Audiobook Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Blood Red Road
Dust Lands #1
Author: Moira Young
Narrator: Heather Lind
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Released: June 7th 2011
Review Source: Simon & Schuster Audio
Available: Amazon
OUaT Reviews: Trudy's

Summary: (from goodreads) Summary: (from goodreads) Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

(3.5 Trees to be exact)

I'd say 3 1/2 trees for this one. I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would when I started listening to it. If you can get passed the bad grammar and speech, it is a really good story.

I really like the reader of this audio book-Heather Lind. I loved her reading for the Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare and I enjoyed her reading of Blood Red Road. She does a great job of helping the listener envision what the characters are going through. I am glad that I listened to this rather than reading the book, because it was hard to get into the broken English that the characters spoke. Saba, the main character, lives out in the middle of nowhere in a desert in Silverlake. She comes across as very uneducated due to the words she uses and the way she talks. I had a difficult time understanding what she was trying to say at times, and at others was saddened by how stupid she sounded.

I started to root for Saba, her family and her cause as the story went on. The story started out slow and then "bam", her twin brother, Lugh, was captured by some bad guys and it is pretty much non-stop action from there on.

I enjoyed following the characters' journeys and was hoping for them to catch a break at times. It got pretty harsh for a while there and it was very hard to listen to--a lot of violence, fighting, and death. Saba is definitely a fighter and a very strong character. I loved getting to know her and some of the other characters throughout the story, and see how they each grew in their own ways. I also liked following the relationships between some of the characters and how they changed and developed as the story went on. And, yes, there is even a little romance in this one, in between all the fighting and bloodshed. I am interested in finding out what comes next for Saba, Lugh, and the rest of the characters in this series.

I recommend this story to older YA readers, since some of the violence is graphic and a few of the scenes left me feeling kinda queasy.