Red by Kait Nolan http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/site/red-by-kait-nolan/
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/site/red-by-kait-nolan/#When:08:59:14Z
Whenever I read a first person YA novel, I feel like I need to state in the review that it is first person, and the narrators are telling the story to the reader in each chapter directly. I know that drives some people bananas, though it doesn’t bother me. But be ye aware: this is first person narration from the heroine’s point of view.
Awareness aside: Holy, holy crap, I really enjoyed this book.
Plot summary ahoy! Elodie Rose has just moved to town, and is keeping a big ol’ secret. She’s on the cusp of turning into a wolf, which means, according to her family history and all the evidence she has at hand, she’s going to go absolutely nuts and kill everyone in her path, including her father. She’s cursed. She and her father are doing everything they can think of to delay that violent change, so Elodie lives a live of near seclusion. They moved to a new town, they changed their names, and her father chose a place near a huge park so that if they have to run they can head into the forest and leave no trail. Elodie’s father and Elodie herself are highly-trained search and rescue team members, and have exceptional survival skills in the wilderness.
Sawyer is the son of a researcher who has come to town to study the integration of a wolf pack in the forest. Elodie was so enticed by the opportunity to be a research assistant for the summer, she lied to her father about her job, and when her new internship brings her into near-daily contact with Sawyer, she’s unsettled and furious with herself for deviating from her father’s very careful plans to keep her safe.
The way in which the story reflects back on itself, on the Red Riding Hood mythology, on the ideas of coming of age and of innocence gave me a lot to think about since I read this book, and while I was reading it, too. There were times when the allegory was heavy handed. For example, there’s a whole explanation from Elodie about the original red riding hood myth, and how it’s come to be a story about virtue and virginity and resisting sexual temptation. But the origin of the myth in Elodie’s world rests with her ancestors, female werewolves who were frequently tempted or mated to human men. Each of the women in her family tree were werewolves. It was a curse afflicting only women, and the change to wolfyness manifests at puberty - exactly at the same time as reproductive maturity.
So even though Elodie tries to separate the mythological meaning and the myth itself, this story also operates as an allegory for virtue and temptation: Elodie’s mother left a note that was delivered to her dad when she turned 13 that detailed how Elodie was going to change, and that any contact with males would accelerate that change. Right. Hormones. Got it. Any contact with males would turn her into a scampering ho, only substitute “werewolf” for scampering ho.
The time Elodie spends in the woods (a very neat parallel, especially since at one point they hunt for a cabin in those woods) (no grandma, though, sorry) with Sawyer both adheres to and subverts the messages of virtue in the fable. Elodie thinks she has to resist Sawyer, because any contact, particularly sexual contact, with males can trigger her werewolf, change her in to an animal with no control over instincts and urges.
In other words: Oh. I see what she did there.
But conversely, Sawyer suspects she is different, possibly like him, and isn’t sure how to approach the subject without revealing too much about himself. It’s not just a statement that hornypants are ok and girls and boys both have them. Sawyer knows she is different, she is unique, and she is like him, and he can’t figure out how because what he should recognize about her isn’t present. And once he figures things out, he isn’t sure he should be the one to tell her the truth.
Again: see what she did there?
I really enjoy werewolf stories because I think they explore anger and lust and rage, and the consequences of allowing extreme behavior in humans and potentially excusing it by tying it to a bestial entity coexisting in the body of what appears to be a human. In this book, like many others, the characters talk about their wolves as a being in their bodies that they have to control, and Elodie’s struggle with control and fear of losing control and then hurting or killing someone is part of the tension that supports the story. Her struggle with a growing and powerful and passionate side of herself is something that scares her deeply, and she’s been taught to fear that part of herself from many trusted people.
Again again: see what she did there?
The switching narration, with alternating chapters narrated by Sawyer and Elodie, worked for me because I had a very clear understanding of what was motivating each character, and why they were struggling with themselves and their attraction. It wasn’t a book wherein too much was revealed by the narrator. They didn’t know everything and want to tell the reader all about it. There was enough of a mystery surrounding the characters that I wanted to know what was going to happen - and I liked the glimpse into how each character thought. Their voices are distinct enough that I could tell the difference between them without the chapter headings giving me a heads up (heh) as to which person was narrating.
Elodie’s character was amazing. She tries as much as possible to Not Stand Out, to be anonymous, easily overlooked and invisible. She wears muted colors, she goes from home to school and back again, and her father exercises tight control over her life to keep her “safe.” The assumption is easily made by other people in the town that her dad is overprotective of her - but it’s not because he fears other people. I think it’s more because he fears his daughter and what will happen if she changes due to the influence of other people.
Picturing Elodie hiding in plain sight, making herself invisible and trying to suppress what makes her extraordinary is a feeling I remember from high school, when many people didn’t want to stand out or be noticed for the wrong reasons. Yet Elodie’s entirely normal feelings are for an entirely different reason, and the use of the werewolf side of her forcing her to grow up and own herself made her struggle to be unnoticed and unbothered seem all the more real.
What. The. Hell. Am. I. Doing?
I was half numb with shock as I unlocked the door and headed for the kitchen to start something for supper. This was stupid .I was acting like a normal girl with a normal crush on a cute guy. It wasn’t just stupid, it was dangerous. Both to him and to me. It wouldn’t matter if he was a hulking giant of a guy if I wolfed out. Strength was nothing against razor sharp teeth.
I’d spent the last four years of my life doing everything in my power to avoid that eventuality. And here Sawyer comes and wrecks my “all high school boys are morons and assholes” rule to live by in just over twenty-four hours, such that I’d gone an accepted a ride to work and was looking forward to it.
She’s trying to deny who she is so she won’t be noticed, and she’s trying to deny herself what she wants so she won’t be tempted. Sure, no problem.
I had a lot of empathy for Elodie. I also had empathy for the parents in this story, who are basically good people who are worried about their kids for valid reasons. There are scenes that are the werewolf teenager version of “I’m not worried about you in the car. I’m worried about all the other drivers in their cars.” Only instead of cars it’s other things that are dangerous to wolfish teens. The parallels and mirroring of real and common emotions for parents and teenagers is smart and very engaging.
My only problem was the degree to which it was easier for Elodie to accept Sawyer and the possibility of their relationship than it was for her to accept herself. Her acceptance of their relationship seemed too easy and convenient after all the emotional struggle of the preceding chapters, and that ease and sometimes cloying nature of their time together made their relationship less satisfying after all the OH NO I SHOULDN’T build-up.
The limited cast of characters made it rather easy to pinpoint who the villainous ones were, but the fact that the characters realized after I did didn’t bother me. I never thought they were stupid - which can be a problem with first person narration, especially at times of emotional and distraught perspective. Even though I knew before they did, the fact that I guessed first didn’t lower my opinion of any of the protagonists, and their narration, while scared and stressed, didn’t make me think, “COME ON NOW AND I MEAN IT.”
So why a B+? I was so absorbed in this book while reading it, I couldn’t stay away and I wanted to check out of everything I was doing so I could go finish it. I think of this as “glue” and have referenced in other reviews when a book is “sticky.” This book is quite sticky. Be ye warned. But the heavy-handed didactic passages of allegory and really obvious parallel, especially the parts about nature and suppression of nature, hit me over the head with the giant spoon of plot infodump: HERE. HAVE AN ENORMOUS SERVING OF WHAT THIS SCENE REALLY MEANS. Plus the fact that Elodie and Sawyer accept their fierce attraction to one another with only a little drama seemed convenient while Elodie was struggling throughout most of the book to accept herself meant the drama didn’t balance.
But even though those parts annoyed me, I was fascinated by this book. The storytelling and the layers of meaning and the multiple ways to view what was happening in the story made this incredibly fun to read, and I have recommended it several times to people already. I think that part of what draws readers to YA and YA romance is that emotions are overwhelming and scary, even if you’re an adult, and that feeling of being overpowered by your emotions coupled with the secrecy of teenage life makes for some compelling reading. In this particular case, both of those elements are present and strong in the story, and when combined with allegory and a recasting of a well-known myth, it’s delicious.
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