Review: Blood Red Road (Dust Lands #1) By: Moira Young

Title: Blood Red Road (Dust lands #1)

Author: Moira Young

Published: June 7th, 2011

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

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.

My Thoughts:

Wow, Wow, Wow!!!! This book totally and completely blew me away completely. This is probably one of the best dystopian books I have ever read, the story was amazing the action was heart pumping, and the romance was adorable. Everything about this book was so perfect! Young created a cast of characters that you can't help but fall in love with and her world building was completely awesome and just made the story  that much better. The most unique aspect of the book for me was the writing and the language, although it did take getting used to reading the dialogue and having to deal with the misspelled words on purpose (bad spelling drives me absolutely crazy, and I can't help but correct people when I see it, so rude I know) 

Saba and her family live in a desert like place called Silverlake, with her Pa, her sister Emmi, and her twin brother Lugh. Ever since her mother died giving birth to her sister he Pa has never been the same man.  Her twin brother Lugh means everything to her, he is her best friend and they are inseparable. Everything changes when four horsemen in cloaks ride up and take her beloved brother away she is determined to get him back. The one thing that she never counted on is having to take care of her little sister Emmi. Emmi and Saba have never been close because Saba has always blamed Emmi for their mother's death and Lugh was always the one who took care of Emmi, now Saba has to step up and be the strong one. 

Saba was seriously one of the most bad ass main characters that I have read about she is definitely up there with Katniss in my opinion. Following her along this journey was amazing and I loved seeing Saba realize who she is and how strong and fearless she really was. So many road blocks were thrown up in her path and she passed them all even when they seemed completely and utterly impossible to get through. She also has a pet crow named Nero that she had taken care of since he was a baby and it was completely awesome to see something so out of the ordinary like that and he definitely contributed to her success along her adventure. Along the way she meets so many awesome characters that were each so memorable in their own ways, every character was so perfectly described that I could always picture exactly what they looked like and who they were all of the time. This book was a bloody explosive adventure and Saba was right in the middle of it all.

Emmi, Saba's little sister was so adorable and admirable in my eyes. She held her own along their journey and she really became a person that Saba could rely on to help her out with anything she needed. It also brought Emmi and Saba together and built a unbreakable relationship between the two of them that wasn't there before.

Overall, this book was seriously amazing and I really can't express my feelings enough to say that this book is one hell of a ride that I never wanted to get off of and when I finished the book I wanted to go right back to the beginning and start all over again. The ending was perfect and it wrapped up everything so wonderfully that I can't wait to read the next book and see where Young is going to go next I can only imagine that it will be completely awesome!

More Thoughts on this awesome book? Check out the links below!
The Teen Book Guru  
Writer Grrl Reads 
Book Haven Extroardinaire  
The Readventurer