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A touch of horror gives this ‘Red Riding Hood’ fairy tale retelling a unique spin on an old favorite.

Christina Henry, also author of the kick-butt adult supernatural fantasy series ‘Black Wings‘, now brings us a unique spin on an old favorite.

What if Red wasn’t so little?
What if the Big Bad Wolf wasn’t even a wolf?
What do you think would be waiting at grandma’s house?

There will be spoilers!

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The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Any purchases made through my links may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

In this post-apocalyptic world, sickness ravages what remains of the human population, leaving them in a fight for survival of a different kind.

Twenty year old Cordelia ‘Red’ is prepared.

The world is ending and she’s not going to wind up like one of those idiots in horror movies.
You know?
Dead.

She always knew ‘Something Would Happen’
And she has a plan.
Now if she could just get her family to listen.

With the military rounding up survivors. The towns will be too dangerous. To avoid them and the still highly contagious sickness they’ll have to hike hundreds of miles through the forests rough terrain to get to Grandma’s house. But it’s doable.

Then tragedy strikes and, left with only her brother on the journey, she’s more determined than ever to stick to ‘The Rules.’
Never, Ever separate.
Until they do.

It isn’t until she stumbles across two half-starved children in the woods that Red really comes alive. Even with the burden of two more mouths to feed, Red makes it her mission to get them all out alive. 

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Three and a Half Stars!

Not very high, is it?.. It’s the monologuing.

“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.”

About the book:

While the writing puttered along nicely and the characters(what few characters there are) are done well.. Not much can make me appreciate reading over half of a book filled with the constant inner musings of a single character. The world has ended and she’s traveling alone.. I get how that could put a dent in any kind of stimulating conversation. But not my ideal reading experience..

A lot of what goes on in ‘Red’s head is entertaining, interesting even, and I found myself amused by her rambling quite often.

“She wasn’t under any obligation to be polite to someone who thought she was his next victim.”

Fortunately, somewhere around taking responsibility for the kids, it starts picking up pace. The interactions between characters is fantastically done and, had there been more of that, it may have saved me some long-winded sighing.

We do start to see some disturbing happenings with several of the ‘Cough’ victims. Things that can’t be explained. That shouldn’t be possible.

Her mind tried to shy away from what she was seeing, because it wasn’t supposed to be.

Overall:

I feel like the original synopsis for this book is the real fiction here. It’s rather misleading and I’m disappointed that my expectations were set so high.

I really wanted to like this one and, although I didn’t outright dislike it.. it couldn’t consistently hold my interest. Yes, the cover made me curious and it promised an exciting adventure. But I found myself setting it down too often to really get lost in the story.

It was a fun and fresh new take on the fairy tale of ‘Red Riding Hood’ and, with the pandemic still actively effecting our every day lives, this book adds a little bit of humor to some pretty dark circumstances.

•Liked: Red’s willingness to selflessly put others needs and safety first, as well as later taking on the strain of getting these kids to safety, is such an endearing quality of hers. She’s whip smart, spunky, and moderately paranoid(which added a sense of humor to many situations).

•The side characters each have noticeably distinct personalities and traits that made them more relatable.

•Disliked: InnerMonologueKillMeNow. A lot of time spent in her head, which wouldn’t be so bad, if only there had been more happening. Quite a few things are left without explanation or closure and that left me feeling dissatisfied.. for once I feel that there wasn’t enough depth to the information we’re given to get a complete picture of what’s going on in the world.

•There is no romance to speak of. The protagonist’s mentality was rather young, and twenty something is young, but this was more than that. The ending was also distinctly abrupt..

Red knocked on the door.

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All of this sounds like poor criticism. “
You might be thinking, with all the unfavorable commentary, that this book isn’t worth read. However..
I challenge you to ask yourself. Will you know if you don’t read it?

Christina Henry seems to have this book up in a way that demands further explanation.. and I do(strangely enough) hope there are more books to come. It would settle a lot of questions I have and tie up a few loose ends. I guess we’ll see!

What has been your favorite dystopian/end of the world/pandemic/apocalypse book this year?

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