Blood Red Road - Moira Young

BLOOD RED ROAD - Moira Young

Now this is what i call thrilling. From the protagonist's emotional struggles to her undeniable bravery, the heroine character stands out the most even though she may have tons of flaws in her. 

The story starts off with Saba and Lugh, the twin siblings who live in this place calls Silverlake which happens to be a desert and together, they own a house with their father William and younger sister Emmi. Years ago, their mother Armis passed away while giving birth to Emmi,  and neither of them seems to be able to get over it, especially William. He is a star reader and spends most of his time reading them, often saying that there’ll be rain the next day. However, it never does. 

Both Saba and Lugh are really close siblings, but they both clearly have different views on things. Lugh gets annoyed and irritated of William's predictions and thinks that he fails as a father, hence he always avoid and even despise him, calling his own father a madman. On the other hand, Saba loathes their younger sister Emmi, who she thinks caused the death of their mother. To Saba, all she ever needs is Lugh, and none other matters (kinda obsessed, isn't it?)

One day, a strong dust storm covers Silverlake with red dust like blood (so it was described), and four coated men known as the Tonton - military men, appears in front of Saba and Lugh. One of them turns out to be their neighbor who is never around, and looking at Lugh, he tells his companion that he had been watching this boy for years. Puzzled, Lugh orders Saba to look for William while he himself runs towards the other direction to distract them. When Saba pounds on the door and yells for William, William seems to already know what exactly is  going on and tells Saba to stay strong as Lugh and Emmi will need her, making everything sounds like a prophecy. Soon, William is killed in the fight and Lugh gets taken away by the Tonton. Even so, Saba calmly buries her father and makes the decision of looking for Lugh herself, no matter how hard is it.

She first decides to send Emmi to her aunt in Crosscreek and set off to Hopetown to look for Lugh, but Emmi is as stubborn as Saba is (bizarre...) and Saba has no choice but to bring her along. They cross the sandsea (a vicious stretch of desert where people get lost every. single. time) and somehow end up in the Pinch’s boat (bad, bad guys :'/) . To protect Emmi, Saba agrees with the Pinch’s terms and becomes a warrior, or in fact, gladiator in Hopetown. Clearly, it is a high pay job. 

In Hopetown, Saba’s ability to fight got rewarded by the name ‘Angel of Death’ and when she finally finds rallies (a group of people call the Free Hawks) and has a plan to escape the Colosseum, she meets the intimidating Jack. Fate somehow arrange for her to save Jack, who is trapped in the cell during the great fire of the building. After betting farewell to him, Saba follows one of the Free Hawks, Ash, to their camp in the Darktrees and surprsingly, Jack turns out there too(Well, you know why). 

Previously in the Colosseum, Saba got to know about the reason the tontons captured Lugh - the king wants him as a sacrifice - the boy born in midwinter, for an unknown reason. The king’s palace is located at the Freedom fields, and there is the place Saba is heading to now.

Many other characters come in after that: the free hawks, Jack’s friends, and there are also many intense battles from Saba’s point of view. At last, they successfully rescued Lugh, but in the process, Saba is forced to shot one of her friends who is about to be captured by the Tontons and Jack’s friend Ike dies after getting an arrow at the neck.

The story ends with everyone going their own way, temporarily. The Free Hawks go the other way to contact the others, Saba, Lugh, Emmi and Tommo (Ike's followers) to the West where soil is rich and water is clean, and Jack is on his journey to Molly, Ike’s girlfriend. He has to tell her about Ike’s death and he makes a promise with Saba to meet each other at the West, the great water. This ending confirms on a sequel, and i certainly can't wait for what's next. 

This is a brilliant plot, and marvelous page-turner, with plot twists and action scenes everywhere, but I have to comment on Moira’s writing technique. Moira wrote the story in a very different way by omitting the apostrophes, making the sentence : <That’s it! He says. Precisely!> Instead of <“That’s it!” He says, “Precisely!”>. It is not wrong, certainly, but It is a bit confusing sometimes, especially when the book is also first person point of view, which makes you may wonder whether it’s something she said or just something she thought inside her brain.

Actually, other than Saba, i have to say i am very fond with her sister Emmi's character too. At such tender age, having a bravery as strong as Saba is indeed, admirable. Now, about the romance. The romance got me kinda gripped and honestly, Jack seems to be a really, really, really hot and nice type of guy. Despite that, the ting i love about their relationship is it's progess and also amount. Just nice, not to much nor too cheesy. 

This is definitely a good read!

4 stars ****