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sometimesleelynnreads 's review for:
Red Hood
by Elana K. Arnold
Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Fantastic Flying Book Club, Edelweiss, and Balzer + Bray for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.
Red from Once Upon a Time (shown in the gif above) is immediately who I thought about when I was reading about Bisou. Mostly because this was a Little Red Riding Hood retelling, but man is Bisou not our average Red. She really does remind me of Red from OUAT because she is so much stronger than what we were initially given as little kids, and Bisou fights back.
The first time she comes up against a wolf, she fights it, and wins. Like… that never happens in Little Red Riding Hood. Not the way that we see in this novel. She physically fights the wolf somehow, and even though she’s in a state of undress – like literally she tells you that her dress has fallen past her breasts – and yet she still kicks the wolf’s ass. It was an intense scene, and I was just in awe of her.
This story is told from Bisou’s point of view, but it’s in the second person POV – everything is YOU doing this and YOU doing that; YOU are basically Bisou and she is telling your story – and honestly I don’t know how I felt about it at first. This just happened to be the second female MC I’ve read this week that had this kind of POV and it was weird for me with the other MC, and it was weird for me with Bisou. Maybe because Bisou got more technical with everything that was happening around her, from her body to the sex she was having with her boyfriend. Not sure, but I eventually got over it and it didn’t stop me from reading it.
I loved all the feminist messages that were sprinkled throughout the book – those that were glaringly obvious and those that were almost too subtle. There were lines that I just had to highlight because I was like “Yep, that’s so true. Yep, you tell ’em. Yep, that’s right.” And it was so cool to see something like that in this novel, a traditionally non-feminist novel that has Red at the mercy of a wolf that ate her grandmother, you know? That kind of feeling and plot just isn’t around in this novel, and it was so refreshing to me.
“Also, my darling, you do know, don’t you, that having sex in the past does not oblige you to have sex in the future. You never have to do anything that you don’t want to do. You don’t James – or anyone – access to your body. Not now. Not ever.”
bisou’s grandmother (mémé)
I loved that line, and how instead of persecuting Bisou for having sex with her boyfriend, Mémé was accepting of it and just made sure that she was careful, and also reminded her that she could say no in the future if she wanted to. That reminder and that kind of adult conversation that Bisou and Mémé were able to have about something that most kids are afraid to tell their parents about because it’s seen as taboo, was really great to see in a YA novel, regardless of how you personally feel about high school students having sex with one another.
So yeah. Long story short, go read this because I really liked it and I think you will to. It’s raw and bloody and real but totally worth the ride if you can handle it. It was very, very, very engaging.
Red from Once Upon a Time (shown in the gif above) is immediately who I thought about when I was reading about Bisou. Mostly because this was a Little Red Riding Hood retelling, but man is Bisou not our average Red. She really does remind me of Red from OUAT because she is so much stronger than what we were initially given as little kids, and Bisou fights back.
The first time she comes up against a wolf, she fights it, and wins. Like… that never happens in Little Red Riding Hood. Not the way that we see in this novel. She physically fights the wolf somehow, and even though she’s in a state of undress – like literally she tells you that her dress has fallen past her breasts – and yet she still kicks the wolf’s ass. It was an intense scene, and I was just in awe of her.
This story is told from Bisou’s point of view, but it’s in the second person POV – everything is YOU doing this and YOU doing that; YOU are basically Bisou and she is telling your story – and honestly I don’t know how I felt about it at first. This just happened to be the second female MC I’ve read this week that had this kind of POV and it was weird for me with the other MC, and it was weird for me with Bisou. Maybe because Bisou got more technical with everything that was happening around her, from her body to the sex she was having with her boyfriend. Not sure, but I eventually got over it and it didn’t stop me from reading it.
I loved all the feminist messages that were sprinkled throughout the book – those that were glaringly obvious and those that were almost too subtle. There were lines that I just had to highlight because I was like “Yep, that’s so true. Yep, you tell ’em. Yep, that’s right.” And it was so cool to see something like that in this novel, a traditionally non-feminist novel that has Red at the mercy of a wolf that ate her grandmother, you know? That kind of feeling and plot just isn’t around in this novel, and it was so refreshing to me.
“Also, my darling, you do know, don’t you, that having sex in the past does not oblige you to have sex in the future. You never have to do anything that you don’t want to do. You don’t James – or anyone – access to your body. Not now. Not ever.”
bisou’s grandmother (mémé)
I loved that line, and how instead of persecuting Bisou for having sex with her boyfriend, Mémé was accepting of it and just made sure that she was careful, and also reminded her that she could say no in the future if she wanted to. That reminder and that kind of adult conversation that Bisou and Mémé were able to have about something that most kids are afraid to tell their parents about because it’s seen as taboo, was really great to see in a YA novel, regardless of how you personally feel about high school students having sex with one another.
So yeah. Long story short, go read this because I really liked it and I think you will to. It’s raw and bloody and real but totally worth the ride if you can handle it. It was very, very, very engaging.