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Rood Als Bloed (2014)

by Salla Simukka(Favorite Author)

3.48 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fiction

publisher

Clavis

series

Lumikki Andersson

review 1: **** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A SPOILER******This author gets points for originality for sure. This is kind of a modern day Snow White fable. Also, it's set in Finland, which is great as you get a bit of culture and place just from reading the book. However, I didn't love the writing style, and I was annoyed with the characters -- I never really got to the point where I was sympathetic to them. One thing I really liked: the main character refers to her childhood trauma throughout the book, and you are really thinking that she was kidnapped or raised by drug lords or something. Turns out, she was bullied by two girls from her school for many years. One part of me reacted by thinking: Really? That's it? -- but then I was proud of the author for framing it this way, for r... moreeally underlining that, to the person who is bullied, this is no minor deal. It can be very traumatizing for a young developing brain to go through this experience, and I thought it was an interesting way to handle it. I'd read more from this author.
review 2: This YA novel in translation from Finnish has many of the hallmarks of the series it's been compared to, Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. That's not a bad thing, though. The writing here is tighter, though it follows some of the same overly-detailed contours which make me wonder if that's a particular writing style or done purposefully to be similar to Larsson's series. Lumikki lives by herself in a small apartment while she's attending an arts school. When she stumbles upon money covered in blood in the school's dark room -- where she likes to collect her thoughts and have some alone time -- she begins to wonder what's going on with it. She doesn't act when she sees it, but she can't stop thinking about it. When she returns to the dark room later that day, she notices a boy taking off with a backpack. That was unusual, and when she follows him, she realizes he has the money. Then Lumikki realizes he, along with another boy and a third person, Elisa, have something to do with this blood money and despite her better mind about it, she wants to know what's up.Elisa tells Lumikki they found the money in her yard. Elisa lives in a verrrryyy nice house and has luxury everything, despite the fact her parents don't work in lucrative jobs. Something's suspicious here, and Lumikki takes off to figure it out. Cue an underground drug ring, Elisa's shifty father, and a man...or someone...or someones...named Polar Bear, as well as a big wig named Boris, and there's a huge series of betrayals, lies, and a murder about to come to light.Simukka's novel is fast-paced and Lumikki is an awesome character. She's definitely hard as hell, and she's got a backstory we don't get to know. She's sharp and observant, and she takes no shit from anyone. It's very similar to Lisbeth Salander, and she even makes a Lisbeth joke in the story. It doesn't feel like it tries too hard or it's trying to be an homage; rather, it just feels like it's part of the landscape and cultural narrative. It works for, rather than against, the story.What doesn't work, though, is the weaving of fairy tales here. I'm not sure if this was meant to play off Sleeping Beauty or Snow White or the Snow Queen or if it was meant to sort of twist them all together. I think maybe this got a little lost in translation. It wasn't distracting or annoying. It just didn't coalesce. There's a great friendship that emerges between Lumikki and Elisa, though it's clear that Lumikki's means of seeing and feeling friendship don't have much emotion to them. Again, there's something going on with this girl that we're left at a distance from, and it works. This is the first book in a series, and while it's entirely self-contained (almost a little too cleanly, with the wrap-up to the crime in the epilogue), there's so much here that begs for a second or third installment. Who is Lumikki? I want to know.Pass this off to readers who like crime thrillers. The foreign setting is as fun as it is cold and bleak, and Lumikki is a compelling and frustrating-yet-enjoyable character. less

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