Teen Review: Blood Red Road

Blood Red Road (Dust Lands #1) by Moira Young
Release Date ~ February 28, 2012
ISBN13: 978-0385671835
Novel recieved as a RAK gift.

Goodreads Synopsis:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.
This is one of those books where you either hate it, or you love it.  I was anticipating for this book to be alright, but what I didn't expect was to love it as much as I did. 

1. Saba
Saba is actually a really interesting person to read about.  She's rude, callous, and incredibly strong.  Usually, people like that tend to turn me off.  But for Saba, it really worked.  While I said that she was fairly insensitive, I could really tell just how much she loved Lugh.  From page one, he is mentioned in only the highest regards.  When he was taken, I felt her pain.  I could tell that the amount that because she loved Lugh so much, losing him was making her go mad.  Maybe it was just me, but I when I was reading some times, she really seemed to be losing her grip on her sanity.  She's completely disinterested in helping anybody else but herself, but I found that I couldn't help but like her.  I mean, she had every single reason to be as hard and bitter as she was.  She was a completely realistic character that I thoroughly enjoyed.
2. The Post-Apocalyptic World
The world that Saba and all the other characters live in I found to be thoroughly enjoyable.  After the apocalypse happens, the world is basically one big wasteland.  Unlike some other novels set in the future, there wasn't really any amazing technology.  Some things were different, such as a sand-surfing ship, but nothing too out of the ordinary.  I really liked the way that it was explained, too.  The world is really, really messed up, which I found to be a cool take.  You can't really trust anyone in this world, and nobody has a reason to trust you.  Everyone in this world wants something, and is working purely for themselves.
3. The Adventure
If you couldn't tell from the title, Blood Red Road, this novel's main focus is Saba's journey to find her brother Lugh.  While there were some delays in this journey, I thought that it was thoroughly enjoyable.  There are a full range of characters out, all with unique personalities.  Aside from that, the action was awesome!  There were tons of battles, and fights, and chase scenes that I found to be exhilerating.  I was excited, scared, and just plain frustrated throughout the entire adventure.  The adventure was thoroughly enjoyable.
4. The Language
This is probably the most controversial part of the book.  Saba has a very thick southern-style accent, and the book is written that way.  While I found it disorienting at first, I got used to it by the end of the novel.  I actually really liked it, and thought it fit in really well to the story.  If you don't mind reading a little bit of broken English, then I don't think that you will mind to much.
Although I did love this book, the one thing that I didn't like was how there were no quotation marks around the characters' dialogues.  This was a bit disorienting at times, when I thought Saba would be saying something, but it would actually just be in her thoughts.  Overall though, I think that this book was really well done and exceeded by expectations.
 

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