When people started getting sick, Red started getting ready. A fan of horror stories and survivalist tales, she thought she knew what it would take to keep herself and her family safe. Unfortunately, her parents and older brother weren't inclined to take her advice. And so, she finds herself in the woods, hatchet in hand and backpack on, slowly making her way to her grandmother's house all alone. The Girl in Red is Christina Henry's (Alice; Lost Boy) retelling of a classic folktale, in which Little Red Riding Hood is not as defenseless as she seems.
A single young woman walking thousands of miles is hard enough, with poisonous plants, dangerous animals and the weather to worry about. But since the Crisis, there are evil people giving in to their baser instincts, racists forming militias of their own, government agents rounding people up for quarantine camps, and more than one apocalypse-causing nightmare to worry about. On top of all of that, there's Red's prosthetic leg to consider, too, slowing her down as winter approaches.
Henry offers a fascinating reimagining that places ability at the heart of the tale. Red is strong of mind, body and spirit. She continues to put one foot in front of the other--letting nothing and no one stand in the way of her and her grandmother's house, and willing to go to desperate lengths to protect herself and those more vulnerable than her. --BrocheAroe Fabian, owner, River Dog Book Co., Beaver Dam, Wis.