Review - The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

Published 18th June 2019 by Titan Books

Star Rating - ****

Goodreads Challenge - 34/50

I was gifted a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

From the national bestselling author of Alice comes a postapocalyptic take on the perennial classic "Little Red Riding Hood"...about a woman who isn't as defenseless as she seems.

It's not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.

There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there's something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined. 

Red doesn't like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn't about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods....

My Thoughts

I was lucky enough to be gifted a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I'd never actually read a Christina Henry book before this one but I do own two others and I'd heard good things about her work. Also, retellings are one of my favourite genres, if you can call them that, so I thought I would enjoy this one and I wasn't wrong. 

I know many of Christina Henry books have a dark twist to them and this one was no different. This is set in a dystopian world, where a disease called the cough has wiped out a lot of the population and the rest have been put into quarantine camps. However, is that the only thing wrong in this world? I loved our main character Red. She was such a strong female character who was determined to reach her goal no matter what. She faced up to whatever adversaries she came across with determination but didn't loose her morality which was nice to see. I also loved how diverse her character was, she was a POC with red hair and a prosthetic leg. She was also bisexual and this is seen briefly on the page but I have also seen it confirmed by the author on Twitter. Despite her disability Red kept going and didn't let this get in her way although, she did talk about the difficulties her leg presented her with which, I felt, kept the story a bit more realistic. 

I enjoyed Christina Henry's writing too. It was dark, gritty and to the point. It fit really well with the story, it wasn't flowery or lyrical. I loved the way the story unfolded as we followed Red on her journey and the reveals and developments that kept me reading. The ending was quite ambiguous too. There were some things we didn't receive a definite answer for although there was lots hinted at along the way. I don't usually like ending like this but I think this one fit really well for the story. I also liked that there wasn't any romance in this story as I'm not the biggest fan of romances and often in dystopian stories the romances can be a bit tropey but that wasn't an issue here. 

Overall I really enjoyed this book and the re-imagining of the classic Little Red Riding Hood. It was dark and gritty and didn't shy away from the gruesome and gory details so that is something to be aware of if your a bit squeamish. I will definitely be picking up some more Christina Henry sooner rather than later.