Alison Cherry

I usually don't read much contemporary books, I mainly stick to fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian and Red was the first contemporary book I've read since high school (last one was Gossip Girl). I am trying to read more books from other genres and this was the first I started out with. I really liked this book, however it did annoy me to begin with. I could not believe that one town could put so much importance on the color of someone's hair but then again society has been known to put a lot of importance on the color of someone's skin so I guess hair color isn't that far of a stretch. This book was funny and SOME of the characters were so lovable and great and some characters I really wanted to punch in the face (cough*Felicity's mom*cough). The book sort of had a Mean Girls vibe to it; there's a lot of drama that happens between the redheads and non-redheads. The book is also very predictable but it's a fun quick read and overall, I liked it and I would give it a 4 out 5 stars.



**On to the SPOILERS! Do NOT read this section if you have not read the book yet!**

Characters I loved: Felicity's twin brothers, Ivy (Felicity's best friend), Jonathan, Rose, and Gabby's little sister (whose name I don't remember right now). Felicity's brothers are just so cute and adorable; I believe the twins are 4 or 5 years old. They added a lot to the humor of the book and I loved all the scenes with them. Ivy is spunky and doesn't take crap from anyone, which is what I loved about her. She isn't afraid to be herself and tell the rest of the world "screw you, I like the way I am". I really wished Felicity were a lot more like Ivy (though she found the courage to be herself by the end of the book). During the whole time Gabby was blackmailing Felicity, I was really hoping she'd at least open up to her friends, I knew there was a chance Haley might not accept her but I knew for sure Ivy would stick by her and I wished she would have at least told Ivy, at least she would have one person in her corner supporting her cause her mom sure wasn't any help. Jonathan who also is an artist like Felicity (but a brunette) was an amazing character. How Felicity was blind to how amazing and how perfect Jonathan was for her, is beyond me. He understood better than her boyfriend who she's been with for over a year. He, unlike Brent (Felicity's boyfriend who looked at her with disgust when he found out about her real hair color), still liked Felicity and supported her and recognized her qualities and actually accepted her for who she is. Rose is Felicity's stylist and despite being Gabby's mom, she has always been very supportive and encouraging of Felicity and Gabby's little sister just adores Felicity and looks up to her. The note that Gabby’s sister sent to Felicity before the pageant was so cute and adorable. I can't believe that Felicity had actually planned on ratting out Rose and her family to the mayor just because of Gabby. I knew she wanted to get an upper hand on Gabby but to do that to someone who has always been so supportive of her just to get back at Gabby is just wrong.

Characters I didn’t like: I could NOT stand Felicity’s mom, Ginger. She is so selfish and self-centered, she doesn’t care about Felicity’s happiness or what’s best for her she just wants to relive her golden years through Felicity. What’s worse is she teaches the wrong message, instead of teaching her kids to be proud of who they are, the message she sends is, hide who you really are and pretend to be something you’re not. You’re not good enough just being you and no one will like you or even notice you unless you pretend to be someone else. At the end of the story we find out that Ginger isn’t even a real redhead and she’s been hiding her secret for over forty years, even from her kids (though this still doesn’t make me sympathize with her). But if Ginger isn’t a real redhead and she knew how prejudice this town was against non-redheads, why wouldn’t she just leave and move somewhere else? Somewhere she would be accepted for being herself and she wouldn’t have to lie. I was also a bit surprised by Ginger’s reaction to the blackmail situation, though now thinking about it I don’t know why I was surprise considering the type of person Ginger is. However, I thought once she found out about the blackmail she would try to come up with a plan to stop Gabby but she just told Felicity to play into what she wants, “don’t antagonize her” is what she tells Felicity. I really wanted to punch her several times throughout the book or at the very least yell at her and say, “lady what the hell is wrong with you? Get your head out of your butt and start supporting your daughter!” I would hate to have a mom like Ginger.

At times I didn’t like Felicity’s character either, she kind of annoyed me. She was too overdramatic and obsessed about her hair cared way too much about what other people thought. She let others tell her what to do and couldn’t stand her ground and be her own person (until the end). Brent was the typical shallow dumb jock who was only interested in Felicity because of her hair color. He wasn’t a very well developed character and other than the fact that Felicity needed a redhead boyfriend, I have no idea what she saw in him.
Gabby, I could explain why I hate Gabby but if you read the book it’s easy to see why. It’s easy to see why all of the characters listed above are either great or terrible.

Few last points: I really like how the romance between Felicity and Jonathan developed in this book. It was slow and natural and felt real, not like the instant “passionate, madly in love” relationships you see in a lot of fantasy/paranormal and sci-fi books where the characters fall so deep for each other within a matter of days that they develop a completely unhealthy codependent relationship. I also liked that there wasn’t a love triangle in this book. Yes, I know there was the whole Felicity, Brent, Jonathan thing going on but Felicity’s relationship with Brent was a very shallow one that was mainly based on their status as redheads, it wasn’t an actual real relationship, which is why I don’t consider there to be a love triangle between them. More authors need to learn to write about relationships in a real way like this book. Even though the fantasy or sci-fi world they created isn’t real doesn’t mean the relationship between the characters have to be unrealistic as well.
I also would have liked to known what happened between Haley and Felicity. Did Haley ever forgive Felicity? Did they become friends again or is Haley more of a shallow character than I thought? I wish I would have known what happened with them.
… (más)

Loving novel about people and their passions when fandoms collide in a hotel. Captures the joy of finding one’s peeps at a con (as well as the fun of eavesdropping on people in the same physical space for completely different reasons. [one of my favorite con activities is seeing Klingons in a mall food court]) I also liked how being a fan of Harry Potter was considered completely normal, unlike the stigma of likening Star Wars or Trek when I was growing up.

Fittingly, I read it on a plane after attending a conference for work. I identified the most with Phoebe, really hope that I am not a Soleil.… (más)