Blood Red Road, by Moira Young

Blood Red Road, by Moira Young

About a year ago, one of our Tupper teachers said that I should read a book called "Blood Red Road" by her cousin. I think it wasn't even published yet, but she said it was so good! Sure I thought, and forgot all about it. Monthes and monthes later I saw it on a list of dystopian novels, and my memory worked, so I bought it. I was searching these books for 2 reasons; students in senior English do a unit on dystopia, so I wanted to support that, and "The Hunger Games' has been so successful that it spurned a new wave of writing YA, that being futuristic post- apocalyptal sci-fi/fantasy with violence as a central theme. I read it at Spring Break this year, and I loved it despite that the author used less punctuation than I like, and that she writes dialogue using an accent, which is not easy with many dialects or vernaculars so often it is done in Cockney or southern States accents, or as in "The Help" it is done in Ebonics (AAVE). This technique is also used brilliantly by Sapphire in her first novel "Push" but it is more of a halting street talk through her narrator, Precious. Precious tells her own story, and as a near illiterate it makes sense because her voice is the story. In "Blood Red Road" the style adds nothing. I would be much happier if the author set the scene so that the reader would interpret the voice, since we read inside our head and use our imagination to enhance the experience. "BRR" is a fast paced adventure. I thought the characters were well developed and colourful and the scenes interesting and complex. Readers will certainly find comparisons, -down to the title, to McCarthy's "The Road" but this is a teen fiction book and does not make you want to throw-up or do harm to yourself. Ridley Scott has picked up the movie rights and Young has her 2nd of 3 in book stores already, so she is doing well. She is Canadian, hence the Can-Con flag at the top of the page, but lives in England now.