Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

22 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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

barbie_fett's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racism

Moderate: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Violence

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!

---

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

grojas7's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Genocide, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Murder

naisdayz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Would have been a solid 5 star without the abrupt/rushed ending.

Too many questions about the disease and the crisis were left unanswered.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Racism

neon_red's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

It was not my first Christina Henry and it will not be my last. In a positive sense it what I expected, a dark/horror story inspired by a fairytale classic. I in particular liked the ending and like with Lost Boy and Alice after starting I didnt stop until I had finished. If you liked the other works of Henry, than you will like this one as well. The book that Henry created once again invited me to escape in to a dark semi fantastical world and I gladly followed the white rabbit...ops wrong book.

I really enjoyed that it was a survival story that focused and stayed with the main theme of survival. Sure the dystopian goverment conspiracies we're mentioned, but Red was not the choosen one who could save the world. I liked the "small" scale. What I didnt really like and why I can Not award 5 stars, were the grenade and the second encounter with Sirois. Okay, the grenade was later on explained and so I accepted it, somewhat. But the Chance that Sirois of all people would find them after fighting the monster is to forced, it does not help that the characters themselves poke fun at it. But I liked the ending evenmore, I had thousand ideas how the story some happy and some not. Also the Idea that Red is the Hunter was quite nice. Even though it was one that was already present in Dropouts.tv Ever After, which I can recommend to anyone who enjoy these dark fairytales.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Xenophobia, Rape, Ableism, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Sexual violence

roxxie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Ableism and Violence

Minor: Car accident and Racism

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

---

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.

---

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

ladykatka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

First off, I love Christina Henry, I have purchased all of her books to date and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them including this one, even if I didn't really care for the ending. I think this was a really clever update and modern version of Red Riding Hood, it was well told and easy to read. That being said when I got to the penultimate chapter I was left thinking how is she going to wrap this up. And it turned out that it was more of a non-ending than an ending.

Red says a couple times in the book that she is not the main character in a movie, that becomes abundantly clear at the end when we are provided no answers what so ever on the virus, or the creatures, or the camps, or the lack of women, or anything really. This book is in desperate need of an epilogue.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Racism, and Violence