The Girl in Red by Christina Henry
Christina Henry has of late shifted her focus onto darker retelling of fairy tales - Alice and Red Queen, The Mermaid - and we love the decidedly un-disney like interpretations of the fairy tales. Grim tales steeped in dark atmospheric settings that will have your heart palpably beating real-fast as the narrative chugs on with manic speed towards that thrilling finale.
And so when I got the invite to review The Girl in Red, posed as a different spin on the red riding hood and the wolf story, I jumped for it. But as I read the initial few chapters, I realized that as usual, Christina has taken an axe to our preconceptions about how this story of the girl in the woods who meets the wolf, will turn out to be.
Red, birth name Cordelia, is a twenty-something young girl on a long hike through the woods and abandoned forests somewhere in the US, trudging through to get to her grandmother's house (Yup: A cabin in the woods, that remains true!) after the whole world has been destroyed by a deadly viral infection that starts off harmlessly as the common cold and cough. We first meet her crossing a patrolled border and then running into a stranger [ the Wolf?!] who, predictably wants to get to her food and next, her in that order. In the quick and brutal manner in which she dispatches her assailant off quickly establishes her as a competent young woman, who knows to get by herself and is a mean wielder of that shiny hand-axe. She will kill to survive and to get to her goal. This is established pretty early on, giving us a sense of the resolute young woman, that Red is. In someways, I thought Red was cold, too clinical in her approach to living and that made her not too likable.
But I was wrong. The narrative timeline is split across her present, chronicling her adventures on the road as she hikes across bush-lands and her past, where we are privy to her backstory. And then as we get to know how she actually came about, to be on this hike. And we realize that Red is not really that cold calculating hunter in the woods. She's in fact a nerd, obsessive about acquiring knowledge on everything under the sun. including zombie movies and survival in general. One who loves planning and sticking to the same. Unlike her older brother, Adam who cannot be bothered by "the apocalypse" BS and is still busy trying to work out the internet signals for his phone. What happens to her brother Adam is another point of tense suspense that threads through the narrative of the past as well. In the present timeline, Red actually meets up with two younger kids - Sam and Riley, trying to desperately survive out in the woods by themselves. Red sees a bit of herself in the older girl Sam, precocious and highly wary of strangers while Riley charms her with his guileless naivete and so she deviates a bit from her original plan, in order to make sure the kids reach a safe point before she can move. This bit of her plan derails, as is wont to go [ as they say in the horror movies!] and follows through until the shocking climax of the novel.
Red riding hood, a post-apocalyptic horror story ? Well, believe it. Because Christina delivers a highly entertaining take on the done-to-death post-apocalypse survival drama, in the guise of mixing up fairy tale heroines ( a gutsy, far-feminist combo of nerd-brains and cold practicality ) along with gut-twisting horror in The Girl in Red. I did feel like the story ended a bit abruptly but overall, the narrative pacing was very well done. I highly enjoyed Red's character - who grew on me, despite starting off as a cold, calculating survivor of the woods. And the wolf, you ask? Well, there are perhaps many in this one. I would let you enjoy the process of unpacking that surprise element. With a few twists along the way, Christina maintains the lid on the tense suspense in this thrilling survival ride all the way to the end. You will root for Red, just like I did - watching her evolve and grow from a bookish nerd to a full-out take-charge adult who takes on responsibility and doesn't shy away from tough decisions. A practical no-nonsense girl fuelled by righteous rage at this insanity that's stolen away her dreams. It's a very fast read, as is typical Christina and towards the second half, once the secrets start tumbling out of the locked up cupboards, it screams ahead. Christina never loses track of her plot, keeping it fairly closed up in terms of the number of characters. There are only a very few people outside of Red, who actually matter in the story. Maybe this is a deterrent for folks who love sprawling character maps and expansive world building but that isn't the focus of the story. It's an intensely personal narrative, of a young girl growing up in a world without rules, having lost her only compass of morality and values that was her family.
To say I loved it, is an understatement. Eagerly waiting for what Christina is going to treat us to, next in another of her dark retelling of the fairy tales. More power to you, Christina.
And so when I got the invite to review The Girl in Red, posed as a different spin on the red riding hood and the wolf story, I jumped for it. But as I read the initial few chapters, I realized that as usual, Christina has taken an axe to our preconceptions about how this story of the girl in the woods who meets the wolf, will turn out to be.
Red, birth name Cordelia, is a twenty-something young girl on a long hike through the woods and abandoned forests somewhere in the US, trudging through to get to her grandmother's house (Yup: A cabin in the woods, that remains true!) after the whole world has been destroyed by a deadly viral infection that starts off harmlessly as the common cold and cough. We first meet her crossing a patrolled border and then running into a stranger [ the Wolf?!] who, predictably wants to get to her food and next, her in that order. In the quick and brutal manner in which she dispatches her assailant off quickly establishes her as a competent young woman, who knows to get by herself and is a mean wielder of that shiny hand-axe. She will kill to survive and to get to her goal. This is established pretty early on, giving us a sense of the resolute young woman, that Red is. In someways, I thought Red was cold, too clinical in her approach to living and that made her not too likable.
But I was wrong. The narrative timeline is split across her present, chronicling her adventures on the road as she hikes across bush-lands and her past, where we are privy to her backstory. And then as we get to know how she actually came about, to be on this hike. And we realize that Red is not really that cold calculating hunter in the woods. She's in fact a nerd, obsessive about acquiring knowledge on everything under the sun. including zombie movies and survival in general. One who loves planning and sticking to the same. Unlike her older brother, Adam who cannot be bothered by "the apocalypse" BS and is still busy trying to work out the internet signals for his phone. What happens to her brother Adam is another point of tense suspense that threads through the narrative of the past as well. In the present timeline, Red actually meets up with two younger kids - Sam and Riley, trying to desperately survive out in the woods by themselves. Red sees a bit of herself in the older girl Sam, precocious and highly wary of strangers while Riley charms her with his guileless naivete and so she deviates a bit from her original plan, in order to make sure the kids reach a safe point before she can move. This bit of her plan derails, as is wont to go [ as they say in the horror movies!] and follows through until the shocking climax of the novel.
Red riding hood, a post-apocalyptic horror story ? Well, believe it. Because Christina delivers a highly entertaining take on the done-to-death post-apocalypse survival drama, in the guise of mixing up fairy tale heroines ( a gutsy, far-feminist combo of nerd-brains and cold practicality ) along with gut-twisting horror in The Girl in Red. I did feel like the story ended a bit abruptly but overall, the narrative pacing was very well done. I highly enjoyed Red's character - who grew on me, despite starting off as a cold, calculating survivor of the woods. And the wolf, you ask? Well, there are perhaps many in this one. I would let you enjoy the process of unpacking that surprise element. With a few twists along the way, Christina maintains the lid on the tense suspense in this thrilling survival ride all the way to the end. You will root for Red, just like I did - watching her evolve and grow from a bookish nerd to a full-out take-charge adult who takes on responsibility and doesn't shy away from tough decisions. A practical no-nonsense girl fuelled by righteous rage at this insanity that's stolen away her dreams. It's a very fast read, as is typical Christina and towards the second half, once the secrets start tumbling out of the locked up cupboards, it screams ahead. Christina never loses track of her plot, keeping it fairly closed up in terms of the number of characters. There are only a very few people outside of Red, who actually matter in the story. Maybe this is a deterrent for folks who love sprawling character maps and expansive world building but that isn't the focus of the story. It's an intensely personal narrative, of a young girl growing up in a world without rules, having lost her only compass of morality and values that was her family.
To say I loved it, is an understatement. Eagerly waiting for what Christina is going to treat us to, next in another of her dark retelling of the fairy tales. More power to you, Christina.
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