IF you have been around the blog for a little while you will know just how much I adore Christina Henry’s books. There is yet to be one that I do not like, despite having my favourites, I love them all. It helps that I find her writing to be such an easy read that I can get through very quickly, and with the horror genre, I think that’s just perfect.

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….

Red, or Delia, is the youngest within her family and yet is the most forward thinking and prepared. As a character she is amazing, showing so much strength and yet vunerability, she is a highly relatable character in my eyes. She shows so much diversity, with being bisexual, mixed race as well as only having the one leg. Im not one to read books for the diversity as often I find it then over whelms the story, but this was beautifully done so that this didn’t happen. It was just a fact of her character rather than a part of the plot, which I just loved.

Henry’s stories are always very short and precise and I love that. You quickly get into the plot, and they always keep pace as that book goes along. They never get to a ‘slow patch’ or any info-dumping that can just put you off; it grabs you in from the very first chapter. I think the only time I put this down was when I needed food and when I needed sleep, that’s what I need from a really good book.

Although the concept wasn’t overly unique, the tie of the post apocalyptic setting with the retelling aspect of Little Red Riding Hood,  knitted together for a great story. With interesting characters, a super spooky (at times gory) setting, this is something that’s like no other. I am a lover of fairy tale retellings in general, but Christina Henry’s way of taking childhood stories and making them so dark and spooky is just fabulous, I’d go as far as to say the best.

Though one quick hint, make sure you read her books with all the lights turned on! 

As with most of her books, and in case you couldn’t tell, this was a very easy five star read for me. No question about that, I don’t think there was anything that could of made this any better, it was literal literacy perfection. Make sure that you go and get your hands on your own copy as soon as you can, you will not regret it!