I had trouble with finding a good book in the Dystopian genre that was on par with The Hunger Games. I thought to myself, nothing will be able to compare. I finally found its’ match. It’s this one. For sure. People who ask for other books like Hunger Games, I yell out Blood Red Road and nothing else. Remember Mad Max? well the world is something like this. Dry, desert, hot. Blazing hot. The setting was so descriptive and rich you can feel the heat, the sweat, and the dryness. It sure seems like a very desolate lonely world, but the world building is wonderful and so rich and detailed. It’s a perfect setting for this type of novel and it’s extremely well done. I loved Saba. She’s tough, she’s gritty, she’s not afraid to get dirty and to fight tooth and nail to get to Lugh. She treats her little sister like dirt, and yes I did find the little kid annoying, I would have hated to be in her shoes if she ever got Saba angry. But, you have to give credit to Emmi, she does talk back. As the story progresses, Emmi does grow on me and she’s definitely got the same strength Saba’s got. I love the bantering between Jack and Saba. There was chemistry there and with Saba’s bad temper it just made their interactions absolutely fun to read at times. The characters overall in this book were excellent. There was nothing to dislike! I also loved the Free Hawks. It was just awesome reading a girl gang who are able to survive on their own! The action scenes are also really good (there’s worm like creatures! it’s like the sandworms from Dune except evil and really really aggressive!!! I squeed when I read this part!) the entire plot of this book was engaging, interesting and could not stop you from reading. It was literally, a page turner. The only thing I had an issue with is Saba’s narration. It’s different, and took me a few tries to follow but you do get used to it as you read through the story. Other than that, fans of the Hunger Games would LOVE THIS! and SHOULD READ THIS! drop everything else and give this one a try. It’s one of the best dystopian books I’ve read that definitely should share the pedestal that the Hunger Games is on.

This YA Dystopian debut by Canadian author, Moira Young, is pretty good. It won numerous literary awards, including: Sunburst Award Nominee for Young Adult (2012), Costa Book Award for Children's Book (2011), Cybils Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult) (2011), and Teen Buckeye Book Award Nominee (2012). Saba and her twin brother, Lugh, are 18 years old. They are as close as siblings can be, and Saba lives and breathes for Lugh. For the most part, they have been raised by their father. Their mother died in childbirth when their younger sister, Emmi, was born when the twins were 10 years old. Saba is resentful of Emmy and blames her for causing their mother's death. Lugh is the kinder one, and he does what he can to make Emmi happy. Saba's father, Willem, reads the stars. Lugh thinks it is nonsense, but Saba believes her father when he warns her to be strong and not give into fear because, one day, Lugh and Emmi and many others will need her. He makes her promise to never give up, and she assures him that she is not a quitter. Four horsemen come, and they take Lugh away. Willem is killed during the melee, and Saba promises Lugh that she will find him. Saba and Emmi now only have each other. Willem always told Saba to go to Crosscreek and find Mercy, who was her mother's friend, should anything happen. It is a three-day journey on foot. Saba explains what has happened and asks Mercy to look after Emmi while she goes off in search for Lugh. Mercy agrees, and Saba sets off. Saba gets captured and is taken to Hopetown, where her head is shaved and she is forced to engage in cage fights against other women. She earns the nickname of "The Angel of Death." There, she meets a mysterious man named Jack who is another cage-fighter. Saba discovers that Lugh has been taken to place in the mountains called Freedom Fields and that the King intends to kill him on Midsummer's Eve. Every six years, an 18 year-old boy who was born on Midwinter's Eve is sacrificed because the King believes that his power will be renewed by the sacrificed boy's spirit. Saba has to find Lugh before it is too late. I thought that the premise of the story was great, but I really did not care for Saba. She is self-absorbed and selfish, and I loathed the way that she treated Emmi. I felt really sad for Emmi, having been brought into a world where no one really cared for her. Willem was never the same after his wife died, and Saba rebuffed Emmi because she was the reason why their mother died. If it wasn't for Lugh, Emmi would have had a miserable existence. What is even more heart-breaking is that Emmi is used to the neglect and does not expect anything more from Saba! So sad. Saba does evolve during the course of the book, and she ends up a better person than she started out. I do like how Young showed Saba's strength in the face of adversity. Aside from having a hard time embracing the heroine of the story, Saba, I had a really hard time with the dialog in the story. Nearly every line of dialog ends with either "I says," "he says," or "she says." It is so redundant, and there is no variation. Heather Lind is a new-to-me narrator, and I had a hard time with her narration in the beginning. Her soft-spoken voice practically lulled me to sleep, and it took a while before I was able to get into the story. She was "just okay" for me. Overall, I like the book enough to want to read the next book in the series, Rebel Heart, which was released in October 2012. I received this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any compensation for my review, and the views expressed herein are my own.

Blood red road made my blood stuir and totally hade me hooked! I loved the character's wild personaleties and how they were all different but tied together in some way.I loved the way the author described everything and I love the way the plot played out. The plot was great and I loved every bit of it! A great read! :D

Red blood road is a fantastic novel for anyone who likes action, adventure, and romance. I think i like it more then The Hunger Games, and i read that book over four times now! I recently read this book again for a second time, and i loved it as much, maybe even more, then i did the first time. I fell in love will all of the characters right from the start of the book. This is a must read for all fans of the hunger games!

Okay. This book was trying a little too hard. Patrick Ness' Chaos Walking series had probably played a role in the making of this book. And please belive me when I tell you that Ness' books are about as good as you can get. Everything from the inccorect spelling like "jest" for just, "'ud" for would and "eether" for either was very Chaos Walking. BUT WHAT WAS YOUNG THINKIN WHEN SHE DECIDED HER CHARACTER WOULD USE THE WORD "AN" AS APOSE TO "AND"??? -le sigh- I had to do a double take every time an appeared and tell myself: "Okay she means and". It's one thing to express your characters' lack of proper education through moderate amount of "quirkiness" and it's another to bombard the page with "waitin", "an", and "jest". Ugh. Please stop trying so hard, Ms. Young. Young had obviously missed out on her high school biology class. In one part of her book, she describes the death of Saba's Ma as a result of over bleeding during childbirth. "She bled for two days then she died." .....Umm excuse me Miss. DID I JUST READ SHE BLED FOR TWO DAYS? LOL. WUT?! That can only occur if the wound was very small, in which case your body will quickly repair itself. Or she had taken some blood thinner but that would mean she would have bled out WAY earlier than 2 days. I just can't believe such rediculous claim can be published. Okay. I get it's only fiction but at least make it a little bit believable. I couldn't feel sympathetic for Saba and her family after that. It just make me doubt everything that was said about her Ma. Did I mention Young tried too hard?? Oh yeah. I did. Here's another reasion she pushed me to dislike this book. Saba is described in every way worst than her brother (except at skipping rocks). He can fix the roof while can only this and only that. HE EVEN IS IMMUNE TO GETTING SUNBURNS A:THOUGH HIS HAIR IS BLONDE WHILE SABA'S IS BLACK. Hey, Young. Just FYI. People with darker hair colour have a dark skin tone due to the fact that they have more melanin. It's an evolutionary change so please stop trolling with me. Saba can't be that bad. Because out of no where she was able to kick ass like it's nobody's business. One moment she was the girl that hands the tools to her brother, then the next she was the Kung Fu master. LOL. Please. I could not have finished this book. Please please please pick up Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go because I promise you it is a better book than this. I knew I wouldn't be able to read on with Blood Red Road or I might have to stab it with the basilisk's fang.

( a copy was provided by the publisher for review ) ( originally posted in email for review ) Blood Red Road is a story about a girl named Saba and she lives in a post apocalyptic world and things are very rough and hard to live. Saba's whole world crashes when her twin brother Lugh who is also her best friend gets kidnapped, Saba knows she needs to get him back so she travels through rough plain and even rougher obstacles to get him back. Alright so I had a hard time with this book I really wanted to love it and because of all the amazing things I have heard about it I had some high expectations but I barley liked it and here are the reasons why. I feel like this could have been an amazing book and Moira Young had a solid concept for her story but it lacked in it's delivery. I feel like the hardest part to this book and it's biggest downfall to me was the writing, it was very difficult to get in to it and that made it hard for me to lose myself in the story and it distracted me from a lot of the elements that were happening. I thought Saba as a main character was good, she was hard to relate to in the beginning of the story because Lugh kind of out shined her a little and it took some time for me to warm up to her personality, I thought Lugh was an alright character but with him getting kidnapped in the beginning of the book there wasn't enough development for me to judge his character, I really liked Emmi's personality, I liked that she thought for herself and she was a lot tougher than she looks and I also feel like she was a major backbone for Saba. My favourite character of the story has to be Jack, I loved his arrogance and his cocky swagger he brought a lot of light to the book. I thought the overall plot of the book was good but a bit slow and again the writing made things tough for me but I found things picked up by the end, I would have liked bit more romance because I am a romance junky but there was still a nice amount considering all the events in the story. Overall this is not a favourite of mine, I really wanted to enjoy this book but there were too many things blocking the way for me to really get in to the story. I might read the sequel just to see where the plot goes but I'm still on the fence about it. :0)

This book was unreal, right from start to finish. Saba is an 18 year old girl who goes on a journey of a lifetime alongside her younger sister, Emmi and a group of others to save her twin brother, Lugh who was taken away by a group of Tonton one morning at Silverlake. Saba's adventure is filled with terrifying encounters, close to death experiences and blooming romance, which makes for a most amazing read. I seriously cannot wait until the next instalment in the 'Blood Red Road' series comes out! Also, Saba reminds me of Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games;' her determination, stubbornness and strength are all very similar characteristics. Although I'd have to say, 'Blood Red Road' is much better than The Hunger Games!" Just wonderful! :)

***If you liked the Hunger Games, than you will LOVE this*** Blood Red Road is an awesome post-apocalyptic teen novel that will blow you away. Saba (our heroine) and her family live a quiet and sequestered life until 4 claoked horsemen abduct her brother, Lugh during a red dust storm. The novel chronicles her search to get him back and the adventures she encounters. This book has all the requirements of a good post apocalyptic read - gladiatorial fights (always a favourite of mine), mutant worm-things, a band of butt-kicking girl warriors, a tyrannical self-proclaimed 'king', a sexy boy and some epic battles!!!! I am looking forward to reading more of the books in this new Dustlands series :) *If you love post apocalyptic fiction, check out my top ten 10 list of the best P.A. novels, in my opinion (in adult fiction)*

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. Reasons to Read: 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.

The Good Stuff Sorta have a crush on Jack with his swagger and his cockiness - love me those kind of boys (Yes I try to pretend he's not that young, don't want to be called a cougar or anything) Author is Canadian Had a Mad Max sorta feel to it - that is how I pictured the world they lived in -- not as violent as Mad Max of course -- as it is marketed towards YA Saba is a strong feisty heroine and there is some great character development with her - didn't always understand her decisions, but I still liked her Love Nero - I want me a bird like that Like the intriguing secondary characters and want to know more about them Exciting fast paced story - on the edge of your seat moments good use of humour - right when you need it most Strong female AND male characters - working together Fabulous ending Just a really good adventure tale to lose yourself in for a while Author is Canadian - yes I know I mentioned that fact already - but I'm Canadian and well I have to promote a fellow Canuck (and yes I know she lives in England now) The Not So Good Stuff sort of creeped out for her obsessive love for her brother, but maybe its a twin thing I don't get the appeal of Lugh - but maybe we will get to know him more The writing style took a little to get into at first, but keep going it really does add to the story Favorite Quotes/Passages "There ain't nuthin written in the stars. There ain't no great plan. The world goes on. Our lives jest go on and on in this gawdfersaken place. An that's it. Till the day we die." "Sometimes I think, if only I'd come earlier, if only I'd been there, maybe Allis would have lived. But you cain't think like that. If you do, you'll make yourself crazy. I did get there in time to keep you alive, red little scrap that you were, and I comfort myself with that." "I ain't never seen a creature like that before, she says. He's so smart, he's -- More like a person than a bird? I says. Yeah, she says. That's it. Whatever you do, I says, don't tell him that. I'll never hear the end of it." Who Should/Shouldn't Read Fans of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction will enjoy Will appeal to both adult and YA readers - there isn't too much angst and adult bashing so us older readers won't get offended I can see the Hunger Games comparisons, but don't read it based on that - it is different 4.5 Dewey's I received this from Random House in exchange for an honest review