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Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow

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When you first hold a copy of your most anticipated read of the year in your hands, it fills you with dread. You think to yourself: will I like it? What if I hate it? Sometimes, though, you’ve just got to have a little faith.

In McKerrow’s debut novel, the world is split in two. There is the Greenworld – think environmentally friendly and self-sufficient – and the Redworld. The Redworld is your worst nightmare – filled with gangs, it’s made up of the people intent on finding a power source to sell to the world.

Crow Moon is absolutely, undoubtedly my dream novel. I’ve been searching for something just like it for years and it’s not until now that I feel satisfied that I’ve finally found my ideal book. I devoured it within hours because I was so engrossed in the story and I adored all of the characters, who were so easily imaginable.

It’s an incredibly diverse novel – both racially and religiously. Crow Moon challenges stereotypes put in place by the media, as well as cultural ideas of witches and paganism. I hope it sets the trend for similar books (as well as climate fiction) with a realistic portrayal because it’s so desperately needed in modern fiction.

Danny’s exploration of the Greenworld opened up wonderful doors for the reader, who learns with Danny in a very natural way.

Although Danny is the protagonist, Saba was my favourite character; I could see myself reflected in her and she stood out immediately to me as soon as she was introduced. She’s a reason all on its own to read the book!

I desperately want to live in the Greenworld because it seems like such an idyllic, perfect place. McKerrow has created a vivid land to fictionally escape to. I hope in the future it’s possible to move to fictional worlds!

I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to be able to wait another year to read the sequel! I expect I’ll have to re-read this novel before then because I can’t bear to separate myself from the amazing world!

Crow Moon completely blew me away and I’ll be recommending it to absolutely everyone this year. PHENOMENAL!

Book Review

REVIEW: Red by Alison Cherry

Red was absolutely brilliant, and I haven’t read a book that was so much fun in a long time.

Scarletville is a sanctuary where people with red hair flock to. Felicity St John has it all – a popular red-headed boyfriend, brilliant red-headed friends, and she’s set to follow in her mother’s footsteps and win the prestigious Miss Scarlet pageant. The only problem is, Felicity has a secret – she’s not actually redheaded. And in Scarletville, blondes need not apply.

Writing this review has brought back the total awesomeness of Red. I’m so, so glad I decided to read it because it was exactly what I needed.

The originality of Red was brilliant. Cherry has taken the ‘you’re ginger and so you’re stupid’ stereotype and flipped it on its head. I think it’s a genius idea!

The protagonist, Felicity, was so awesome. I really loved her and found her easy to get to know and so interesting. It must be so hard having to conceal such a big secret from the whole town, with people shunning you if they found out the truth. It was fascinating to see the depths Felicity was willing to go to make sure nobody found out.

I think one of the questions I was thinking to myself when reading Red was: What does popularity mean? In Scarletville, the colour of your hair determines where you are in the social hierarchy, but it’s not hard to look past this and see an underlying message. Most people will know what it’s like to not fit in and I think Red highlighted this in non-obvious ways, which I thought was a great change.

The plot ambled along, allowing the reader to become invested in the characters and storyline. I feel as if it was paced perfectly, with not a boring moment. I’m glad it’s a standalone because everything was tied up perfectly at the end and I was left satisfied. We’re in need of lots more brilliant standalones!

I really enjoyed Red and would highly recommend it. It contains everything I want in a good book.