2.75 stars on Goodreads
Threads of Red by Julie Wright
Threads of Red is based on Red Riding Hood. Red lives in a small farm with her sister and parents. They’re poor, but their mother has plans for Kristell, the younger sister, to marry a rich boy. Kristel doesn’t want to, but their scary mother always gets her way. Kristell’s attempt to flee her fate sets the main story into motion. She’s fatally poisoned, and Red has to go to find a way to heal her from their grandmother who has been ostracised to a cottage deep in scary woods. For some reason, Goldi, Red’s rival for the affections of Carrigan, and Carrigan, follow. On their way there, they face obstacles and uncover a secret plot.
First up, this is not a romance or a love story. It does feature two suitors, one for each sister, but both are wet blankets there to fulfil a role as a prop. One of them finds some backbone, but the other remains a tool till the end. The hated suitor Kristell flees from isn’t shown once.
This is not solely a Red Riding Hood retelling either, although that’s the main element. It’s a mishmash of all classic stories. There’s Goldilocks, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, at least. I’m sure the author was clever, but the elements of those stories sprang out of nowhere, and the plot of the book followed. A treason emerged out of blue with no grounding in the world or backstory, or even a hint that it might be in works. A mildly evil character turned into a supervillain of long making with zero foreshadowing.
This is a story of women: mother, daughter, grandmother, and a frenemy turned BFF. As such, it works ok. It mostly comes alive in the friendship of Red and Goldi, where the author had to actually invent something instead of relying on fairytale elements. The relationship between Red and her mother was too much based on evil stepmother trope to be interesting, the sister was absent for most of the story, and grandmother showed up late.
Mostly though, this was boring. The setup took forever, the story local didn’t come to life at all, the journey through the forest had minor inconveniencies that had nothing to do why the forest would be a forbidden place for decades, and while Red dealt with the main bad, the solution to the story was conducted outside the pages. The suitor was handed to her on a platter when the rival retreated. I’m guessing they live happily ever after, but that’s where the story diverged from its fairytale origins, leaving it for the readers to imagine.
I was about to give the book three stars, but Goodreads introduced quarter stars in time for this review, so it’ll get 2.75 stars where those apply.
I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
