Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Blood Red Road
Dustlands: Book One
Written By Moira Young
Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic
Published July 7th 2011
459 Pages

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Saba lives in Silverlake, a wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms where her family scavenge from landfills left by the long gone Wrecker civilization. After four cloaked horsemen kidnap her beloved twin brother Lugh, she teams up with daredevil Jack and the Free Hawks, a girl gang of Revolutionaries.

Saba learns that she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Saba and her new friends stage a showdown that change the course of her civilization.

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.

My Thoughts


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. Saba lives in the desolate barren lands of Silverlake in a post apocalyptic world. All means of modern civilisation have been lost and hurried beneath the dry earth. With her twin brother Lugh, father and sister Emmi, they pray for rain and live off what little the land can provide. Shortly after Lugh and Saba turn eighteen, a violent dust storm brings four menacing men on horses looking for the boy of age born during midwinter. Saba's father is killed while the men take Lugh. Saba vows to follow, to find him, and she won't go down without a fight.

The environment is unforgiving as Saba and Emmi begin their journey to find their brother. Finding more than they bargained for along the way, illicit drugs, cage fighting, kidnapping and depravity. But her journey isn't hers alone.

Enter Jack. Charming and flirtatious, and in her debt. The Hawk freedom fighters, a group of female bandits who want nothing more to liberate the slaves of the drug lord king, the very same who had taken Lugh. And the strangely familiar DeMalo, the brutally handsome guard to the king.

Can she reach Lugh before the king performs the ritual of the midsummer?

Blood Red Road is achingly slow to begin and some may not be able to read belong the first few chapters, it is written in pure story form. Without any quotations or clear dialogue, it allows you to connect with the main character Saba instantly, as it uses slang spelling and mispelt words to create her unique accent.
I never knew that missin somebody could hurt, I says. But it does. Deep inside. Like it's in my bones. We ain't never bin apart till now. Never. I dunno how to be without him. It's like... I ain't nuthin
Saba is tough and unforgiving and you'll find a dislike for her character more often than not. But with the harsh environment and the pressure of keeping her family together, you can sympathise. It isn't until she meets others along the way, that she starts to see that she needs to become a better version of herself, for Emmi's sake.

1 comment

  1. Wow what a proposal! I assume that having ones' own teeth is a big deal in Silverlake. I got a chuckle out of it anyway. The book does sound interesting though.

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