Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley Cartwright
Published by Poppy (Little Brown and Company) 2011
329 Pages
Genres: Action, Horror (Light), Mystery, Romance, and YA

Reviewed by Kate

Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind, and sweet. Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.

After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them-it could be anyone in town.

It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die.

This was one of the most frustrating books that I have ever read! And this will be one interesting review as I really can't say to much about this book without giving anything away, or not away. Don't get me wrong, it was a great book, but so unbelievably frustrating. This book blew my mind. It was not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting a little horror version of Red Riding Hood, one that would probably have all the answers and an ending that was, maybe not happily ever after, but one where the characters end up together. Well, I was right about the horror part at least.

The world in this book was great! I really loved the setting and the town and how it was described. I liked the characters a lot, but I wished there was more with Valerie, Henry, and Peter. It just seemed like everything between them happened so suddenly. I wish there would have been more in depth relationships between Valerie and the guys. Other than that the characters were really great and can represent people and relationships in real life. This story was so much more than I thought it would be. There was so much that went on over a series of about five days, but it kept me reading continuously and really not wanting to put the book down. There was always something going on that made me look at the clock at 1:20 in the morning and think "Nah, I have time to read another chapter." I just loved the story and the plot. There were so many twists and turns and every page kept you guessing who the Wolf was and what was going to happen. I honestly guessed at the beginning and then I just stopped, it was just one of those books that you will never figure out until the end. Oh, and I thought that I'd read the book before the movie came out so I would appreciate it more, since it was written based on the screen play, interesting huh? Anyway, I'd still recommend it but not until March before the movie comes out, I'm not going to say why but if you read this book before then I know you will be feeling what I'm feeling right now, having just finished the book tonight. So before I'm tempted to say anything more about that, it's really killing me, I just want to let you know that this book does have a bit of blood and gore, I mean there is blood on the cover kind of warning you right off the bat. I liked it, I thought it brought a new edge to the classic fairytale and made it more intense. This book is a really edgy and mature version of the classic fairytale. And I loved it, and am so unbelievably frustrated with this book that if I did not love the cover so much, I would have thrown it across the room, but that would have damaged it. So I loved this book and definitely recommend it, but closer to the movie's release date. Again, for reasons I really don't want to say, I know I know, that does not help at all huh? Well I'm just as frustrated as you guys. I apologize for taking any frustration on this review. But seriously , Read It! Just sometime in March!

4.5 Blood Moons for this book!

Red Riding Hood (March 11th 2011)