• Blood Red Road

  • By: Moira Young
  • Narrated by: Heather Lind
  • Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (508 ratings)

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Blood Red Road  By  cover art

Blood Red Road

By: Moira Young
Narrated by: Heather Lind
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Publisher's 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.

©2011 Moira Young (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

What listeners say about Blood Red Road

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A unique voice that sticks with you

Lately I have started way too many audio books and not been able to finish any of them. This one however hooked me right away and didn't let go.

The voice of the main character, Saba, is fresh and unique. The language is minimalistic, at times broken, and seems to be taken right out of the wild west. Though from the hints dropped by the author it seems the story is set in the future after civilization as we know it is no more. This is the first book in a series and while the main storyline wraps up nicely, I was still left with many lingering questions I'm hoping will be answered in forthcoming installments.

One of my favorite things about this novel was how the author made me care about the characters. They were fleshed out, completely three dimensional and utterly human. You see rather than being told how Saba and other character grow throughout the hardships they face. As an animal lover, I also loved the bond between Saba and her crow Nero.

The book is action packed and I didn't find any spots where the story really dragged. I really liked the immediacy created by the first person, present tense narration. I felt like I was right there with the characters experiencing everything they did.

Now for the romance. The romance was sweet and totally appropriate for teens. I can see how the author plans to build on the relationships developed in the first book and I'm hoping she delves deeper into other characters...like the mysterious Demalo. Jack, the love interest in the book challenges Saba and it's nice to see her fight against her feelings and finally, finally give into them. Overall this was an exceptional debut novel. It was unique, surprising, and a whole lot of fun! The narration was spot on as well and I'm hoping they stick with Ms. Lind for upcoming books in this series.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I wanted it to be over.

Not creative or different enough.

STORY BRIEF:
Saba is on a journey to find and free her kidnaped brother Lugh. As she travels she meets bad people and creatures that try to harm her.

OPINION:
This might be appropriate for teenagers who are not looking for the creativity and specialness that I want. Conversations were ordinary. Events were predictable. Things have been done before. For example, Saba and her sister Em meet bad lady Mrs. P. Mrs. P prepares food with a sleeping drug and serves it to Saba and Em. When her husband asks for food, Mrs. P says that’s not for you. (A little too obvious to the reader?) That should have been a clue to Saba. But no, Saba eats it and falls asleep. There are better ways to drug Saba without telling the husband in front of Saba “that food is not for you.”

Parents, if you’re looking for books for your teens, this might not be your first choice. Words are intentionally misspelled using phonetic spellings. And the grammar is off. The entire book is first person Saba. Her speech makes me think of an illiterate hillbilly. Examples: He lays hisself back down. He don’t know. He cain’t believe. Ain’t. My eyes is gritty. I says. Why’d ya do that fer? Some reviewers have said it was mentally taxing to read an entire book of phonetic spellings, but the audiobook avoids that problem.

Saba’s personality didn’t do anything for me. Several times she insists on things that are wrong or jumps to conclusions that are wrong. She is mean to her sister. I don’t have to love every heroine. But Saba’s flaws were not done in a way that entertained me.

The cage fighting scenes are not shown. I’m reminded of Ender’s Game where I was so impressed at what Ender did to win each conflict. Here we don’t see what Saba does in her fights. We are told she wins. The main detail is “the red hot” takes over, her rage.

The narrator Heather Lind was good.

Genre: young adult dystopia

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazingtastic!

Where does Blood Red Road rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is my first audiobook, but I wanted to try one that I knew would be good. Blood Red Road and Heather Lind do NOT disappoint! It will be hard to find another as good as this.

What did you like best about this story?

The dialect and narrative is just rich.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

BRAVO!!!!

Oh my goodness, this is the kind of book I live fore\!! Never wanted it to end. What a wonderful heroine, tough girl after her stolen brother and the things she has to go thru and the people she meets. And a huge STANDING OVATION to Heather Lind, she captured the character so well.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Slow start then it grips you

This started quite slowly for me, so slowly I actually stopped listening for quite some time. Then one day I started listening again the the story really caught my attention. It may be the pace that the reader, Heather Lind, set was why it took some time for me to become more engaged. Her pacing was very measured and deliberate regardless of how action filled a particular scene might be. Having said that, I enjoyed her reading, enjoyed the different voices she used for each character. She gave a sort of ???country??? lilt to each character, a bit rough, with touches of colloquialisms.
The story itself is based in a post-apocaliptic world, one that is pretty grim with people scrabbling to survive. The main character is Saba, a tough, hard 18 year girl whose world is ripped apart by the murder of her father and the kidnapping of Lou, her twin brother. She sets off with her 11 year old sister Emmie, to rescue their brother. Of course along the way they run into a number of difficult situations and a number of people, good and bad, who either help them or try to hurt them.
Author Moira Young does a wonderful job of describing the world Saba inhabits. Bit by bit, new characters join the story and a mystery starts to unfold. Why was Lou kidnapped? Who are the Ton Tons and why do they have so much power? Who is the mysterious king who rules with terror and absolute sway over the people? And who is Jack?
The story ends complete in and of itself but there are enough lingering questions to let the reader know that there will probably be a second book!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Refreshingly Different!

I highly recommend this book! This richly imaginative and detailed story is so unusual and original it's almost startling in a good way. The author displays first-class talent in her writing, especially considering her use of a non-standard (and non-contemporary) speaking style to tell the whole story in first person. A brave (risky?) artistic choice that I believe will continue to pay off for her. I look forward to more from Ms. Young, and hopefully more with these characters.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

best narrator I've ever heard!

Heather Lind was amazing. Different vioces different tones and her 'western' accent was perfect. I'm so glad this book was made into audio because I never would have had the patience to read it as written. The book itself was good- good plot great characters great description. Heather Lind gave a flawless performace and I am very eagerly awaiting her next work.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

This is one of the brightest debuts of any author I've read in a very long time. A dystopian novel that can not be compared to any other. With a hint of Cormac McCarthy and a tinge of Suzanne Collins this is undoubtly going to be a hit. Destined for the big screen!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Rarely do I come across a book that I find very little in it that I liked. Blood Red Road is an exception. There were so few elements to it that I found enjoyable that I still can not believe I made it to the end. Especially, without the loss of hair or my sanity.

I'll start with the writing style. Blood Red Road is a futuristic dystopian, yet everyone talks like it takes place in the 1800's. I was espectin (yes, that is how they would say expecting) some toothless gold miner's to come rushing into the story. It's a lot of fer (for), yer (you're), babbies (babies), britches (pants), afeared (afraid, scared)... I'm sure you get the point.

Now, I understand that Saba and her siblings are raised in a remote setting with the lack of any sort of education or influence. Therefore, it is understandable that they would have some lazy way of speaking. However, almost everyone in this world speaks this way. It was worthy of some pretty major teeth grinding on my part. It felt too contrived, too forced and really unnecessary. I don't think it needed to be such a big part of the book and I felt it took away from the story.

Saba is horrid at first and by the end only slightly better. She's stubborn in the most awful ways, she's rude to damn near everyone, she is plainly the biggest bitch ever to her little nine year old sister and is entirely too obsessed with her twin brother. She would, quite literally, abandon her sister Emmi to get her brother back from his kidnappers. I spent about 75% of the book disliking her, the other 25% scratching my head.

She, somehow, manages to rally up quite the cast of helpers. I'm still confused by what they saw in her at first. But, the gang that helps her out are pretty remarkable characters and I enjoyed them quite a bit. The girl gang who go by Free Hawks were quite fun and I would like to read more about them - assuming they learn how to speak in somewhat proper English.

The villain was not a villain, he was a joke. I don't know where the hell the idea of him came from but I did not get it what so ever. I won't say what is so clown-like about him because I like to be spoiler free, but - wow, just wow, really? He didn't even seem like a threat. I don't know, I'm starting to ramble here. I'll stop now.

As far as the audio goes, if the narrator was directed to make every character sound dull and slow-witted; job well done.

I feel like this is a about as harsh of a review as I ever post and though I am not alone in my feelings on Blood Red Road, I am in the minority.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

loving it

The characters are very relatable. I really like Saba and I like to hear everything from her point of view. I like how tough but vulnerable the characters are. Plus I enjoyed both the love story and the struggle for survival.

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