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.
Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.
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"Lugh's gone. Gone. My golden heart is gone. I kneel in the dust. The tears roll down my face. An a hard red rain starts to fall." When her "older" twin brother is captured by marauding horsemen, Saba knows that she will have to leave the ravaged landfills that have supported her family since the destruction of their civilization. Moira Young's Blood Red Road marks the auspicious beginning of an ambitious post-apocalyptic series that will ensnare your attention.
Publishers Weekly
Young's powerful debut, first in the Dustlands series, is elevated above its now familiar postapocalyptic setting by an intriguing prose style and strong narrative voice that show a distinct Cormac McCarthy vibe. When 18-year-old Saba's father is killed and her twin brother, Lugh, is kidnapped, she sets out to rescue him, along with their younger sister, Emmi, and Saba's intelligent raven, Nero. Their travels across the desert wasteland bring them to a violent city in which Saba is forced to fight for her life in an arena. When she escapes with the help of a group of women warriors, she and her new allies (including a handsome and infuriating male warrior named Jack) try to prevent Lugh from being sacrificed. Young's writing style—channeled through Saba's wonderfully defined narrative voice—may be off-putting at first, but readers will quickly get used to the lack of quotation marks and idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation ("There ain't nuthin written in the stars. They're jest lights in the sky") and be riveted by the book's fast-paced mix of action and romance. It's a natural for Hunger Games fans. Ages 14–up. (June)
Children's Literature - Heather Kinard
The dried up wasteland known as Silverlake is a harsh and unforgiving place, but it is home to 18 year-old Saba and her family. Her mother died nine years ago while giving birth to Saba's younger sister, Emmi. Since then her father has been distant and almost absent from their lives. Saba's only comfort is her twin brother, Lugh, who is the rock that holds the family together. One day a huge dust storm arrives, bringing with it four cloaked horseman who will change their lives forever. Her father is murdered and Lugh is kidnapped leaving Saba and Emmi all alone. Saba is determined to find her brother and bring him home safely, but is unprepared for the brutal reality of the outside world. Her brother's trail leads her to Hopetown, a city ruled by an evil King who controls his subjects by drugging them. Saba is quickly captured and forced to be a cage fighter with other prisoners as a form of entertainment for the King and his subjects. In her captivity, Saba meets a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks. Together they plot their escape from captivity and make a plan to save not only Lugh, but perhaps their entire civilization. Throughout this adventure, Saba discovers her own strength and the importance of trust, family, and forgiveness. This book is a fast paced story filled with adventure, suspense, and even a little romance. This book is recommended for readers who enjoyed "The Hunger Games" series. Be aware there is some violence and mild language included. Reviewer: Heather Kinard
Kirkus Reviews
Born on Midwinter Day, Saba and her twin brother Lugh are opposites—she's dark, scrawny and cantankerous, while he exudes calm with his golden beauty—but that doesn't stop her from rising to the occasion when he needs her.
Weeks before their 18th birthday, four rough horsemen ride into their isolated, desert homestead, killing their star-reading Pa and taking Lugh captive. Saba embarks on a treacherous journey to save Lugh, with her pet crow, Nero, and her 9-year-old sister, Emmi, in tow. Saba and Emmi are kidnapped by slavers, who sell Saba to the Cage Master of the Colosseum, where she becomes known as the Angel of Death. Overseeing this macabre world is a king who keeps people in check with a narcotic, convincing them to renew his life by sacrificing a boy born on Midwinter Day. Saba learns about Lugh's fate from Jack, a fellow prisoner. With the help of Nero and a group of freedom fighters, Jack and Saba escape and rush to Lugh's rescue. This debut is a mashup of Spartacus, the court of Louis XIV and post-apocalyptic dystopia. Saba's naive, uneducated voice narrates this well-paced heroic quest in dialect, an effective device for this tale that combines a love story, monsters and sibling rivalry.
Readers looking for a strong female protagonist will find much to look forward to in this new series. (Science fiction. 12 & up)
Jessica Bruder
Much of Young's writing has an elemental power, unfolding across achingly barren landscapes, full of blistering "hotwinds" and swirling clouds of orange dust. Scenes are brief, told in a few pages with fast-paced action…The words themselves are distinct too. Nearly all of Young's characters are illiterate. Saba narrates her story in frayed English, full of phonetic spellings and other quirks…The dialect takes getting used to, but the payoff is a musical brokenness to the language, which creaks along nicely with Saba's observations of her torn-up surroundings.
The New York Times
From the Publisher
*"Young's powerful debut, first in the Dustlands series, is elevated above its now familiar postapocalyptic setting by an intriguing prose style and strong narrative voice that show a distinct Cormac McCarthy vibe. It's a natural for Hunger Games fans." Publishers Weekly *STAR
“Blood Red Road will capture any reader who picks it up. I love everything about Saba - her language, her intensity, her heart. Everyone should read her story.”James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner
“I absolutely loved Blood Red Road. What a great read! Moira Young goes over the top with a most engaging heroine. Saba is a crusty, foul-tempered warrior woman who must be covered in scar tissue by the end of the book, but men still follow her around like starving wolves. The dialogue is fast and often humorous, the pace never lets up. No situation is so bad that it can't get worse in the next couple of pages. I especially liked the awakening of the hellwurms as they emerge to feed. Well done, Ms. Young!”Nancy Farmer, author of The House of the Scorpion
“Better than The Hunger Games. . . . This book will blow you away.”—MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog
“Is it any surprise that Ridley Scott swiftly optioned the book?”—New York Times Book Review
“Blood Red Road is an eerie and adventurous dystopian fantasy on par with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker.”—LA Times
Children's Literature - Michael Jung PhD
All her life, Saba has relied on her twin brother Lugh to keep their family safe in the desert wasteland they call home. But when Lugh is kidnapped by a band of horsemen who also kill their father, Saba decides to venture out into the unknown outside territories with her younger sister Emmi and search for him. Their mission goes horribly wrong when they are captured and Saba is forced into the brutal life of a cage fighter. Escaping with the aid of a cocky rogue named Jack and a gang of girl thieves, Saba learns she must journey to the heart of their lawless civilization to rescue her brother from a gruesome fate. With time running out and Saba's own foul temper creating wedges between her and her new allies, can this motley gang pull together in time to succeed in their mission? Read by Broadway actress Heather Lind, this audio book version of the first installment in Moira Young's post-apocalyptic "Dustland" series spotlights an unusual protagonist whose strength and passion enable her to overcome horrible ordeals even as her temper and hypocrisy constantly throw her back into jeopardy. Saba isn't the easiest character to like as she regularly mistreats her sister and pushes away her friends; it's telling that it's easiest to root for her when she's fighting much nastier people than herself. Nonetheless, Young does a good job of creating a dystopian world full of greed, violence, and morally gray people, while Lind shows remarkable range in creating convincing voices for Saba and her nine-year-old sister. The leering drawl she gives Saba's love interest Jack, however, often makes him sound more creepy than charming. Notably, given that the prose version of this novel is written in an unconventional style (lacking quotation marks and intentionally misspelling words to match the "backwoods" dialect of the characters) some readers may actually find the audiobook easier to follow than Young's printed edition. Reviewer: Michael Jung, PhD
Library Journal
Young's coming-of-age, young adult action/romance first novel is set in postapocalyptic times. When her father is murdered and her twin brother is kidnapped, sheltered 18-year-old Saba is suddenly thrown into a violent world inhabited by brutal people, giant wormlike monsters, female warriors, superstition, and a vicious king. The text is written in ungrammatical English that can be very hard on the ear, especially when reader Heather Lind annoyingly barks, "I says," "she says," "he says," after each character's dialog. Recommended for Mad Max and Hunger Games fans who do not mind listening to fractured English. This text might be easier to read than to hear.—Ilka Gordon, Siegal Coll. of Judaic Studies Lib., Cleveland
School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up—In the first gripping title (Margaret K. McElderry Bks., 2011) of Moira Young's post-apocalyptic trilogy, 18-year-old Saba ventures into the harsh and unforgiving world outside of her isolated home after masked horsemen kill her father and kidnap her twin brother. Determined to find him, Saba sets out for Hopetown, only to be followed by her younger sister. They are unprepared for the danger and treachery they encounter. Captured and forced to fight in gladiator-style cage fights for the entertainment of the Hopetown residents, Saba never loses her single-minded focus on surviving to find her brother. But her actions could have far-reaching consequences for her civilization. Listeners are treated to an impressive performance by Heather Lind, whose believably youthful voice resonates as the hard, resolute protagonist. The first person present tense narration heightens the intensity and immediacy of the action, as well as Saba's raw emotions. Lind also gives supporting characters unique voices, and turns in a fine performance of the dialect written by the author. A perfect choice for fans of Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games" trilogy, and a good fit for listeners who enjoyed Kristin Cashore's Graceling and Patrick Ness's "Chaos Walking" trilogy.—Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
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