Book Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Title: Blood Red Road
Author: Moira Young
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Young Adult (dystopian)
Why I read it/how I found it: Moira Young was at a book signing I went to this week.

Description:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back. Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Review:
Ok, so this book has a lot of great action in it. The world is ruthless and brutal, so the characters in it need to fight a lot. There's never a slow moment in it, which I very much appreciated. However. I don't think this book was the best fit for me. Why? This book is written in dialect. I cannot stand it when prose is written in dialect. I mean, there's a difference between showing voice and writing how people speak. It was just difficult for me to get past it. I had to read for large amounts of time to get the rhythm of it down. And, frankly, I didn't think there was a point to it other than showing they're uneducated and tough, which is stereotypical to give the characters a southern dialect. But even worse than that is there were no quotation marks. Sometimes I'd read something and then realize it wasn't Saba narrating it, it was someone else saying it. Also, Saba's character growth was too fast for me. She was a follower of Lugh, not showing an abundance of backbone, but then she turns all bad-a and can fight like no other. I'm all for character growth, but not a 180 change in two pages. However, the relationship between Saba and her little sister Emmi was adorable to read. That progressed very naturally and beautifully. I feel like the world needs a lot more description in the upcoming books in the series, because while it isn't lacking, there are questions that need to be explained.

Other information: This is a series (unsure of how many there will be right now). Also, Ridley Scott's production company has picked up rights to Blood Red Road for a movie.