Book Review: Blood Red Road (Steph)

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

4 out of 5 thumbs up

Blood Red Road takes place in the future where we meet Saba, a teenage girl who lives with her father, twin brother, and younger sister in a barren, dusty place near a dried-up lake.  One day, some strange men arrive and, without warning, kill her father and kidnap her brother.  Saba leaves her home in the waste to look for her brother and has quite the adventure along the way.

Overall, I liked this book.  It’s quick-paced and engaging.  The book is written in first person, and the main character, Saba, is narrator.  It is also written in the same language Saba uses, so it’s like she’s actually talking to you.  Here’s an excerpt from the book.

We ain’t had a drop of rain fer near six months now.  Even the spring that feed the lake’s startin to run dry.  You gotta walk some ways out now to fill a bucket. Pretty soon, there won’t be no point in callin it by its name.

Silverlake.

It was a little distracting at first for me, but once I realized and accepted the fact that the whole book is  written this way, I was able to immerse myself more in the story rather than focus on Saba’s bad grammar.  It even started to grow on me after a while.

Book Review: The Night Circus (Steph)

Time to review another one of the handful of books I've read this summer.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

5 out of 5 thumbs up  (Is it okay to give a review full marks? Doesn't that go against some kind of "critic's code?" Who cares.)

The story of this book is set around a circus that moves from city to city without warning and is only open at night (hence, the title).  It also follows the lives of two young illusionists.  These illusionists, Celia and Marco, have been trained from a young age in the "art" of magic. They are unknowingly destined to be pitted against each other in a duel to the death, bound by magic with the Night Circus as their arena.  Things (of course) get complicated when they develop feelings for each other.

I loved this book.  I liked the story, the characters, the imagery (I want to go to this circus), and the format.  It's not until the very end of the book does the whole story come together and the mystery of the circus unravels.