Blood Red Road - Dustlands: 1

About the author

MOIRA YOUNG has been by turns an actress, a dancer and an opera singer, but her first loves are books and writing. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Dust Lands trilogy. A native of Canada, she now lives in the UK with her husband.

Summary

This fast-paced young adult debut novel has it all: smart, savvy characters making their way through an eerily dystopian society, with all the requisite action, adventure and romance characteristic of the genre vividly and at times, chillingly, portrayed.

In a wild and lawless future, where life is cheap and survival is hard, eighteen-year-old Saba lives with her father, her twin brother Lugh, her young sister Emmi and her pet crow Nero. Theirs is a hard and lonely life. The family resides in a secluded shed, their nearest neighbour living many miles away and the lake, their only source of water and main provider of food, gradually dying from the lack of rain. But Saba's father refuses to leave the place where he buried his beloved wife, Allis, nine years ago. Allis died giving birth to Emmi, and Saba has never forgiven her sister for their mother's death.

But while she despises Emmi, Saba adores her twin brother Lugh. Golden-haired and blue-eyed, loving and good, he seems the complete opposite to dark-haired Saba, who is full of anger and driven by a ruthless survival instinct. To Saba, Lugh is her light and she is his shadow, he is the day, she is the nighttime, he is beautiful, she is ugly, he is good, she is bad.

So Saba's small world is brutally torn apart, when a group of armed riders arrives five day's after the twin's eighteenth birthday snatch Lugh away. Saba's rage is so wild, that she manages to drive the men away, but not before they have captured Lugh and killed their father.

And here begins Saba's epic quest to rescue Lugh, during which she is tested by trials she could not have imagined, and one that takes the reader on breathtaking ride full or romance, physical adventure and unforgettably vivid characters, making this a truly sensational YA debut novel.

Additional text

PRAISE FOR Blood Red Road:

“It’s Mad Max and The Hunger Games meets True Grit. . . . The author moves between ruthless action and gorgeous, buttery narration. . . . In the hands of a lesser writer, that style might have dragged, but first-time author Young is talented, and she’s just getting started. . . This is a must-read, where girls rescue boys, and where the future looms up full of hope and loss, struggles and archetypes that give the story a timeless, classic edge.” –The Globe and Mail

“Eerie and adventurous . . . on par with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker . . . Blood Red Road has a cinematic quality that makes it white-hot. . . .The fervor is more than warranted.” –LA Times

“Brutal and thrilling.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Not only will it satisfy the cravings of Hunger Games fans, but it is—dare I say—better than The Hunger Games. . . . This book will blow you away. . . . Blood Red Road simply delivers. The story, the writing, the characters and the narrative voice are stunning and completely original, setting this book apart from the crowd of dystopian novels.” —Hollywood Crush, MTV.com
 
“[Blood Red Road is] poised to be the next big thing in teen fiction, and with good reason. . . . The world . . . is beautifully wrought, as well as terrifyingly plausible. . . . Young has taken familiar pieces of everything from Gladiator to Lord of the Rings and put them in the hands of a spunky, moody heroine who breaths new life into old motifs.” —Quill & Quire

“[Blood Red Road] mashes together McCarthy’s intensity with a laconic narrative style taken from the literature of the American west. . . . Yes, this is the perfect apocalypse for pre-teens.” —The Guardian (UK)

“Young adults will enjoy reading this story of the transformation that is possible when you fight for what you believe in and know in your heart that it is right.” —National Post

“Blood Red Road is an epic adventure set in a violent future world and nothing is as it seems. Young manages to breathe life into her characters with little insights that warm the heart.” —The Sun Daily

Product details

• Authors: Moira Young
• Publisher: Random House N.Y.
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 12
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.02.2012
• EAN: 9780385671859
• ISBN: 978-0-385-67185-9
• No. of pages: 464
• Series: Dust Lands; Dust Lands