The Girl In Red by Christina Henry

The Girl In Red

Author: Christina Henry
Published: June 18th, 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Rating: 5/5

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook ♥♥♥♥♥

Goodreads synopsis

It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn’t look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.

There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there’s something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined.

Red doesn’t like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn’t about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods.

My thoughts

Well, this book was not what I was expecting, this was just something totally different and I loved it! One thing is for sure the more books I read from this author the more I love her writing. She is the queen of retellings, if you haven’t picked up Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook yet or Alice the Alice in Wonderland retelling (review to come soon) you are truly missing out. Yes, her books at least the ones I have read are a bit dark and gruesome at times but they are amazing reads so take that from someone who doesn’t like stories that are too gruesome or disturbing but I was hook to Christina’s writing from the moment I picked up Lost boy.

“they had watched in horror as town after town and city after city was decimated by this sickness, this mysterious terror that had sprung up”

The Girl in Red is a post-apocalyptic retelling of The Little Red Riding Hood, we follow Cordelia but she likes to be call Red, she lives with her parents and brother Adam. Red loves, horror movies and love science. Everything was good until and epidemic called the Cough wiped most of the human race and whomever was left were sent to quarantine camps but not many agreed to go there, so you had people making their own rules.

“Cordelia was her name but Red was who she was”

The story is told in dual time lines we have a before and after the events and to me that made the suspense even better, I just couldn’t put this book down because I needed to know how things got they way they did. Red and her family were set to go to her grandmother’s house in the woods. Red decides to travel thru the woods not to encounter other people for fear to get taken to the camps. Red encounters many unwanted company and even thought she didn’t have any martial arts or combat training she was very clever and tough.

One thing I absolutely loved and wasn’t expecting was that Red is a POC mixed race father was white and mother black , and a transtibial amputee (lost leg from knee down) and she loves science and horror movies. Red, was a great character to follow maybe a little too know it all with a very strong personality but I absolutely loved her! I also, liked how the author touched on making assumptions based on people’s looks. I will also say that at times I found Red’s bother to be a little shit but then I kind of changed my mind LOL. I would also mentioned some young characters Red met along the way and I loved them especially when the young one got super excited thinking that Red was a cyborg because she was wearing a prosthetic leg.

The writing and the pace of the story were great and like I said before just couldn’t put this book down. Without getting into any spoilers there were some parts that were interesting and the twist was not expected.

Overall, I loved this book and even though is kind of dark and a little gruesome is not as dark and gruesome as Alice (I loved that book) so if you like retellings, and are looking for something fast to read give this one a go.