to the tension because of how Henry structures the story. She uses the past to influence the present, but Henry builds to it, she builds up that tension with a compelling narrative dripped with emotion in the tone.
The way the reader can get inside the head of Red works to make the story more interesting. It is more than just some postapocalyptic story or retelling, it has the emotional depth to it and shows readers where Red has come from, what she has gone through, how her personality and strength balance off one another to build her up. She is tough but she is also grounded and thoughtful in the way she reacts to the world around her, and that is key in this novel and what makes her stand out and essential in making her relatable to the reader.
The Girl in Red is another fantastic novel by Christina Henry. It is inventive in how it tells the story and creates so much tension making it a gripping novel that gives nothing away until the very end, keeping the reader glued to Red’s journey through the woods to grandmothers’ house.
Book Review: The Girl in Red by Christina Henry
Contributed by Seven Jane
Release Date: June 18, 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Book Rating: 10/10
Review:
A post-apocalyptic fairy tale featuring a biracial, bisexual, axe-toting kickass handicapped woman who’s not about to be a victim to any big bad wolf? Sign. Me. Up.
It all began with the Cough, an infectious, air-borne disease that could kill even the healthiest person in twenty-four hours flat. Like any good world-ending virus, the Cough spread quickly, decimating the modern world and quickly pivoting humanity’s few survivors—mostly those immune or who’d somehow managed to hide, literally, from the virus—into a new world where resources are scarce and survival is contingent on one’s ability to find enough food and shelter to stay alive, all the while avoiding both infection and the worst of all monsters: other humans. It’s a post-apocalyptic fairy tale set in the new future, though for Red the dangers lurking around the corner are ones that have plagued mankind for centuries: intolerance, fear, hubris, power-seeking, and various other destructively antisocial behaviors. (There’s a monster, too, but its existence somewhat pales in comparison.)
Cordelia—or as she prefers to be called, Red—is a biracial, bisexual survivalist with a penchant for science fiction and horror, and a prosthetic leg. She’s also the sole survivor of her family—her white father, black mother, and older brother all having been…lost…to various consequences of the Cough that hit a little too close to home to be entirely fiction. Come hell, high water, or copious amounts of treacherous hiking, Red is determined to make it to her grandmother’s house—which waits three hundred short miles away—without being gobbled up by any wolves, literal or figurative, along the way. She’s determined and resilient, without being unapproachable or unrelatable. In fact, quite the opposite, Red persists as the embodiment of all the better parts of humanity that have disappeared in the wake of the Curse. She’s fierce, but fair. Strong, but compassionate. And she’s always, always prepared. In fact, if there’s another woman I’d want to be traipsing through the apocalypse with, you bet your picnic basket it’s Henry’s Red Riding Hood.
An author with a special knack for refitting classic fairytales into modern tales, Christina Henry’s retelling of Little Red Riding Hood in The Girl in Red reads as dreamily as the fairytale it was inspired by, but takes a poignant look at some of today’s most pressing social issues—racism, women’s rights, and even the power of government in a world where the balance between control and protection is as razor thin as the sharp edge of Red’s axe. It’s a fable fit for the current age, when the space between science fiction and reality is often blurry, and the monsters we fear most are the ones waiting within ourselves for a chance to pounce.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
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….
Christina Henry