Red Hood Book Review and Blog Tour

Today I’m really excited to be taking part in the Book Tour ofRed Hood
by Elana K Arnold, which is being hosted by FFBC !

Red Hood

by Elana K. Arnold
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: February 25th 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, Fairy Tales

You are alone in the woods, seen only by the unblinking yellow moon. Your hands are empty. You are nearly naked.

And the wolf is angry.

Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She’s kept mostly to herself. She’s been good. But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions. About the blood in Bisou’s past and on her hands as she stumbles home. About broken boys and vicious wolves. About girls lost in the woods—frightened, but not alone.

Elana K. Arnold, National Book Award finalist and author of the Printz Honor book Damsel, returns with a dark, engrossing, blood-drenched tale of the familiar threats to female power—and one girl’s journey to regain it.

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

The memory is a mix of pleasure and shame, and you wonder: For the rest of your life, every time you experience that pleasure, will shame be its shadow?

-If you are triggered by themes of sex, sexual assault and vengeful murder, you might approach this book with little bit caution!-

This is no childhood fairy tale,..

The memory is a mix of pleasure and shame, and you wonder: For the rest of your life, every time you experience that pleasure, will shame be its shadow?

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold, is fast paced, creatively darkish tale, rich with descriptive imagery that sucks you in. I would recommend parents to actually take an active role in reading what is considered YA, and decide for yourself if this is appropriate.

With that being said, I as an adult loved every minute of this book,

Arnold’s descriptive writing of a young woman’s menstrual cycle, seems to me to be focused on the phases of moon. The author uses this as an empowering tool throughout the storyline, which adds a lot of occult and magical realism elements into it. The riveting plot line kept me engaged from start to finish, one thing I immensely enjoyed, was the second person present tense. This happens to be one one of my all time favorites, which an incredibly hard thing to pull off. Elana K. Arnold capabilities as a powerful author is incredible, as you read through her seamless narration.

Set in modern Seattle, Bisou Martel has been in the of her grandmother since she was four years old. Living the normal life, when something happens on the night of her Homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life in the woods.

Being chased by a wolf, or something else, her memory is not actually clear.

Bisou fights back, and when revaluations as to what actually took place in the view of a new moon, some questions need to be answered.

Through the unleashed powers of coming of age, she will be a force to be reckoned with, when mysterious wolves start to prey on female classmates.

A vengeful Bisou, will use. her special ability and the female bonds of friendship, along with empowerment of womanhood to right some unthinking wrongs.

ELANA K. ARNOLD is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning young adult novels and children’s books, including the Printz Honor winner Damsel, the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat and its sequels. Several of her books are Junior Library Guild selections and have appeared on many best book lists, including the Amelia Bloomer Project, a catalog of feminist titles for young readers. Elana teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program and lives in Southern California with her family and menagerie of pets.