Review : Red by Alison Cherry
Red by Alison Cherry
Pages : 320
Genre : YA, Contemporary fiction, Satire
Stand alone
My Rating : 3/5
From the back of the book :
Having red hair is all that matters in Scarletville. Redheads hold all the power—and everybody knows it. That’s why Felicity is scared down to her roots when she receives an anonymous note:
I know your secret.
Because Felicity is a big fake. Her hair color comes straight out of a bottle. And if anyone discovered the truth, she’d be a social outcast faster than she could say “strawberry blond.” Her mother would disown her, her friends would shun her, and her boyfriend would dump her. And forget about winning that pageant crown and the prize money that comes with it—money that would allow her to fulfill her dream of going to art school.
Felicity isn’t about to let someone blackmail her life away. But just how far is she willing to go to protect her red cred?
My Thoughts :
When I first read the premise for Red, I thought the story could go one of two ways; extremely silly or really fun. I was a bit nervous when my first Goodreads’ friends thoughts started to pour in with disappointed reviews, but I was still looking forward to making up my own mind.
Fortunately for me, I had a good time reading Red. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and it’s easy to spot why so many readers didn’t appreciate it; satire isn’t for everyone, and even those who enjoy satire won’t necessarily like the way the author chose to use it. For me though, it mostly worked; the general tone of the book was light and fun, I thought the idea was a tad silly, but the kind of silly I had fun with.
As a main character, Felicity was a bit conceited, but she was far from the worst in her little red town! When everything you experience relates only to your hair color, it’s kind of expected that you’ll be a little shallow, too. But Felicity hopes and wants for more, and this made her likable in the midst of everything.
The aspects I enjoyed the most was her relationships with her friends, the boys and her art teacher. Felicity and her friends were really close, and her friends were a strong presence in her life. I thought they worked together very well despite their differences – or maybe because of their differences. And the boy troubles added a touch of cute, too.
In the end, I liked Red. Not everyone will, but if you go in prepared for satire and light reading, then you’ll already have a better chance to appreciate it. For me, reading Red felt like watching a fun, nonsensical comedic movie on a rainy Saturday afternoon. After all the dark and mysterious reading I have done for the R.I.P. challenge in the past weeks, I definitely needed that!
Red is available for sale right now! Thanks to Delacorte for Young Readers for generously providing a digital copy of the book for this review.
I need silly from time to time. This sounds good.
I do too! A bit of silly here and there is great for the soul!
I think knowing what to expect with this one could make all the difference. I wasn’t expecting a satire so the silliness was just too much for me and I was not in the mood for it. I’m glad you enjoyed it more than I did! Great review! 🙂
Oh! From past experience, getting into a satire by surprise isn’t much fun. Maybe you wouldn’t have liked it more anyway, but at least you would have known what to expect!
Hopefully you don’t get any other similar reading experience before 2014!