#BookReview: The Girl In Red By Christina Henry @C_Henry_Author @LydiaGittins @TitanBooks #TheGirlInRed #PublicationDay

The Girl In Red is the newest science fiction dark fairytale written by Christina Henry that is published by Titan Books today! Happy publication day and thanks to Lydia at Titan Books for the chance of reviewing pre-publication, I’m still getting the chills. You can pre – order your copy here.

Christina is he author of several twisted favourites, including The Mermaid, The Lost Boy, Alice and Red Queen. Her imagination has no boundaries! I am now fangirl excited for her 2020 releases Looking Glass and The Ghost Tree.

‘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…’

This pitch black post apocolyptic twist on a fairy tale classic is drenched with death and gore, I greedily inhaled every page. The female protagonist is Red, Christina Henry has created a strong, independant female character, with a fantastic twist. Red has a prosthetic leg, where her parents and brother have always believed that this has held her back and has made her weak, it’s in fact managed the opposite; Red has learnt how to protect herself, saved herself and stayed alive when others thought that she’d be the first to fall. Red is one of my favourite female characters ever.

The timeline of the storyline is post apocolyptic where a crisis known as ‘The Cough’ has killed off a large number of the population. This sees individuals who may have been perfect, law abiding citizens become animalistic monsters who murserously lurk in the woods who have turned to theft, torture and rape in a warped bid of survival… and you thought wolves were bad.

The narrative includes point of views from before and after the Cough begun. The visual degradation of life in both times are chilling and at times plausible, such as how humanity has become one of the biggest threats against human life with the push of desperation and ignorance of ones conscious. The flicking between time lines enabled me as a reader to engage further into the storyline as it becomes more personal and explanatory into Red’s current situation. I really enjoyed connecting all the personal and familial ties, it cracked open the narrative more for me. The Girl In Red has been creatively planned and written in a way that ticks all dystopian boxes.

The Girl In Red isn’t just a unique look at a traditional concept, but it’s about overcoming the trails and tribulations of life, including everyone’s expectations of Red, as well as the fight for survival and safety, which in this novel is the end of the sacrificial journey; Grandma’s House. Although a dystopian themed read, you could also say it has a feminist twist where Red has endured not only biological threats of disease, violence and racism but she’s also smashed through the stereotypical types that portray women as weak, and men as strong. This storyline development was such a huge plot point for me, as well as the captivating themes of loss, survival and hope. A post apocolyptic tale at its very best.

In a nutshell, buy the damn book and enjoy Christina Henry’s mystically fierce storytelling yourself! Enjoy!