“Crimson Bound” Delivers Another Creative, Addictive Retelling

There’s just something sinister about the forest, isn’t there?

I have to say I enjoyed this book more than the author’s debut, Cruel Beauty. Cruel Beauty was great, but then Rosamund Hodge had to go and make that whole weird ending for it that I’m still unsure of my feelings for.

If anything, I think the author’s writing has improved and matured a lot since her debut. Everything lovely and amazing about her writing was really enhanced in Crimson Bound. Never mind the plot, I want more breathtaking scenic descriptions and saucy lines from the main character!

I thought the romance was a lot less focused on than the romance in Cruel Beauty. In this book the romance was not the main plot, but more of a subplot that didn’t even begin to develop until much later on. The plot centered more on Rachelle’s struggles with herself as a forestborn, not her feelings over some guy.

As for the plot, it was complicated and bizarrely creative, but amazingly constructed. Rosamund Hodge’s ideas are so imaginative that it’s sometimes hard for me to wrap my mind around them. I loved all the twists and turns, and my favorite, goriest part of the novel was the story of Zisa and her courageous determination to save her brother. I loved those folktale-like interventions between chapters, the descriptions of the bloody cottage made of bones, Old Mother Hunger, and the Forest.

“You were once a sheltered little girl. But you took up the knife. You were brave enough to face the darkness. And you became strong.” 

There was one particular plot twist toward the end that the story hinged a lot on, and at first I was uncertain whether or not I liked it because it was a bit of a cliché—I’ve read that same twist a few times in other YA novels—but after a few pages of letting it sink in, I thought it fit the story perfectly.

As with Cruel Beauty, this book was led by another awesome, independent, and incredibly flawed protagonist. I’m not sure who I like better—Nyx or Rachelle. Nyx from Cruel Beauty had this sassy, intelligent wildness to her, but Rachelle, the leading lady in Crimson Bound, was just plain dangerous. Rachelle had a weapon at her side throughout most of the book and she was never afraid to use it. She was intimidating and blurred the line between good and evil.

This book ruled. Now go read it.