Crimson Bound

By Rosamund Hodge

Rating

5 stars

Date Read

8/3/16 - 13/3/16

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

Aunt Leonie told her to stay on the path.

If only she'd listened...

Enchanting dark poetry, a retelling of both the classic Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Grettel's morbid story.

A Great, Enchanted Forest, riotously alive, manifesting in streets, houses, palaces. A murderer as a heroine, caught between mortality and eternal life. A gorgeous monster courting her and a handless prince making her question her beliefs...

Gorgeous doesn't begin to describe this book.

Main Characters

Rachelle

...never stops fighting. She has issues, true, she is untrusting and violent and wild, unrefined, damaged, broken. She's lost all hope, her dreams lay shattered and bloodied on the forest floor. She doesn't believe in bright futures. Her goals are kind of gruesome and include violently murdering her forestborn, defying and extinquishing the Devourer (& raging against the dying of the light). And yet, even with the Endless Night coming, she never worries about herself, brave to the heart and selfless (even if she'd never acknowledge such a quality in herself). She's had to fend for herself for years, with no real role model or parent figure and she's become the best she could to survive. She thinks herself a monster and a murderer, but, although she is powerful and lethal due to her nature as a bloodbound, still, all she really needs is to be loved and comforted, someone to listen and to care, to have her back.

Armand

Its like nothing surprises him, he is optimistic, sanctimonious and virtually unflappable. He does not worry about that which he cannot control, embracing fate instead, not in the manner of "giving up" but more like preparing himself for whatever, never batting an eye when faced with the prospect of death. He is very good at masking his feelings and so a blank face becomes his armor. He is thoughtful and he listens, he stays hopeful and he believes. More refreshingly still, he's not anatomically perfect like all the usual love interests: his face is even described as boring and plain in the beginning. And yet his cool manner, trusting eyes, unshakable demeanor, witty remarks and eagerness to care manage to touch a heart that should, by now, be too cold to care.

*Rachelle holds the stranger she comes upon at knifepoint, a stranger who later turns out to be Armand, son of the king*
"I was running from assasins" he said "Now I'm being threteaned with a knife"
*and after she fights his assasins*
"Shouldn't you have kept running?" she asked.
"Were you planning to lose?" He sounded politely curious.
"No" she stepped to the nearest assasin, pulled his belt lose and started tying him up. "Does anyone?"
"You're bloodbound. They couldn't hurt me unless you let them" He shrugged. "And if you wanted to hurt me, I couldn't hope to escape"


*When Rachelle has come to despise the self-righteous bastard and everything he stands for*
"If he really was a saint, if he was fool enough to have hope, then she was going to destroy it. The kind of hope that saints had didn’t exist, and she wanted to ruin him. She wanted to drag him into darkness and crush and rend and break him, until all the hope went out of his eyes and there was nothing, nothing, nothing left for anyone to hope."
(Don't worry, she later falls head over heels in love with him)

Erec D` Anjou

...is arrogant, selfish and self serving. His sculpted beauty camouflages his inhuman indifference and such cruelty, such monstrous actions that should make him repentant to any reader. And yet, his boyish laugh and confident smile, the way he never stops trying to earn her her heart, the assurance with which he walks and talks and breathes and the strong will that makes it impossible for anyone to embarrass him are a few of the qualities that, although in no way redeem him, demystifie why he ever stood a chance in having everything he ever wanted. And in any case, there are things more evil still than Erec, deep in the recesses of the forest...

"Everything was always a game to him, and he always won"
-Rachelle talking about Erec

“I think it doesn’t matter what either one of us regrets,” said Erec. “We are going to live forever, in darkness and in dancing. Because I know you, my lady, and you don’t have it in you to be a lamb for the slaughter any more than I do. The same wolfish greed beats in your heart: to have what you will, and kill for it. Or why would you be alive? And you are alive, and have your will, so what should you regret?”

Amelie

The innocent orphaned girl that loved applying light and beauty wherever she touched. Rachelle's only friend, and a human one at that. Compassionate, with a heart so big and a smile so bright she manages to light her friend's darkness and help her through tough times.

The Devourer

The heart of the plot and the darkness that threatens the future of the gorgeous world the author spun, a world that mixed 17th century France and the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

Writing and Narrating

I hate third person books and yet I loved Crimson Bound. Everything about it is enchanting and the writing is so beautiful that I cannot fathom anyone being mad about the way the story is being narrated.

The dialogues were masterpiece material. Here's a heroine who doesn't just act all witty and kickass but can also talk the part! From her comebacks to her questions and her thoughts, she's quirky all the way through.

The Ending

Just like in Cruel Beauty, the last couple of chapters are weird, just a tad.There's a huge twist, some out-of-this-world notions and then, in the end, everything has changed. Anyone who's already read Cruel Beauty probably knows what I'm talking about. Don't worry though, it's just weird enough to be entertaining. And, in any case, the answer to a big paranormal problem cannot help but be an equally big paranormal twist so no one can actually argue that Hodge's ending are sufficient in wrapping up her novels.

All in All

If you liked Cruel Beauty you're probably going to love this darker installment, a book with tale built in such a solid background with its own legends and religions and art, with a villain that rests not in the heart of a vague monster but threatens in the form of a Forest that's come alive.

When bloodbound turn into forestborn, they lose their hearts. The power of the Forest burns them away, and they can’t love or pity anyone. They can’t want anything except destruction. That’s why some of them go mad. The loss of their hearts destroys their reason.


PS. A fitting song: In And Out Of Love

XOXO

Aggie Pearson