Red lives in an modern urban city: full of crime and saddness. He drives around in his red mustang he has repaired, in order to find a place of piece. The land is rugged and run down. There are 2 gangs: the cripts and the wolves, both of them bad. Red has a hippie grandmother. One day, he is given money to give to his grandma. The wolves get word of this, so they send one of their gang members, Marvin, to tell Red that his sister likes him, so they can gag grandma and throw her in the basement. Well, Red meets up with the sister, Marissa, and schedules a date for that night. When he gets to the grandma's house, the wolves gag him and throw him in the basement, after stealing the thousands of dollars he had. Grandma says to let this concoction to go into his clothes, wolfbane smoke. Red decides to take a chance and goes to Marissa's house. The girl gags him and ties him up and ties him up, while taking out a human scull. As the full moon rose, the scull warped into a wolves head, and Red was completely astonished; Marissa was astonished at Red. She quickly said that he should go home and forget all about this ordeal. Red refused and demanded to hear the tale. Marissa said that as you know Cedric, the lowest guy around, is the Leader of the wolves. This scull of Xaviar is his grandfather. Cedric seems to have enherited the werewolf genes. The whole gang is a pack of werewolves. The disease is spread by siliava. They try to track down the two famous werewolf hunters: grandma gave them a little piece of information, that one of them had a gold medalion. Red goes to get his car when he finds that it has been stolen. He rides around the city on his bike when the werewolf knockes him over with his motorcycle and says stay out of this. He memorized the license plate-- he and marissa went to a license plate company and the trails went to grandma! Grandma decides to tell the truth. She and grandpa were the two werewolf hunters and the money, which they didn't ask for was from wherewolf victims. After all this, she decided that they wern't going to give up and makes them her apprentices. She tells that only silver would kill a vampire. There is no antidote. For three days, the moon is full enough to boil blood, to make a man turn wolf. In human form, they can eat anything, but in wolf form, thwy eat fresh meat. There is a slim chance oof surviving a werewolf. Red decides on his own to "join" the werewolves, staying true to the saying, "Have your friends close, but keep your enemies closer." After a while, he proves himself in the pack and pretty much becomes a second hand man. But the weirdest thin is that Red findes that he likes the wolves and being with them, but especially the chance to become wild and powerful. Which will Red choose, his family and Marissa, or his newly made friends, the wolves.
This book was a solid 4/5 up until the very end where it fell short.At the start of everything, Red has good reason to suspect Marissa’s brother is a werewolf. So, what happens? A lesser book (many lesser books) would drag out this plot point endlessly by not having Red tell Marissa about his suspicions, but no that bandage is ripped off as soon as it’s put on –and THANK GOODNESS. Instead, when Marissa chooses not to believe, it isn’t because the facts had been denied her, but rather she chooses not to believe because of who she is as a person. Whatever she does from there on out –including testing her brother- is done because of who her character is. This does significantly more for character development than the alternative. Please, other writers, take note. This is how you deal with characters and information they may not like.So, right off the bat you know that characterization is going to be spot on. Red, our main character starts off humorously sarcastic and is forced to confront his own conflicting loyalties and personal desires as he’s embedded among the enemy ranks. At every step his personal struggles and reactions to the peer pressure surrounding him from both angles leads him to figure out what he really wants and who he is. He’s very proactive about wanting to be involved in the satiation, stating at one point, “If they don’t want us to be part of the problem, then they’d better find a way to make us part of the solution.”While his grandmother, the resident werewolf expert, does not grow as much in the course of the story, she is a funny and very cool mentor figure, and learning about her past was quite intriguing.The pacing was also fantastic. Not a moment was wasted, and things were never slowing down. The moment one plot point ended, Red was smart enough to jump to the next one before getting caught up in the situation at hand. Sure enough it starts to unravel on top of him later, but his quickness and even his impulsiveness keep the story on its toes. Even towards the end of the story when we think we have all the facts, the world building continues to keep pace and reveal how much larger the threat actually is.However, it’s also the ending that makes this story fall short of a 4 for me. In the end what we know or think we know about werewolves starts to fall apart. Grandma says that werewolves are evil, but suddenly we have a werewolf on the protagonist’s side helping to take down his fellow pack (view spoiler)[in defense of his family (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Red Rider's Hood (2006)?
Red Rider's Hood was written by Neal Shusterman, one of my favorite authors. This book is on a higher reading level, and exposes a lot of different types of writing. It is a Fiction genre, and it is based off a classic tale Little Red Riding Hood. Neal Shusterman gives great details and explains thing precisely and subtle. This book is a little bit on the horror side, but it is not to scary. I highly recommend this book, but only for about ages 10 and up. Red, is a regular teenage boy, just trying to get by with life, but can he do that with all the drama in his life? Find out when you read Red Rider's hood.
—Ruby Anderson
This is one of those books I think teen boys (especially reluctant readers) will really like if they can be convinced to give it a try. The Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale is integrated well, but not belabored--it's a fun way to get into the story and then it moves on to become a believable and interesting look at the allure of gang life. The main character knows the Wolves are big and bad, but there's something really tempting about becoming just as big and bad yourself. It could be a good way to talk about gangs and violence from a new angle. The book has plenty of action and creepiness and flat out horror to keep the pace moving along and the spine chilled. Taylor Lautner is nowhere to be found.
—Lesley
I like Neil Shutterman as an author. Sof far, I have found all his books to be fun, interesting, and thought provoking. While I have also read some of his comedic works, I find that he seems to Excell at books that have some darker roots. "Red Rider's Hood" is definately one of those dark books. It takes the story of little red riding hood and changes it into something completely different with a guy as the main character and werewolves and vampires thrown in. I found the book a easy read and a fun take on the story. Unfortunately, I have to just put it as a three because I have read his other works and know he writes better.
—Jennifer Lynn
