Blood Red Road - Moira Young
Young, Moira. Blood Red Road. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2011. Print.
Summary: Blood Red Road follows Saba in her quest to free her brother after mysterious men kidnap her from their home. Saba and Lugh are eighteen-year-old twins who live with their father, Pa, and younger sister, Emmi, in a civilization that follows the modern age of the "Wreckers." One day, three mysterious men in dark robes arrive at Saba and Lugh's home and capture Lugh, taking him away on horseback and killing Pa in the process. It appears the reason they have taken him is because he is an eighteen-year-old boy born at midsummer. While he is being taken, Saba vows to Lugh that she will find him and set him free. Thus begins her journey. Saba sets out with her sister Emmi and heads for a safe place to keep her while she hunts for Lugh. Emmi, however, follows Saba through a desert where the two are captured by a woman who sells cage-fighters. After living as a fighter for a month, Saba is able to escape with the unlikely help of a group known as the "Freedom Hawks." When she escapes from the fighters' camp, she rescues a man named Jack from a fire, and he tells her he can lead her to "Freedom Fields" and her brother. Together, Saba and her new found friends voyage to Freedom Fields, conquering many trials and challenges along the way. Saba realizes that she is falling in love with Jack, and he makes no attempts to hide his mutual feelings for her. Eventually, they find Lugh and free him from his captors heading off to a new land and a better way of life.
Dystopia: This book continues in the vein of post-apocalyptic dystopian novels, similar to While I Live, Fever Crumb and Ashes, Ashes. Saba and her companions live in a time after the Wreckers, or modern day. The civilization has collapsed, and now the people live under no governance, or in the case of Hopetown, the only city, there is a king and a corrupt governing body. The king uses a plant that seems to be similar to tobacco called chaal to control his subjects and keep them compliant. This is similar to the ruler of the ship in Across the Universe dumping chemicals into the water supply in order to keep control over the ship and dull the thinking of the passengers. This book then has something in common with the others. It seems to be a trend to set a dystopian novel in a post-apocalyptic world. Perhaps this allows the author to easily demolish the current society structure and construct their own in a believable fashion without having to do much work. Also, the thought of what society would be like after our own has ended is intriguing and makes for an exciting setting. The world Young set up is quite similar to the other novels I listed above, and it was interesting that, again, the hero of the story is female. Saba, at eighteen, is slightly older than the other girls I have encountered, but Young still builds her as a fairly angsty teenager who is still shy around men.
Saba is initially in the dark about the state of the society she lives in because she has grown up isolated from it. She and her family live on a plot of land that is in a desert, far away from the city. It is not until she is taken to Hopetown that she realizes the corrupt state of affairs. Saba, however, does not act as the main force against the dystopian society. She meets, and falls in love with a man named Jack who wishes to take down the king, while Saba's only real goal is to retrieve her brother. Throughout the course of the novel, with Jack's influence, Saba does become disgusted with the king and wants to help Jack. This book is the first in a series, so it is possible that, in the following novels, Saba and her friends further attempt to change the society. This book also follows the guidelines because it ends with a feeling of hope. Saba does get her brother back, and the band are able to kill the king in the process. Saba achieves her goals, and is now able to start a new life with her brother and sister.
The dystopia in this novel is slightly less convincing than those of the other novels because it takes a side role to the rescue of Saba's brother. Young does not need to develop the state of things as much because the conflict is not between the hero and the society because it is corrupt, but between Saba and the king because he is holding her brother. As such, this book would not come as highly recommended as the others. Also, the language used in the book is a form of English similar to a heavy Southern or Old-Western dialect, and can be quite cumbersome and distracting at times. The themes in this novel also do not match up as well with the others because, again, the dystopia does not play a prominent role. It acts almost exclusively as a setting, and does not become an enemy itself like it does in other novels. Rather, Young chooses to emphasize the quest for Saba's brother and the romance between Saba and Jack. There is also quite an interesting relationship between Saba and her younger sister Emmi which develops throughout the novel. The book was an enjoyable read all said and done, and I would definitely put it on the shelf.
