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han12345's review
Couldn't finish it, so slowly paced and nothing really happens, I only had about 80 pages left and couldn't manage them
cuntlander's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jthbooks's review against another edition
5.0
The writing, much like Sues plotting, is so clever. The story at times is so brutal and harsh, but Sue’s writing is so engaging and lyrical that it just keeps you turning the page. It’s such harsh topic but the writing is so lyrical and at times ethereal. The setting feels sparse and empty. Sue captures the atmosphere of this book perfectly. It feels desolate and isolated. This book was like nothing I’ve read before. Sue writes brilliant characters, they were brilliant in Follow Me To Ground and they are just as brilliant in redder days. They are engaging, twisted, damaged and you can’t help but feel for them. But there was also something about the twins, Anna and Adam, that you can’t connect with and it makes them so intriguing. It shows the effects of two children left behind to grow up in a strange, scary situation. And they are so well crafted that and the story is engrossing that every decision they make, makes sense, even if you didn’t want them to make the decision. It’s just brilliant.I can’t recommend redder days enough, as I’m sure you can tell I loved it. There’s no one out there writing these unique stories like Sue Rainsford. Redder days is unique and unforgettable. I’m looking forward to reading this again and getting lost in the world and the glorious writing.Thank you so much to Tabitha at Doubleday Uk for gifting me with a copy of this book in return for an honest, unbiased review. It’s out March 11th
wviellevoye's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
joecam79's review against another edition
4.0
Perhaps it’s because red is the colour of blood, the colour of infection, rashes and inflammations. Perhaps it’s because it represents danger. Or because it is so often a symbol for passions which some consider too risky, or too dirty, akin to a malady. The fact is that since Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, different authors have referenced the colour in the context of pandemic fiction – be it Jack London in The Scarlet Plague or Niccolo Ammaniti in the post-apocalyptic Anna.
Redder Days by Sue Rainsford taps into this tradition, even while it’s smashing it to smithereens. Yes, Redder Days is a post-apocalyptic, (post- ) pandemic novel with strong horror undertones, but it’s certainly not your typical run-of-the-mill scary bonanza. This is immediately clear from Rainsford’s narrative approach, which is purposely challenging to the reader. She does not provide us with a linear story but, rather, invites us to piece the plot together through short chapters told from different characters’ viewpoints, alternating with journal entries describing the advent of a mysterious pandemic which disrupts normal life. The journal entries, however, place us in medias res and are quite cryptic, with Rainsford avoiding the short-cut of simply using them to provide us with the context of her tale. The result is that we readers, much like the protagonists of the novel, are often unsure of what exactly is happening.
So what are the bare bones of the story? A new malady afflicts both the human and animal world, with symptoms which are shocking and fatal. A group of survivors decide to set up a remote commune where they can be safe from the pandemic. They appoint as their leader Koan – a doctor who manages to keep a cool head when everything is falling apart. Koan “knows things”, he seems to understand the illness better than the others, and he is therefore the natural choice to head the fledgling community. But Koan is also manipulative and, in the declared interest of protecting his clan, starts to imbue this physical illness with “moral” and “spiritual” implications, essentially changing the community of survivors into a misogynistic cult. And then, the real horror begins.
Revealing any further details of the plot would undermine the whole point of the novel, which invites the readers to reach their own understanding about the strange events portrayed. A word of warning though. Redder Days raises more questions than it answers and is not a book for those who expect the final chapter to tie up all the loose ends. There are also several details in the novel which appear to have a symbolic rather than literal meaning, making the narrative dense but lyrical and poetic. This is certainly an unusual and thought-provoking read.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/01/redder-days-by-sue-rainsford.html
Redder Days by Sue Rainsford taps into this tradition, even while it’s smashing it to smithereens. Yes, Redder Days is a post-apocalyptic, (post- ) pandemic novel with strong horror undertones, but it’s certainly not your typical run-of-the-mill scary bonanza. This is immediately clear from Rainsford’s narrative approach, which is purposely challenging to the reader. She does not provide us with a linear story but, rather, invites us to piece the plot together through short chapters told from different characters’ viewpoints, alternating with journal entries describing the advent of a mysterious pandemic which disrupts normal life. The journal entries, however, place us in medias res and are quite cryptic, with Rainsford avoiding the short-cut of simply using them to provide us with the context of her tale. The result is that we readers, much like the protagonists of the novel, are often unsure of what exactly is happening.
So what are the bare bones of the story? A new malady afflicts both the human and animal world, with symptoms which are shocking and fatal. A group of survivors decide to set up a remote commune where they can be safe from the pandemic. They appoint as their leader Koan – a doctor who manages to keep a cool head when everything is falling apart. Koan “knows things”, he seems to understand the illness better than the others, and he is therefore the natural choice to head the fledgling community. But Koan is also manipulative and, in the declared interest of protecting his clan, starts to imbue this physical illness with “moral” and “spiritual” implications, essentially changing the community of survivors into a misogynistic cult. And then, the real horror begins.
Revealing any further details of the plot would undermine the whole point of the novel, which invites the readers to reach their own understanding about the strange events portrayed. A word of warning though. Redder Days raises more questions than it answers and is not a book for those who expect the final chapter to tie up all the loose ends. There are also several details in the novel which appear to have a symbolic rather than literal meaning, making the narrative dense but lyrical and poetic. This is certainly an unusual and thought-provoking read.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/01/redder-days-by-sue-rainsford.html
maxxesbooktopia's review
2.0
Redder Days is a story following Anna and Adam (who are twins) as they wait for the world to end in an abandoned commune as the rest of the world slowly succumb to the virus that turns humans into all shades of red and changes their behaviour depending on which animal has passed the infection to them. Their former commune leader, Koan, hasn’t been in the right state of mind ever since the commune dispersed, but he still exerts virulent control over Anna and Adam’s daily rituals. When one of the previous inhabitants returns, Anna becomes sceptical of their surrounding while Adam remains oblivious.
This book has everything I enjoy reading in a story: unreliable narrators, cult ambience, a leader who abuses his power and status, bits of information thrown into every page for you to connect the dots to look at the grander picture, brainwashing the inhabitants of this commune, the mental and emotional state of children who are abandoned by their parents, and how humanity persevere in this dolorous situation. Yet, none of them hit the mark for me, except the last two points that I mentioned.
Ever since Anna and Adam’s mother – Eula – left them in the commune to fend for themselves, Anna hasn’t been able to forgive her mother. Whenever she thinks about her, she shuts it down forcefully to keep those thoughts from arising. As for Adam, he thinks about his mother frequently and he wishes to be with his mother, and he also misses her. After their mother’s abandonment, Anna takes on her mother’s role to care for the both of them. I thought the topics on the emotional and mental state of the children and the perseverance of humanity in the worst of times were really well executed because the author really emphasizes them instead of taking these topics on a whim.
This novel contains an abundance of forgettable characters that will only be recalled if you try really hard to remember. Honestly, I couldn’t really remember any of them until I skimmed a few pages of this book to write this review. Anna and Adam are the unreliable narrators of this novel and I did not find them appealing at all. They don’t really have any definite personality and their actions confused the crap out of me. Sometimes I can understand why, but most of the time, I couldn’t. I thought their actions were very nonsensical, confounding, and unnecessary.
The writing style of this novel is not my cup of tea. It doesn’t feel cohesive to me and I felt oddly detached from the story while I was reading it if that makes any sense. The author also replaces quotation marks with dashes for the dialogues which is an incongruous choice. I, unfortunately, didn’t enjoy the direction and the outcome of the story. I thought the story went in outlandish directions and the bed crumbs and clues didn’t lead to anything that we didn’t already know as the author has already established all the facts at the beginning of the novel. The idea of the leader exploiting his power and using his status to indoctrinate the inhabitants didn’t bring anything new to the table; it felt like I was reading every other common dystopian novel in the dystopian genre while I was reading those scenes.
Before I comment on the scene that scared the living life out of me, I would like to give a bit of context on Adam’s mental illness. I liked the ambiguity of his illness; the author didn’t explain much about what Adam is dealing with, but she did leave a trail as to who aggravated his mental state. With his worsening condition, there comes a scene where Adam grabs Anna’s private part which he calls it the “moisture around her sex” and Anna swatting his hands off of her and I don’t understand why the author decided to leave that scene in the book because there isn’t any repercussion after that revolting scene. I was waiting for it to be addressed, but the author let me down by not addressing it and letting it run free with no consequence.
I am going to lay this out there and say I did not like the ending of this novel. I thought it was extremely unsatisfying and I had gotten more questions than answers when I got to the end of the book.
In conclusion, this novel is going to receive a score of 30% (E) from me. If you are looking for a better novel with an unreliable narrator and a disease contaminating everything that has succumbed to it, I would suggest reading Wilder Girls by Rory Power instead.
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This book has everything I enjoy reading in a story: unreliable narrators, cult ambience, a leader who abuses his power and status, bits of information thrown into every page for you to connect the dots to look at the grander picture, brainwashing the inhabitants of this commune, the mental and emotional state of children who are abandoned by their parents, and how humanity persevere in this dolorous situation. Yet, none of them hit the mark for me, except the last two points that I mentioned.
Ever since Anna and Adam’s mother – Eula – left them in the commune to fend for themselves, Anna hasn’t been able to forgive her mother. Whenever she thinks about her, she shuts it down forcefully to keep those thoughts from arising. As for Adam, he thinks about his mother frequently and he wishes to be with his mother, and he also misses her. After their mother’s abandonment, Anna takes on her mother’s role to care for the both of them. I thought the topics on the emotional and mental state of the children and the perseverance of humanity in the worst of times were really well executed because the author really emphasizes them instead of taking these topics on a whim.
This novel contains an abundance of forgettable characters that will only be recalled if you try really hard to remember. Honestly, I couldn’t really remember any of them until I skimmed a few pages of this book to write this review. Anna and Adam are the unreliable narrators of this novel and I did not find them appealing at all. They don’t really have any definite personality and their actions confused the crap out of me. Sometimes I can understand why, but most of the time, I couldn’t. I thought their actions were very nonsensical, confounding, and unnecessary.
The writing style of this novel is not my cup of tea. It doesn’t feel cohesive to me and I felt oddly detached from the story while I was reading it if that makes any sense. The author also replaces quotation marks with dashes for the dialogues which is an incongruous choice. I, unfortunately, didn’t enjoy the direction and the outcome of the story. I thought the story went in outlandish directions and the bed crumbs and clues didn’t lead to anything that we didn’t already know as the author has already established all the facts at the beginning of the novel. The idea of the leader exploiting his power and using his status to indoctrinate the inhabitants didn’t bring anything new to the table; it felt like I was reading every other common dystopian novel in the dystopian genre while I was reading those scenes.
Before I comment on the scene that scared the living life out of me, I would like to give a bit of context on Adam’s mental illness. I liked the ambiguity of his illness; the author didn’t explain much about what Adam is dealing with, but she did leave a trail as to who aggravated his mental state. With his worsening condition, there comes a scene where Adam grabs Anna’s private part which he calls it the “moisture around her sex” and Anna swatting his hands off of her and I don’t understand why the author decided to leave that scene in the book because there isn’t any repercussion after that revolting scene. I was waiting for it to be addressed, but the author let me down by not addressing it and letting it run free with no consequence.
I am going to lay this out there and say I did not like the ending of this novel. I thought it was extremely unsatisfying and I had gotten more questions than answers when I got to the end of the book.
In conclusion, this novel is going to receive a score of 30% (E) from me. If you are looking for a better novel with an unreliable narrator and a disease contaminating everything that has succumbed to it, I would suggest reading Wilder Girls by Rory Power instead.
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads
clotimms's review
4.0
Having loved Sue Rainsford's Follow Me To Ground, I was eager to start Redder Days. This novel follows the lives of twins Anna and Adam after their mother leaves them in Rainsford's characteristically poetic style. I loved the lyrical, otherworldly atmosphere Rainsford creates as the twins deal with the threat of 'the red' - it's an apocalyptic cult-like novel but not like I've read before. Sometimes the surreal strangeness can be difficult to unpick, but I let the unsettling, abstract descriptions wash over me and it was an enjoyable experience. The chapters from Koan's diary were successful in helping fill in the gaps of how the community and 'the red' began. Sue Rainsford is a writer I'm eager to follow, and Redder Days is a novel I'd like to revisit for a closer understanding of the subtleties I missed.
Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.