Blood Red Road/Moira Young

Blood Red Road by Moira Young; young adult, post-apocalyptic, survival; 464 pages

Saba and her twin brother Lugh have lived their whole lives on their family's homestead, so isolated that they only see a few people each year. Then one day, four riders appear out of nowhere, kill Saba's father, and kidnap Lugh. Saba, with her kid sister Emmi in tow, vows to track down her brother no matter what.

I think this book flew a little under the radar when it first came out, but I've been hearing a lot of buzz about it through various blogs, so I decided to check it out. Young's world is fascinating: a dry, dusty planet that was ruined by the Wreckers (us), and now makes survival and everyday struggle for most people. Remote homesteads, shanty towns, and bandit camps are the living conditions for most people, and drugs are pandemic to most places where more than a handful of people live. As interesting as Young's world was, her writing style was even more so. Saba, who's never even seen a book, narrates the story, and Young reflects that through deliberate misspellings and poor punctuation. I thought that would bother me, but I got used to it after a few pages, when the action kicked in. This is a great read, very fast paced, and it even sneaks in a sweeping romance. I would even go so far as to call this a western of sorts, with it's outlaws and setting. Oh, yes, and there was a pony!