Review: Red Hood

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Month Read In: January 2022

Challenge: 

GirlXOXO Monthly Motif October 2020: Lurking in the Shadows

PopSugar 2022: 2 Languages (English, French)

Methodology: Audiobook read by January LaVoy, via Library on Libby

Genre- Thriller/Suspense: Fairy Tale

This book helped me find out that I am NOT a fan of second person writing. When a story is in first person, I feel like I'm reading memoirs, that the events happen to someone else and they're telling me all about it. Third person, I'm watching a movie played out in my head. But second person can just get icky really quick. Reminds me of those old Choose Your Own Adventure stories from my youth, but without the ability to change the course of the tale.

What struck me by the time I got 31% into the audiobook was that I can really do without the graphic teenage sex scenes, especially done in second person. Gross. When I first started doing reading challenges curated by other bibliophiles, GirlXOXO put out their 2021 Monthly Motif challenge and January's prompt was entitled "Once Upon a Time." A fairy tale retelling prompt. Great. Love those.

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer blew me away. I wanted more. Red Hood was on a list of retellings, but publication had been pushed back, so I read The Girl in Red by Christina Henry (my review). I then assumed it would be out by the time October rolled around so I could use it for GirlXOXO's "Lurking in the Shadows" prompt. And publication was pushed back again/I couldn't get a copy. So pushed off to January 2022 it was. I don't often look forward to books off a blurb, particularly an author I've never read before, but I wanted this one bad.

That first 30% had me wondering why. I kept going because I wanted to know about the mythos behind it, the history of Bisou and how she came to be with her grandmother, etc. It was imperative I find out the truth.

The character fleshing was not great, but that is due to perspective. Bisou's perspective limited what we could know and we were stuck in her head and her/our thoughts. We were told what we were thinking. I didn't like it, but character development from this angle was done okay. Characters: 7

Atmosphere was about the same. Limited to what Bisou knows and sees, but again from this angle, was done well enough that I rated a 7.

I hated hated hated the second person writing. But it is also very hard to get second person done well and consistently, and I believe Arnold did a fantastic job in that regard. I rated a 5 due to content, but not lower because of the expertise Arnold possesses.

The plot was actually quite amazing once you get beyond the teenage angst and first menses and first sex. There's a lot that I still don't understand, like WHY DO THE BOYS TURN INTO WOLVES? Seriously! I mean, I really wanna know. Plot and Intrigue rated 9!

Logic. What can be said about 16 year old girls, coming into a power to slay wolves, and the friends she makes along with way? Putting myself back in that mindset, plus having just raised a couple of teenagers myself.... Yeah. This logic was pretty spot on for that age range. Rated 8

Once past all the second person "You think about James' bleep..." I really enjoyed living in Bisou's brain for a while. I mean, I didn't. But I did. The Wolf Hunter bits, okay? 8.5 for overall enjoyment.

CAWPILE final rating: 7.64 = 4 Stars

View all my reviews