Wednesday 19 January 2011

Review: Low Red Moon - Ivy Devlin

Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin, published by Bloomsbury

Goodreads synopsis:
The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans.


Review: 
I have to start this review off by talking about how gorgeous the copy of the book I received is.  It has a shiny metallic red cover and has a lovely red illustrated page immediately inside.  Every mention of the word 'moon' is in red ink.  I literally swooned over this when it arrived!  This is the sort of book that you see on the shelves and you just want to touch it.  It is very covetable!

I was really intrigued about this book when I first heard about it because Ivy Devlin is a pseudonym for Elizabeth Scott.  It's always interesting when authors write under a different name - usually when they're writing in the style of a genre that they're not normally associated with or writing for a different age group.  I'd also read a lot of reviews of 'Low Red Moon' which were quite mixed, so I was looking forward to getting an opportunity to make up my own mind.  I ended up loving it from start to finish!

The author herself says that she was influenced by the children's tale of Little Red Riding Hood and there are definitely some identifiable aspects.  But this was also a truly original story.  One of the signs of a good book for me is great characters and I immediately loved the central protagonist, Avery Hood.  She's just lost both of her parents in a brutal murder that she witnessed but can't remember any of the details of and she's now living with her grandmother, Renee.

Avery doesn't have any real friends to speak of and she's always been close to her parents so she feels isolated and alone after their deathes.  The three of them were always their own little unit which was cemented by the fact that they lived in the forest and she was homeschooled a lot of the time.  Her memories of her parents are emotive and touching and I liked the way that she wasn't embarrassed or ashamed about who she was.  She'd always been taught just to be herself.  Throughout the book Avery struggles to recall the events of that night but when she meets new boy Ben Dusic and sees his silver flashing eyes, she gradually starts to piece things back together and remembers small incidents which she hopes will lead to the arrest of her parents murderer.  The relationship between Avery and Ben escalates quickly as they feel a connection to each other straight away.  I enjoyed the way in which Avery starts to discover the truth about Ben and is willing to accept him for who he truly is.

'Low Red Moon' is a marvellous read.  It's got romance, excitement and mystery and the suspense is built up nicely as it heads towards a dramatic conclusion.  I'm definitely going to be recommending it to people I know - it's a fantastic book.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me this one for review.

Take a look at the amazing trailer for 'Low Red Moon'.

1 comment:

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