Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
pages: 326
released: June 2010
publisher: Little Brown
cover love: ♥♥♥♥
Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris– the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She’s determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead. Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax– but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they’ve worked for. (From Goodreads)
*this was my first book review*
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 10/10/2010 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET
Review:
Yay! My first book review!
I’ll start out by saying that I don’t usually read werewolf stories but I really enjoyed Jackson Pearce’s creative re-imagining of the classic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. Sisters Red is full of action, blood, friendship, and the important line between family and becoming an individual.
It features some of the classic elements: the grandmother and her cottage surrounded by woods, hooded cloaks, werewolves and woodsmen. Half of it takes place in modern day Ellison, Georgia, a small rural town and the other half in the dark, grimy city streets of Atlanta with two red cloaked sisters, Scarlett and Rosie March who lure and kill Fenris (aka werewolves) to avenge their Grandmother’s murder, the brutal attack on Scarlett and to keep other girls from getting killed. The characters, in my opinion, made the story memorable, with Scarlett being my fav. I loved how deeply flawed and determined she was, with her thick ugly scars, eye patch and deadly hatchet. She’s scarred, stubborn and pissed off. Her sister, Rosie, is the complete opposite, with her beautiful face and skin and daydreamy, romantic personality. Through the book, Rosie is still coming into herself and isn’t sure if hunting Fenris is all she wants out of life like her big sis. But the pressure is on for her not to let Scarlett down and that pressure is turned up full blast when their next door neighbor (aka woodsman hottie) Silas returns from Cali.
Sure, the plot is a little predictable (you kind of see everything coming) but you cannot say Pearce doesn’t know how to keep you reading with awesome characters and excellent writing skills. The prose is something to be appreciated; the words thrown together making this tale gritty, violent and truly showing how connected the characters are with each other. In this descriptive passage, you can really feel the utter nastiness of the Fenris:
“His eyes were enormous and hollow, his mouth twisted and stretched as if his face had been pulled apart at the corners, revealing rows of long, pointed fangs. His back arched as if it were broken, hunching his shoulders and turning his feet in. And his feet…the horrible claws were as long as fish hooks and left deep gashes in the floorboards as he inched closer to the girls.”
And the bond between sisters:
“When we ran through grass or spun in circles long enough, we would lose track of who was who and it started to feel as if there were some organic, elegant link between us, our single heart holding the same tempo and pumping the same blood.”
I’m excited Pearce is working on the sequel, Sweetly, that will be published next year. I will definitely be picking up a copy to see where the March sisters and Silas head next. I’m hoping for a twistier (is that a word?) plot and a love interest for Scarlett (lol)!
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