Blood Red Road (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

• Saba: Protagonist. Determined and headstrong, very loyal to a chosen few. Twin sister of Lugh. Hard-hearted at times. Loves Jack, or at least thinks he is sexy.Big sister of Emmi.Follow's Lugh at everything.
• Lugh: Saba's older brother. Born mid-winter and under the watch of the Tonton since birth.
• Emmi: Saba and Lugh's pesky little sister. Turns out to be extremely loyal, brave and talented. Ruthless. Steals Mercy's horse (even though Mercy is injured) because she wants to ride along with Saba. Breaks things a lot because she doesn't like to listen to instructions.
• Jack: The arrogant boy that Saba met in Hopetown, though she doesn't know why she is strangely attracted to him. Makes her heartstone heat up. Former slave and friend of Ike, he plays a pivotal role in Saba's mission to save her brother.
• Maev: The leader of the pack of girl revolutionaries-gone-highwaymen called the Free Hawks. Becomes Saba and Emmi's friend and rides to their rescue when needed.
• Con: Saba tracks the trail of her kidnapped brother and endures tests of her own.
• Cage Master: Runs the cage fights and houses the people who fight in them in a cellblock in Hopetown.
• Helen: A fighter in the cage who brefriends Saba and tells her about the Freedom Fields. This helps Saba to understand why Lugh was taken. Daughter of John Trask, killed by Mad Dog.
• Tommo: Ike's "son," he is deaf, but is able to communicate with sounds and gestures. He can also read lips. Brave and very attached to Ike, who is his adopted father.
• Procter John: Visits Saba and her family at Silverlake. Pa doesn't trust him. Spy for the Tonton.
• DeMalo: The head of the Tonton, he is the king's top soldier and second in command. He seems to have the ability to see into Saba's thoughts.
• Ike Twelvetrees: Friend of Jack's, he joins Saba on her quest to find Lugh. Adoptive father of Tommo and (briefly) former slave.
• Nero: Saba's crow. Saba raised Nero after he fell from the nest. Nero is able to communicate with Saba. Is shown to be extremely intelligent.
• John Trask: Present at the birth of Lugh. Mercy tells Saba about him. Spy for the Tonton and father of Helen.
• Annie: Character in a song sung by Jack, referred to as "hard-hearted Annie".
• Willem/Pa: Saba, Lugh & Emmi's father. Star reader who foretells the future. Bitter since his wife died.
• Molly Pratt: The woman that Ike loves.
• Nudd: Mercy's horse.
• Allis/Ma: Saba, Lugh & Emmi's mother. Dies in childbirth when Emmi is born prematurely. Her death causes Pa to stop caring about everything and everyone, and Saba to resent Emmi for the next nine years.
• Mercy: Lives at Crosscreek, helped to deliver Saba & Lugh, friend to Allis, their mother. Injures her foot and is pretty much doomed when Emmi steals her horse so she can follow Saba. Probably dead, but the kids decide not to go back to check on her since it would be a little bit inconvenient.
• Rooster Pinch: Captain of the Desert Swan. Under the thumb of his brutal wife, a liar and a thief. Father of the king, Vicar Pinch.
• Miz Pinch: Rooster Pinch's wife. Brutal woman who tortures her husband and Saba and Emmi while they are held captive, and the mother of the king Vicar Pinch.
• Ash: Member of the Free Hawks, helps Emmi and Saba escape Hopetown, and has a crush on Jack.A friend of Saba and everyone else now.
• Hermes: Saba's horse and another animal she develops a strong relationship with, crucial to her escape more than once.
• Vicar Pinch: Fancies himself king of everything. Tries to dress and look like Louis XIV. Controls the people with a drug called chaal that he grows in Freedom Fields. Evil son of Rooster Pinch and his wife. Controls a vast empire.
• Ruby: Add a description of this character.
• Nessa
• Epona
• Ajax
• Robbie
• Ma
• Heeya

Quotes edit see section history

• “Ever heard of the rule of three? he shouts as we run.No!If you save somebody's life three times, their life belongs to you. You saved my life today. Save it twice more an I'm all yers.I'll jest have to make sure that don't happen, I says.”

  Saba and Jack

• “Move fast, travel light, and never tell 'em yer real name!”

  Jack

• “I ain't afeared of nuthin. I ain't afeared of nobody”

  Saba

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Yer in my blood, Saba, he says. Yer in my head. Yer in my breath, yer in my bones . . . gawd help me, yer everywhere. You have bin since the first moment I set eyes on you.

  Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers

• Love makes you weak. Carin fer somebody that much means you cain’t think straight. Look at Pa. Who’d wanna end up like him? I ain’t never gonna love nobody. It’s better that way.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• I laugh. Yer crazy, I says. I was fine till I met you, he says.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• I weep fer the girl with the butterfly on her cheek. I weep fer Emmi. Fer Pa. Fer Lugh. Fer me. Fer what we used to be. Fer what got took from us. Fer what’s lost to us ferever.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• I mean, what kinda fool ’ud put up with a woman that troublesome?

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• Gawdammit, he says. I bin waitin fer a woman like you my whole life. Jack, I think I’m in love.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• I’ve climbed the high mountains an sailed the wide seas Fair faces a-plenty I’ve gazed on But with one glance, her beauty sent me to my knees, O hard-hearted Annie I never shall please.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on behind. An that’s fine. That’s right. That’s how it’s meant to be.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• Keep ’em safe, Jack, says Maev. If you don’t, we’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth. An when we find you, we’ll rip out yer guts an feed ’em to the jackals while you watch. I’ll bear that in mind, says Jack.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• We’re in a race, the moon an me. An it’s a race I cain’t afford to lose.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Silverlake: Home of Saba and her family
• The Trackway: The path that leads from Silverlake to Crosscreek.
• Crosscreek: Home of Mercy
• Sandsea: The barren wasteland between the trackway and Hopetown
• Hopetown: Where the cage fights take place. Home of many chaal addicted commoners.
• Darktrees: Home of the Freehawks
• Black Mountains: Treacherous mountains that lead to the Freedom Fields.
• The One-Eyed Man: Ike's tavern in the Black Mountains.
• Freedom Fields: Home of the king and his chaal farm.

Organizations edit see section history

• Free Hawks: A group of warrior women who take residence in Darktrees.
• Tonton: The soldiers employed by the king. Led by DeMalo
• Children of the Light: The kings slaves at the Freedom Fields.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Wreckers: Pre-apocalypic humans (aka us)

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Never give up: Describe this theme.
• The red hot: Saba feels the survival instict kicking in, naming it "the red hot". It is what keeps her alive during the matches in the arena.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Rebel Heart.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Moira Young (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Costa Book Award (2011: Children's Book)
• White Pine (2012: Teen Fiction, #2)
• Texas Lone Star Reading List (2012)
• Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (Finalist, July 2012)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.Y874 .Blo 2011
• Dewey: Add the Dewey Classification.

Notes for Parents edit see section history

There is some blood and guts every once in a while, and one intense scene between Jack and Saba, but it doesn't go very far.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Adventure & Thrillers
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Action & Adventure

More Books Like This edit see section history