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The Girl In Red by Christina Henry is a dark fantasy retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, published by Titan Books on the 18th of June 2019.
The Girl In Red follows a girl named Red who has found herself in something straight out of one of her books–an unknown disease spreading through countries causing a pandemic. Red is determined to make it to her Grandmother’s home, miles away from her family home. Red does her best to reason with her mother, father, and brother to travel across the country on foot to reach the secluded safety of her grandmother’s house. Fighting herself, family, strangers and an invisible disease which is killing most people who are caught in its claws, Red makes the journey that can either save her or kill her along the way.
EVALUATION
Genre
This book messes with me majorly. So, The Girl In Red is part of the dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre, but since its main storyline resonates with the fear and confusion of 2020, calling it dystopian or post-apocalyptic makes it feel odd. Like I never considered 2020 or the COVID pandemic a dystopian time period, but technically, based on media genres, it was. Which messes with my mind. Despite that, The Girl In Red was released before the pandemic and fits the dystopian/post-apocalyptic genres very well.
The retelling aspect is interestingly done. For me, I read it as there wasn’t just one big bad wolf, but many big bad wolves. Some were alone, some were in packs, and some were in massive packs with splinter packs. Not to mention, the virus itself was a wolf. Something chasing Red, hunting her. Either ready to kill her Granny and take her too or stop her from ever getting there.
Prose
The first-person narration worked really well with the intrusive thought narration. I enjoyed experiencing the constant conflict happening with Red. Her logical and illogical sides argue about how best to survive when, ultimately, she always had a rough fifty-fifty chance no matter what she chose. The intrusive narration is something I enjoy about Henry’s writing, although there were some points in The Girl In Red where the breaks between actions or speech for the intrusive narration were too big. There were a couple of times when I had to go back and reread the start of the paragraph because I couldn’t remember what Red said or did at the start and how that lined up with the final part of the paragraph after the intrusion.
It wasn’t a massive issue for me, and by the time I was halfway through the book, it stopped being an issue. I adjusted to the big gaps and could hop back and forth to quickly recap info if needed.
The Girl In Red features time-hopping, which is a writing style I really enjoy if done well. Like The Book Eaters, The Girl In Red uses time-hopping between chapters to improve the entire experience. I loved putting the puzzle pieces together and determining what happens, when and how.
Characters
Red was expertly written. I think she had to be with how complex the intrusive narration was. Red felt like a real person who would come out of the pages and start telling me to get up because we were going to her Granny’s house. (It sucks for her that I live in Scotland, and her Granny’s house is somewhere in an alternative USA.)
I really believe that Red’s character arc was somewhat believable. There were some parts where I felt this was a bit of a stretch, but then again, her thought process and outlook on the situation made sense and something I could understand and follow, especially from reading books like Maze Runner, where governments are not to be trusted in times where the world is falling apart.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding was done lovely. I could picture everywhere that Red went. Even now, after finishing it, I can still conjure up the places she went to and the insides of businesses and home. The people she encountered and the sights she saw. Henry once again took something familiar and made it her own and memorable.
Pacing
There was never a point in the story where I felt it starting to drag. Since The Girl In Red jumped back and forth between time periods, any time the story was getting to a calm spot (which it rarely did), it would move me onto a different time period where something just as wild and as interesting as before was happening.
Plot & Theme
So, now we are at the story part, I think I should address what might be going through some minds right now. Yes, the disease is eerily similar to COVID. So, I bought this book in late 2019, but I never read it until mid-2023. I can’t describe just how freaked out I was reading this. I’m so glad I subconsciously decided not to read it until 2023, as had I read it when I bought it, then COVID hit, I would have been haunted by the ‘what if’ thought that would have plagued my mind.
Honestly, I would really like to ask Christina Henry how she felt when news of COVID came out. Like, was she looking at the news thinking, “shit, that’s a lot like The Girl In Red,” or was it just a bit eerie, or had she not really given it any thought. I mean, I was like, “OMG! It’s like the mad conspiracy theories where the Simpsons predicted something again!” I couldn’t move past the eeriness of everything. The Girl In Red came out a good six to nine months before the UK started to talk about it and then actually try to do something. It’s so close, yet too far at the same time.
Wild.
Anyway, the story itself was brilliant. It had Henry’s usual dark take on a classic fairy tale. There were plot twists left, right and centre; it was brilliant. Whenever I felt like I would put the book down after the current chapter, boom, plot twist. Which haunted my mind until I picked the book back up. It was captivating. The Girl In Red had this grip on me so tight I was almost suffocating in its grasp.
The ending had me in tears for a solid ten minutes. It was such a perfect ending to the entire story. Tragic, heartbreak, but ultimately, the ending this story needed. I loved it. Genuinely, I hold this book as one of my favourites. There was something so raw and bittersweet about the whole story. The start, the middle, the end. It was everything it needed, along with the classic eerie, dark and intrusiveness that comes with a Christina Henry retelling.
Story’s Impact
As I said, upon finishing The Girl In Red, I cried. I don’t mean watery eyes, maybe a tear or two. I mean, I lay in bed, head surrounded by pillows and cuddly toys, and quietly sob. Everything Red had gone through was so perfectly conveyed that I felt the hurt and relief. Some parts struck a sensitive cord with me, which made them hurt more. And while I remember saying something along the lines of “Red deserved a different ending, a happier one.” She got the ending she needed. So did the readers. It was very reflective of life.
It may not have been what our fantasies wanted us to have, but it is what our souls needed to have. I’m pretty sure I cried again going to bed that night while watching some YouTube. The Girl In Red Bus had run me over but returned hours later to reverse over me for good measure.
RECOMMENDATION
I recommend The Girl In Red, especially if you like Christina Henry, contemporary retellings and dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. It was a whirlwind of emotions, but completely worth the read!
Information & Rating
Triskele Rating: 7/7
5-Star Rating: 5/5
Book: The Girl In Red
Author(s): Christina Henry
Series Name: Standalone
Pages: 293
Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Retellings, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Fairy Tales, Adult,
ISBN/ASIN: 9781785659775
Publication Date: 18 June 2019
Publisher: Titan Books
Reading Speeds
(Based on Kindle/How Long To Read)
Average Estimated Reading Speed: 4 hours and 20 minutes
Based on the average of 300WPM
My Estimated Reading Speed: 5 hours and 42 minutes
Based on my calculated speed of 228WPM
Calculated by How Long To Read’s test
Goodreads Blurb
A postapocalyptic take on the perennial classic “Little Red Riding Hood”, about a woman who isn’t as defenseless as she seems.
It’s not safe for anyone alone in the woods. There are predators that come out at night: critters and coyotes, snakes and wolves. But the woman in the red jacket has no choice. Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn’t look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago.
There are worse threats in the woods than the things that stalk their prey at night. Sometimes, there are men. Men with dark desires, weak wills, and evil intents. Men in uniform with classified information, deadly secrets, and unforgiving orders. And sometimes, just sometimes, there’s something worse than all of the horrible people and vicious beasts combined.
Red doesn’t like to think of herself as a killer, but she isn’t about to let herself get eaten up just because she is a woman alone in the woods….
