Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

10 reviews

bella613's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

This book felt very unfinished and not just because of the ending. 

Everything from the descriptions of the violence and the behavior and thoughts of the main character were very in-your-face, and didn't feel imaginative or realistically written. I loved the main character so I wish she had been allowed to just be, and not constantly overexplained by the author. 

It read like someone decided to write a dystopia-style version of little red riding hood and stopped there, didn't put any more thought into it. I have no problem with open endings in general, or even with unanswered questions about large plot points. But this book doesn't feel like a story that's meant to make you think in the way that open endings usually do. It almost felt more like an unnecessarily long intro into the real story, than a story itself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Child death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

goodin10tions's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This re-telling of Red Riding hood is a rollercoaster of a tale! Red is not the little defenseless child of the original story. She is a super bad ass. I really enjoyed the adventure - will she make it to Grandmas? You'll have to read to find out.
 
Christina Henry with January LaVoy (Narrator)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Violence, Death of parent, and Stalking

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Cursing, Excrement, and Grief

aparker89's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Ms Henry does it again! Red Riding Hood is just trying to get to grandma's house but many obstacles stand in her way: a pandemic, the loss of society, no easy method of transportation and so much more... Will she ever make it? Or will one of the wolves get her? This is one adventure you won't want to miss!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Abandonment, Biphobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Body shaming, Confinement, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Slavery

aely's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Ableism, Blood, Hate crime, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Grief, Body horror, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Vomit

Minor: Torture, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, War, Misogyny, Abandonment, and Medical content

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

gory and greatly entertaining!
a story that keeps you on your toes. reading this for the second time made me realize quite a few details that i hadn't noticed before.

the characters were great - diverse without feeling like some sort of caricature. i loved red and her attitude, loved the dynamic between her and adam (their conversations and banter were so painfully real for siblings) and her whole personality in general. her family was nice, and the two kids, too.
henry is just so good at writing children. they seem almost lovable when she writes them.

and i liked the story. sometimes the inevitable encounters with soldiers and so forth felt a little forced and unrealistic, maybe even a bit repetitive (but that might also just be because of my already having read the book once).
one of the major plot twists (

these slug parasite monster thingies

) was a little random, i guess?? entertaining, but really random.
(

i mean, these thingies were introduced in the middle of the book and then it wasn't even resolved in the slightest. just i know this book is about a deadly virus, but by the way, some government lab also created an otherworldly weird science-fiction ass, human-eating monster that nests in people's stomachs. like whuuut

)

but whatever, it's fine. great book, great characters, great story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Medical content and Violence

Minor: Hate crime, Grief, Racism, Vomit, and Gun violence

aformeracceleratedreader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Overall really enjoyed it. I loved that our main character, Red, is mixed race and enjoyed the brief discourse on race and how some people, even in times of crisis, will gladly let their racism fly. In the beginning when one antagonist basically asks Red her ethnicity upon first meeting, it reminded me of so many people doing it to me. It's annoying to say the least.
I think as a retelling of a fairy tale, it was quite good too. Loved that it was a dystopian kind of setting although it wasn't the best idea for me to read a book on a respiratory pandemic while living through C19 and seeing parallels to how some fictional characters acted and how real life people are acting. Humans are predictable I guess.
<Spoiler>since Red and the kids were able to make it to grandma's safely and that the grandma seems to be alive and safe, I'm believing some of DJ's family made it to him as well. He was such a kind man and he deserved the best
I do wish we got a little more about the

creatures that burst out of people like how it escaped the lab, what even was the point in creating the creatures, how they got inside of people, how they would get rid of them

but reading this after reading Near the Bone it seems the author likes to leave stuff like that pretty open. 
This isn't a perfect book, there was a lot I feel could've been cut down since I could glance through paragraphs and still not miss any of the major story, and it was a little slow here and there, but I was def interested in it the whole time and needed to know what would happen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Death of parent, Blood, Death, Grief, Violence, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Confinement, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

evaag_2796's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Vomit

nrogers_1030's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Hate crime, and Racism

gizley0420's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping and Racism

Minor: Rape and Suicide

charlottesomewhere's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

My favourite Christina Henry book so far. It's a dark, apocalyptic take on the Red Riding Hood story. Red is an amazing character; her story sucked me in and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Murder