The Girl In Red By Christina Henry – Book Review

Thank you to Lydia, Titan Books and Christina Henry for providing me with an advance copy of The Girl In Red in return for an honest review.

About The Book

It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. 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 was perfectly sane and normal until three months ago.

There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. 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…

• Paperback: 368 Pages
• Publisher: Titan Books 18th June 2019
• ISBN: 9781785659775

Dark Reads Review

Wow, wow, wow!

I expected to love this book as soon as I saw the beautiful cover and read the synopsis, but didn’t realise I would love it this much!

The plot follows two timelines, before and after the Crisis with each chapter either being set in the past or in the present. I enjoy books that do this, it’s a really clever way to get in the back story and allows you get to know the characters while the main story is moving along nicely.

”She was just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that didn’t look anything like the one she’d grown up in, the one that had been perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago”

I literally couldn’t put this book down, I was completely immersed from the very first page, Henry’s storytelling is amazing.

I love a dark fairy tale type telling/retelling. The Girl In Red is a take on Little Red Riding Hood in a post-apocalyptic setting. The story begins with the protagonist Red, three months after the Crisis (an airborne virus that has taken out a large majority of the population) and is trying to make her way to her grandmothers cabin in the woods. Along the way she is trying to avoid being sent to quarantine camps by the military and the violent threat of militia groups.

”Human monsters were everywhere, roaming free without the leash of civilization to hold them”

What a fantastic character Red is! She is smart and tough and totally believable. Red is a self-confessed Horror and Sci-Fi geek, and is pulling on her survival skills learned from the movies and books she has read. She is a meticulous planner and her constant inner monologue keeps her on her toes and thinking out every possible scenario. It was refreshing change. There were lots of lovely nods to genre fiction too, Red is Awesome!

”The trouble is, Red, that you can imagine too many possibilities. And imagining all the possibilities can get you in hot water just as easy as not thinking things through.”

I often wonder if I would be smart enough to survive some apocalyptic type situation based on books I’ve read and movies I’ve watched, do you do that too or is it just me? Anyway it was great to see that aspect come to life on the pages.

Don’t be fooled into thinking The Girl In Red is a fairy tale, it is a dark, violent retelling in a savage new world.

”The virus hadn’t just stopped existing relationships in their tracks. It had taken away the promise of the future, of all the connections that might be made. All of those possibilities had been clipped neatly away, loose strings falling to earth.”

This was a beautifully written journey of survival and I didn’t want it to end. Please tell me we are going to hear more from Red in the future, I would love to know where her story goes next!

The Girl In Red was my first Christina Henry read and I loved every minute, so much so I am going to get get copies of all of her previous novels, I can’t wait to get stuck in!

This one comes highly recommended from me and it’s out today, you need to get yourself a copy of this book! You can get one from Titan Books or Amazon.

About The Author

From The Authors Websire

CHRISTINA HENRY  is the author of the CHRONICLES OF ALICE duology, ALICE and RED QUEEN, a dark and twisted take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as well as LOST BOY: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN HOOK, an origin story of Captain Hook from Peter Pan.

She is also the author of the national bestselling BLACK WINGS series (BLACK WINGS, BLACK NIGHT, BLACK HOWL, BLACK LAMENT, BLACK CITY, BLACK HEART and BLACK SPRING) featuring Agent of Death Madeline Black and her popcorn-loving gargoyle Beezle.

ALICE was chosen as one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year in Science Fiction and Fantasy for 2015. It was also a Goodreads Choice Award nominee in Horror and one of Barnes & Noble’s Bestselling Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of 2015.

She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on and watching movies with samurai, zombies and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.

You can visit Christina’s Website and follow her on Twitter