Jenny Reviews: Blood Red Road (Dustlands #1)

Title of book(s): Blood Red Road

Author: Moira Young

Age Group: YA

Visit the official website here.

I first found out about Blood Red Road when googling "Hunger Games". There was an article that mentioned that this book gave the Hunger Games a run for its money. Now, I can say that the Hunger Games series are my top books; I absolutely love them. So, at first, I was skeptical and upset. I put off reading the book for a while. When Borders started having their going-out-of-business sale, I hurried to buy as many books as I could. One of them was Blood Red Road. Right away I was thrown off; there are NO quotation marks and the words are spelled by the sounds they make. For the first few pages I struggled. I had to go back and read parts to make sure I understood. This was difficult for me since I tend to correct grammatical errors in Facebook updates of other people... Anyhoo, eventually I became enveloped in the storyline. I forgot about the writing style. I easily understood the dialogue. The plot was very captivating. It is the story of 18-yr old Saba, daughter and sister. She lives with her family in Silverlake, where there is hardly any "lake" left. When the most important thing in her life is taken away from her, she is forced to take action. She is reminiscent of Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games (she even picks up a bow and arrow). I was not fond of Saba in the beginning. She was somewhat bratty and carried a lot of anger with her, taking it out on her helpless younger sister. Eventually, I grew to understand her when I would ask myself, "Would I do the same in her situation?" Saba meets a lot of interesting folks along her journey, and it is scary to think of living in that world. This book contains love, devotion, plenty of action and excitement, and in my case, it kept me asking myself "What would I do?" It wasn't just another dystopian novel. Would I say it was better than the Hunger Games... not in my opinion, but this was just the first book of the Dustlands series, so ask me on a later date.

Ratings

Blood Red Road: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Remembering: 10 Years Later

All images found on Huffington Post.


Read about how I remember 9/11/01 here.

Immaturity

Only the second week of the Fall semester and I feel like pulling my hair out. However, it really has nothing to do with classwork, homework, or anything like that. I simply enjoy seeing how twenty-something college students turn into little pesky 5 year olds. I should probably explain.

I was in class this afternoon with some good friends. We decided to take a lot of classes together since we all plan on completing our internship and graduating at the same time. Anyhoo, we have to take classes on how to teach each subject area. Today we had Science. So far I am enjoying it; lots of activities and creative projects to do. Our professor told us to think about a particular scientist to do a project on. I had chosen three, just in case I did not get the one I wanted (1. Galileo 2. Newton 3. Marie Curie). A girl at a different table asked the teacher if we could sign up for them today, she said no, but that we could email her with our choice and first-come-first-serve. That second my friends and our two new friends at our table of five took out our phones and sent emails with our choice. The other girl asked again if we could just do it today. The professor said no, and to send an email to her. Another girl asked if she could just tell her after class. She said that was fine. I raised my hand and explained that would not be fair to those students who had followed instructions and sent emails. I also said it would not be fair to those who did speak to her because they would not know if their choice had already been taken by someone who sent as email. Still with me?

I guess she got fed up and said we'd sign up today. She let us go at it. Just imagine. Well, my friend and I rushed as quickly as possible to the sign-up sheet and were able to put our entire group's choices. Lucky us. And then we got the ugly faces from the other girl's table. They began saying that we talked too much, were annoying, and being ridiculous. Just loud enough for my table to hear. It just so happens that one of my friends and the girl chose the same scientist -- go figure. My friend was upset because she had sent the email before anyone and it was not fair. I told her it was fine, and that she got it first. Cue the evil stares from the other table. Now we could only laugh. It really is ridiculous. And so the other girl played the "good person" and said she would change it, causing the professor to feel bad. Real classy, I'd say.

This lovely class was followed by another where people don't care for your opinions.

So, why ask me if you don't care?

Overall, what a great day, huh?

It feels so good to vent.

Has this happened to anyone? How'd you deal with it? I try to play it off, but it upsets me to think that people act this way. It basically ruined my entire day.

What I Am Loving Right Now