Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Review: Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce


Title: Sisters Red
Author: Jackson Pearce
Page Count: 326
Summary: (from Goodreads) "Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris-- the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax-- but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they've worked for."

Review: I actually didn't intend to buy Sisters Red - I wanted to wait until my library got it. However, I was at the book store the other day, saw it, and knew I had to read it. I've basically been doing so nonstop since I got it!

For starters, I want to say that I liked this a lot more than As You Wish, Pearce's first novel. I can tell that her writing style has grown a lot. Whereas in As You Wish, I didn't think the alternating viewpoints added much to the story, in Sisters Red they definitely did. Rosie and Scarlett are two VERY different characters and that showed through in their voices; Rosie is the more innocent one and Scarlett is the badass, always hunting to protect her sister so she doesn't get the same scars.

The werewolves were viscous and not at all like the good guys of the Twilight or Shiver universes. They are gross and scary and need to die before they rip out the hearts of innocent girls. I'm really glad that Pearce returned to the roots of werewolf lore, where they aren't playful and love interests. The werewolves of Sisters Red don't have souls, which I guess is why they are so disgusting and inhuman.

Silas, Rosie's love interest, was totally cute, and they gave me little shivers when she was all alone and nervous to touch him.

There were tons and tons of good elements to this book and I would have given it five stars if not for a few things: the plot meandered and Scarlett kind of whiny and repetitive. Let me talk about Scarlett first. I liked her character in the beginning, how she was so focused and it was kind of cute how protective she was, but it got to be a bit too much near the end of the book. I understand that she has scars and wants to protect her sister, but it was mentioned over and and over how she needs to hunt constantly. It's like the weight of the world is on her shoulders because only a few people know about the Fenris and even fewer want to do something about it. But she went on and on and on and on until I just couldn't wait for Rosie's chapters because Scarlett was just too... intense for me.

Secondly, the plot. I kind of the guessed the whole 'twist' at the end right from the get go, but I think it was a really good twist anyhow. But the rest of the book, if you didn't already guess that twist? I think there was enough werewolf fighting but too much sitting around, researching and looking at microfilm and blah blah blah. I don't think I was ever bored with the book at all, but there were definitely some slow parts and the plot doesn't begin to pick up until the last 50 pages of the book.

However, I really, really enjoyed Sisters Red. I think it was definitely an improvement over Pearce's first book, which I also did enjoy, but there were just a few things that could've been tightened up, I guess? It's kind of funny - I can see Pearce's progression as a writer even in these two books!

Romance Score: 4/5 stars
Overall Score: 4/5 stars

No comments:

Post a Comment