I usually don't read much contemporary books, I mainly stick to fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian and Red was the first contemporary book I've read since high school (last one was Gossip Girl). I am trying to read more books from other genres and this was the first I started out with. I really liked this book, however it did annoy me to begin with. I could not believe that one town could put so much importance on the color of someone's hair but then again society has been known to put a lot of importance on the color of someone's skin so I guess hair color isn't that far of a stretch. This book was funny and SOME of the characters were so lovable and great and some characters I really wanted to punch in the face (cough*Felicity's mom*cough). The book sort of had a Mean Girls vibe to it; there's a lot of drama that happens between the redheads and non-redheads. The book is also very predictable but it's a fun quick read and overall, I liked it and I would give it a 4 out 5 stars.



**On to the SPOILERS! Do NOT read this section if you have not read the book yet!**

Characters I loved: Felicity's twin brothers, Ivy (Felicity's best friend), Jonathan, Rose, and Gabby's little sister (whose name I don't remember right now). Felicity's brothers are just so cute and adorable; I believe the twins are 4 or 5 years old. They added a lot to the humor of the book and I loved all the scenes with them. Ivy is spunky and doesn't take crap from anyone, which is what I loved about her. She isn't afraid to be herself and tell the rest of the world "screw you, I like the way I am". I really wished Felicity were a lot more like Ivy (though she found the courage to be herself by the end of the book). During the whole time Gabby was blackmailing Felicity, I was really hoping she'd at least open up to her friends, I knew there was a chance Haley might not accept her but I knew for sure Ivy would stick by her and I wished she would have at least told Ivy, at least she would have one person in her corner supporting her cause her mom sure wasn't any help. Jonathan who also is an artist like Felicity (but a brunette) was an amazing character. How Felicity was blind to how amazing and how perfect Jonathan was for her, is beyond me. He understood better than her boyfriend who she's been with for over a year. He, unlike Brent (Felicity's boyfriend who looked at her with disgust when he found out about her real hair color), still liked Felicity and supported her and recognized her qualities and actually accepted her for who she is. Rose is Felicity's stylist and despite being Gabby's mom, she has always been very supportive and encouraging of Felicity and Gabby's little sister just adores Felicity and looks up to her. The note that Gabby’s sister sent to Felicity before the pageant was so cute and adorable. I can't believe that Felicity had actually planned on ratting out Rose and her family to the mayor just because of Gabby. I knew she wanted to get an upper hand on Gabby but to do that to someone who has always been so supportive of her just to get back at Gabby is just wrong.

Characters I didn’t like: I could NOT stand Felicity’s mom, Ginger. She is so selfish and self-centered, she doesn’t care about Felicity’s happiness or what’s best for her she just wants to relive her golden years through Felicity. What’s worse is she teaches the wrong message, instead of teaching her kids to be proud of who they are, the message she sends is, hide who you really are and pretend to be something you’re not. You’re not good enough just being you and no one will like you or even notice you unless you pretend to be someone else. At the end of the story we find out that Ginger isn’t even a real redhead and she’s been hiding her secret for over forty years, even from her kids (though this still doesn’t make me sympathize with her). But if Ginger isn’t a real redhead and she knew how prejudice this town was against non-redheads, why wouldn’t she just leave and move somewhere else? Somewhere she would be accepted for being herself and she wouldn’t have to lie. I was also a bit surprised by Ginger’s reaction to the blackmail situation, though now thinking about it I don’t know why I was surprise considering the type of person Ginger is. However, I thought once she found out about the blackmail she would try to come up with a plan to stop Gabby but she just told Felicity to play into what she wants, “don’t antagonize her” is what she tells Felicity. I really wanted to punch her several times throughout the book or at the very least yell at her and say, “lady what the hell is wrong with you? Get your head out of your butt and start supporting your daughter!” I would hate to have a mom like Ginger.

At times I didn’t like Felicity’s character either, she kind of annoyed me. She was too overdramatic and obsessed about her hair cared way too much about what other people thought. She let others tell her what to do and couldn’t stand her ground and be her own person (until the end). Brent was the typical shallow dumb jock who was only interested in Felicity because of her hair color. He wasn’t a very well developed character and other than the fact that Felicity needed a redhead boyfriend, I have no idea what she saw in him.
Gabby, I could explain why I hate Gabby but if you read the book it’s easy to see why. It’s easy to see why all of the characters listed above are either great or terrible.

Few last points: I really like how the romance between Felicity and Jonathan developed in this book. It was slow and natural and felt real, not like the instant “passionate, madly in love” relationships you see in a lot of fantasy/paranormal and sci-fi books where the characters fall so deep for each other within a matter of days that they develop a completely unhealthy codependent relationship. I also liked that there wasn’t a love triangle in this book. Yes, I know there was the whole Felicity, Brent, Jonathan thing going on but Felicity’s relationship with Brent was a very shallow one that was mainly based on their status as redheads, it wasn’t an actual real relationship, which is why I don’t consider there to be a love triangle between them. More authors need to learn to write about relationships in a real way like this book. Even though the fantasy or sci-fi world they created isn’t real doesn’t mean the relationship between the characters have to be unrealistic as well.
I also would have liked to known what happened between Haley and Felicity. Did Haley ever forgive Felicity? Did they become friends again or is Haley more of a shallow character than I thought? I wish I would have known what happened with them.
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Red was without a doubt one of the most superficial books I’ve ever read! I think the story is supposed to be somewhat of a satire, but it never really succeeds.
Felicity is an absolute drag as a main character. How can I sympathize with a character, when I believe her to be such a push-over and beyond stupid? She does nothing because she wants to. It’s all because she’s forced to do it; the pageant, the thing with the boyfriend, the routine, the rebellion – none of it is her, it’s all being forced on her some way or the other.

The story generally lacks interesting characters. I liked Jonathan, Ivy and Mrs. Kellogg, but that was about it. The rest are stereotypes and they seem like dolls instead of living characters – they lack development and they are ALL very unlikeable.

The story is so shallow and boring and utterly unbelievable. And entire city where red heads are treated as royalty and everybody else has to bow down to them? Come on, every adult with another hair color would move away from that city, not stay there to be bullied and let their kids be bullied! Unfortunately, I can’t even get worked up about that because I really don’t care! I don’t care about the characters, the horrible ending, or the shitty town. I just don’t care.

The ending ruined what little affection I had for the book. Felicity learns NOTHING from what she has been going through. The only thing I really liked about this book was the writing – it was easy to understand and I read the book quite fast. Red is one of those books you will forget the minute you finish it – and you will be thankful for it! ( )

Would you live in a town where it was only thought that red heads were the social upper class and all other hair colors being second class citizens?
Well I guess I’d try till they told me “hey you’re a strawberry blonde, you don’t count” then I’d say forget that.
Of course this is just a book and it makes a fun read, because honestly if this was a real town you’d hear racism screamed by every brunette, blonde or towhead. In the book Felicity has a secret that she’s been keeping in order to make her a social upper class citizen, egads… she is actually a strawberry. The book does deal with how others see you, are they really looking at you or just seeing the shell? Felicity has a lot to deal with, blackmail, self centered mother and fair weather friends.
Oh the woes of being a……... ahem … Red head.
( )

Felicity is a popular pageant contestant, but she harbors a dark and terrible secret--she dyes her hair red. In Scarletville, redheads are the only people that matter. Felicity is on the cusp of achieving her mother's greatest dream: being crowned Miss Scarlet. But then a classmate discovers her secret and begins blackmailing her. The blackmail starts small and escalates, and Felicity feels increasingly trapped. She can't tell her friends what's going on, and her boyfriend is a lunkhead. Her only solace is in her new friend, the arty and sensitive Jonathan.

Hamhanded attempt at creating an analogy for prejudice that just didn't work for me. Very juvenile writing style, forgettable characters, and no plot to speak of. Luckily, it's so lightweight that I only wasted an hour getting through it. ( )

The summary of this book sounds a bit preposterous, right? I mean, it’s compelling. But it takes quite a bit of suspension of disbelief to buy into the story from the very beginning. . . until you change the plot and replace all the hair stuff with weight stuff–you know, girls trying to fit it, be thin, hide their ultimate shame(maybe they’ve had surgery, or something), and it sounds much more closer to home than it first appears.

Red is. . . a very interesting book. The plot is simple: Felicity’s social reputation revolves around her keeping her strawberry blonde hair a secret, going to great lengths to appear as a natural redhead, until someone starts blackmailing her. She starts jumping through hoops, just to make sure no one learns about her secret.

It’s easier to root for Felicity. The cover gave me the impression that she might not be the, nicest, shall we say, character, but I was wrong. I have nothing against not-nice characters, but Felicity was kind and constantly in a struggle about her secret. Cherry’s characterization was really spot on. Her characters grew and adapted over the course of the novel, and everyone had motives that were well-reasoned and compelling. Even when I found myself not liking certain characters, I totally got where they were coming from. Felicity is an easy narrator to like–she’s actively sweet and goes out of her way to be nice to people. I get tired of the same old “nice and simple” narrators of YA, but while Felicity is a nice and kind person, she doesn’t feel like a stereotype. Her character traits are backed up by her actions.

The plot of Red is where things get complicated, despite the simplicity of the actual plot, because I’m just not sure how to review it. It’s rare to find a book that has such satirical elements in it, especially in YA. How do I even review said book? So I will say that this book did a good job of pointing out societal flaws that are as relevant to our world as they are to the world in which Scarletville inhabits. The complete inanity of the fact that this societal class is built around HAIR COLOR is completely played up and pointed out for all it’s worth–which is a good thing, and the thing I think really sells the idea behind the book.

On a simpler level, the plot of Red IS pretty fun. It’s typical contemporary YA about finding yourself, but the unique setting makes it seem less cliche and more adventurous than normal. Felicity struggles with a lot of things that other narrators in YA deal with, but her story never felt like a cliche to me. I really appreciated the intricacies of this book. It’s the type of book that can lead to a discussion or critical thinking if you want it to, but it can also be read for fun, without putting either choice down or hitting you over the head with it’s message(surprisingly, actually. The summary made me think everything could potentially be wrapped up in a nice little bow at the end, which it’s not).

As you can see, this myriad of potential reading’s is what left me confused when starting this review–there are just so many ways to read this book. While I think it’s a good thing, I strongly think this will not be a book for many readers. It’s the type of book you have to really be intrigued by to like or enjoy. It’s not fast-paced, it doesn’t have lyrical writing, and some of the secondary characters are, at times, quite annoying. Yet, at the same time, this book is unique and original in a genre that doesn’t always feel that way. On some level, it feels a bit ground-breaking, as cliche as that is. I don’t mean it’s the best book written in this genre, or even the best book written this year or this month, but it’s. . . Original. Completely, utterly, original. It’s the kind of book that someone, along the publishing route, KNEW they were taking a chance on and hoping it would pay off. In my opinion, it did, but I don’t expect to see this one loved as broadly as many other books.

Final Impression: When I finished this book, I knew I liked it quite a bit. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, and decided to go from there. This is not a book I would recommend to everyone, but it is well-done. It’s different, and that’s a bit scary from a reading point of view, but the way the story invites a layered reading really worked for me. It was weird at times, especially plot-wise, but it was a worthy read.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )