Blood Red Road (Dust Lands, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Jan 07, 2011 karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: why-yes-i-ya, girls-gone-wild, live-through-this, my-biggest-fear, from-publisher-or-author

this book is one of the most-anticipated release titles in teen fiction, and i got to read it early because ariel is a gift to mankind.take that, teens!! you guys get fast metabolisms and hopeful outlooks and unlimited potential, and i get advanced readers copies. even steven.

so she gave me this book about twins and a bird, which is like giving a new young mother a buddy book where a kidnapper teams up with SIDS for adventures and romance.but i braved my fears and read what i was hoping would be ...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Eh?Eh! rated it liked it

Shelves: babble-added, ah-ree-ell

Well...fantastic scene-setting at the beginning, characters with complexity and not too lovable, a quest!, but then, things that irritated me:

-too improbable villainy
-a rush-rush-rush ending.
-the expected love connection
-a blatant jab at the heart in that rushed ending
-several dangling ends and glancing setups for the next book
-Lugh is supposed to be such an important figure but I didn't get to read enough about him to agree

I should've loved this more. A sign that I'm old and cranky.

I did like ...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, favorite-series, lily

I really enjoyed this book, and, oddly, it was sort of DESPITE the writing. The dust flap describes it as "poetically minimal" and I'd venture it's more along the lines of "annoying made-up dialect" ... but after a while I was able to immerse myself in the story and ignore the "gittin" and "cain't" and "nuthin" (I just opened the book randomly to three different pages for those examples). Because, I LOVED Saba. I loved how real she was, I loved how she was kind of a selfish jerk at times,and sca ...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Jess rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, young-adult, dystopia

1st try in print: This came recommended, but the first 100 or so pages didn't grab me - or maybe I just wasn't in the right mood. It had holds at the library and I didn't feel like getting even further in and risk feeling like I needed to finish it just because I'd read so much. Maybe another time.

2nd try on audio: The moral of this story is to trust your gut. If a book doesn't grab you, it's okay to quit even though people you trust rave and it wins awards like the Cybils. The premise was intri 1st try in print: This came recommended, but the first 100 or so pages didn't grab me - or maybe I just wasn't in the right mood. It had holds at the library and I didn't feel like getting even further in and risk feeling like I needed to finish it just because I'd read so much. Maybe another time.

2nd try on audio: The moral of this story is to trust your gut. If a book doesn't grab you, it's okay to quit even though people you trust rave and it wins awards like the Cybils. The premise was intriguing, and the beginning of the story sets up lots of potential themes. The father with his star reading, the heartstone, the complicated family relationships, midwinter twins, kids raised in near-isolation thrown into a rough world. But one after another, Young drops the ball on all this potential. The story becomes action-driven, rather than character-driven, which is fine if the action manages to hook you. It sure didn't hook me - the cage fighting was the first thing to put me off, and by the time the big showdown at the end arrived, I was only interested in seeing whether she'd leave us with a cliff-hanger or a neater resolution.

The characters had great potentional - Saba's adoring attitude towards her twin Lugh and her near-hatred of little sister Emmi could have had some great nuance, but other than a predictable build-up of affection for Emmi, nothing much happened. Like another reviewer pointed out, Saba has an incredible ability to fight and interact with the wider world considering her isolated upbringing. Others have compared her to some awesome kick-ass heroines, but she lacks their prickly likableness. The romance is dull and the heartstone's role painfully predictable. I kept expecting various intrigues - I wanted Lugh to turn out to be a huge jerk, just because Saba idolized him. I wanted the king to be more interesting, but he was simply bizarre. I wanted more.

The audio version is nicely done, though, all things considered. The dialect that comes across as distracting on the page feels natural when spoken aloud, and Heather Lind does some good voices, nicely distinguishing characters. ...more

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Apr 08, 2015 Emma rated it liked it · review of another edition

"Lugh got born first. On Midwinter Day when the sun hangs low in the sky. Then me. Two hours later.

"That pretty much says it all.

"Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on behind.

"An that's fine.

"That's right.

"That's how it's meant to be."

All Saba ever needs is to know that her twin brother Lugh is by her side. With him near, Saba can handle the annoyances of her younger sister Emmi; the loss of her mother, who died birthing Emmi; and even the madness that is slowing pulling their fath ...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Marianne rated it really liked it

Here is another dystopian apocalyptic book, but it's a good one! Younger teen readers may find the lack of punctuation marks in the dialogue confusing, but the plot and characters are intriguing. I have to say, I'm excited for book 2! This book is marked for ages 13 and up because of violence and swearing. ...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Jess rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2012

Enjoyed this a lot more than the first couple of chapters made me think I would. The cage-fighting / Hopetown sections were definitely the strongest - I think my Patrick Ness binge earlier in the year has tired me out as far as venturing across dusty plains is concerned.
If I had one negative, I'd say that the ending felt like a bit of an anti-climax - but I suppose this is the side effect of a novel that's part of a series rather than a stand-alone. Certainly not as infuriating as some endings, ...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Kerry (The Roaming Librarian) O'Donnell rated it liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction, action-adventure, science-fiction

This book was not quite what I was expecting, but it was really interesting to read. I really enjoyed the main character, how tough and also vulnerable she was. I liked that she was flawed, all the way through the story, so human. I would definitrely read another story about this place, and this character.

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Jun 02, 2011 Jessie rated it really liked it

It took me a while to get into this one--the dialect was hard for me to read at first. Once I got past a slow start, I thought this was a great entry into the teen-girl heroine dystopia genre. A nice readalike for The Hunger Games with a totally believable, horrible world.

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Apr 27, 2011 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic

Started off kind of slowly, but eventually after getting used to the writing style and the uneducated vernacular it picked up and I ended up really enjoying it.

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