Second Bookses

It's like second breakfast. Only with books.
Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce Jackson Pearce's Sisters Red is a fairytale retelling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, brought into current times. The sisters of the title -- Scarlett and Rosie March -- were attacked as young children by creature called Fenris, werewolf-like shapeshifters. Scarlett was permanently scarred as a result, and the sisters -- and their friend and neighbor Silas -- have devoted their lives to hunting and killing the creatures. When Silas returns from a year away, however, the dynamic of the group begins to change, and Scarlett's single-minded purpose of hunting and killing begins to separate her from the other two. While I liked the premise of the book (I do love a good fairytale retelling), I found Sisters Red to be so dark it was depressing. The relationship between the sisters is sad: Scarlett sees no life other than constantly hunting and killing Fenris, and Rosie dropped out of school at some point during or after middle school to join her sister and Silas in hunting. Rosie feels guilt that her sister was so brutally wounded protecting her, and feels that sacrifice earns Scarlett her complete devotion, even if she doesn't live for the hunt the way Scarlett does. I kept wanting social services to step in and save these girls, and the distraction over the depressing state of their lives kept me from caring much about the plot. While the world-building was excellent, I was too lost in it to care much about their success in killing Fenris, and the plot's eventual "twist" was apparent far too early. In the end, I wanted to hug Scarlett, take her weapons away, and send her back to school. The only thing that kept her from being an unsympathetic character for much of the book was her age and how she was injured.

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