Book Title: Red Run
Author: Kami Garcia
Date Started: July 22nd 2013
Date Completed: July 23rd 2013
Genres: Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Rating: Four stars
Review:
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this short story. I knew it was supernatural, and I expected the romance side, since the author is part of the Beautiful Creatures creation, but I really entered into the stories world with no idea of what to expect. And luckily I was impressed - not overly so, but it was good enough to definitely keep my attention and approval throughout.
Red Run is about a girl who's brother was murdered by a ghost. Edie, after meeting a pair of 'ghost hunters' decides to drive down Red Run - the road where her brother and five other victims of the ghost were murdered - to bring her brother's killer to justice herself. But when she finds a boy on the side of the road, asking for a ride, can she trust him? Or is he the murderer Edie set out to find in the first place?
The writing was actually really good. There wasn't a particularly strong part of it, but each element was consistent with each other, so that the whole quality was really high. You don't often get authors who are able to write just as confidently in description as they are in speech and action - but Garcia masters each of them.
Honestly, there wasn't anything that really impressed me about the writing, but for a Young Adult novella it flowed very well and was among the best styles I've experienced.
I really liked the story. It was so original and I thought the plot twists and just the thoughts behind everything were really well created and presented. It was really engaging throughout, and I was trying to work things out while the plot was unfolding.
I liked the mystery element, as well as the supernatural/thriller genre. The romance was great, since there wasn't that much of it, but when it was included it was very relevant and I actually found myself encouraging it in my head near the end.
What I liked most was the fact that a reasonably 'typical' Young Adult author actually created a whole new story that tricked the reader into thinking one thing, and then revealed itself as something else.
Garcia used only three characters in the whole novella (excluding those that were merely mentioned), which in itself is impressive when taken into account how interesting and engaging the actual story was.
I really liked Edie as the protagonist. She's a very clever girl, but we can actually tell she is. In most books we're either told a character is clever or they demonstrate it every now and then. With Edie, you actually got the feeling she was a very clever girl, just in the things she did and how she did them etc. She wasn't the typical horror girl who falls for the devil or whatever and then screams until she either dies or gets rescued. Without even stating it at all in her writing, Garcia showed us that her character was very clearheaded, intelligent and 'masculine'.
Tommy was very believable, and I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not to (I did guess right in the end - woo!) which was a really good element to put into a novella like this. It involves the reader very quickly to get them engrossed in the plot as soon as possible.
There isn't much to say about the old man - only that I thought his part to play was needed and carried out very well.
I really liked Edie's friends too. I thought their inclusion was crucial, and I actually thought they seemed like nice guys.
The pace was what you would expect out of a typical story: calm start, that starts hinting at danger as we're given different snippets of information, which then morphs into real danger, and then the climax, followed by the final slope to the bottom and the end. I think this worked well in novella format because it made the story easier for the reader to relate to and let Garcia focus more on her characters and story.
There were slower parts, but they were still important to the story and actually quite interesting anyway. It also let us get to know Edie's character a bit more, since the cross-cutting of time frames made the reader feel like they're known her for longer than the main plot spanned as.
I would recommend Red Run to anyone who likes supernatural thrillers with some mystery and a tiny bit of romance. It's a reasonably easy read and I really enjoyed it since I found it engaging, original and suspense-driven.
Image Source: http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/324/2/
e/red_run_by_kami_garcia_by_phatpuppyart-d5lkrvk.jpg
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this short story. I knew it was supernatural, and I expected the romance side, since the author is part of the Beautiful Creatures creation, but I really entered into the stories world with no idea of what to expect. And luckily I was impressed - not overly so, but it was good enough to definitely keep my attention and approval throughout.
Red Run is about a girl who's brother was murdered by a ghost. Edie, after meeting a pair of 'ghost hunters' decides to drive down Red Run - the road where her brother and five other victims of the ghost were murdered - to bring her brother's killer to justice herself. But when she finds a boy on the side of the road, asking for a ride, can she trust him? Or is he the murderer Edie set out to find in the first place?
The writing was actually really good. There wasn't a particularly strong part of it, but each element was consistent with each other, so that the whole quality was really high. You don't often get authors who are able to write just as confidently in description as they are in speech and action - but Garcia masters each of them.
Honestly, there wasn't anything that really impressed me about the writing, but for a Young Adult novella it flowed very well and was among the best styles I've experienced.
I really liked the story. It was so original and I thought the plot twists and just the thoughts behind everything were really well created and presented. It was really engaging throughout, and I was trying to work things out while the plot was unfolding.
I liked the mystery element, as well as the supernatural/thriller genre. The romance was great, since there wasn't that much of it, but when it was included it was very relevant and I actually found myself encouraging it in my head near the end.
What I liked most was the fact that a reasonably 'typical' Young Adult author actually created a whole new story that tricked the reader into thinking one thing, and then revealed itself as something else.
Garcia used only three characters in the whole novella (excluding those that were merely mentioned), which in itself is impressive when taken into account how interesting and engaging the actual story was.
I really liked Edie as the protagonist. She's a very clever girl, but we can actually tell she is. In most books we're either told a character is clever or they demonstrate it every now and then. With Edie, you actually got the feeling she was a very clever girl, just in the things she did and how she did them etc. She wasn't the typical horror girl who falls for the devil or whatever and then screams until she either dies or gets rescued. Without even stating it at all in her writing, Garcia showed us that her character was very clearheaded, intelligent and 'masculine'.
Tommy was very believable, and I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not to (I did guess right in the end - woo!) which was a really good element to put into a novella like this. It involves the reader very quickly to get them engrossed in the plot as soon as possible.
There isn't much to say about the old man - only that I thought his part to play was needed and carried out very well.
I really liked Edie's friends too. I thought their inclusion was crucial, and I actually thought they seemed like nice guys.
The pace was what you would expect out of a typical story: calm start, that starts hinting at danger as we're given different snippets of information, which then morphs into real danger, and then the climax, followed by the final slope to the bottom and the end. I think this worked well in novella format because it made the story easier for the reader to relate to and let Garcia focus more on her characters and story.
There were slower parts, but they were still important to the story and actually quite interesting anyway. It also let us get to know Edie's character a bit more, since the cross-cutting of time frames made the reader feel like they're known her for longer than the main plot spanned as.
I would recommend Red Run to anyone who likes supernatural thrillers with some mystery and a tiny bit of romance. It's a reasonably easy read and I really enjoyed it since I found it engaging, original and suspense-driven.
Image Source: http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/324/2/
e/red_run_by_kami_garcia_by_phatpuppyart-d5lkrvk.jpg
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