Book Review: “The Girl in Red” by Christina Henry

Oct 1

Håfa adai and welcome to spooky season, my favorite month of the year! Throughout October 2024, I will publish reviews for works of horror, suspense, and the supernatural. Each book review will be followed by a brief history of Halloween. My third spooky pick for the month is The Girl in Red, by Christina Henry.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

Click on the tags at the bottom of this post to see all reviews with the same tags in the Horror bookshelf.

Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

The world is not a safe place. The Crisis, a deadly pandemic that has swept over the world, has destroyed civilization and turned once safe places into dangerous labyrinths filled with blood-thirsty predators. Red was prepared and tried to warn her family. Many of them did not listen. But there she has hope and faith in her grandmother, who lives deep in the woods. Now Red must protect herself from predators as she travels alone on her way to Grandma’s house.

My Thoughts on The Girl in Red: 4 stars

In The Girl in Red, Christina Henry blends the 17th-century French tale of Little Red Riding Hood with the horrors of a post-apocalyptic world ravished by a deadly pandemic and a twist that you will not expect. The story depicts real-life terrors of racism, the day-to-day experiences of an amputee, and the dangers felt by many women by just existing.

The Girl in Red takes place in a modern town near the woods in the United States. The fictionalized aspects of the book are absolutely believable. Yes, it is a post-apocalyptic extreme, but I can see humanity going in this direction. The story is told along two distinct timelines: the present course of events as Red travels on her own towards her grandmother’s house and the recent-past events from the outbreak of the pandemic leading up to her being alone. The pacing is supplemental between the two timelines: kinetic and active during the present timeline while building suspense in the retrospective timeline.

The Girl in Red follows the perspective and experiences of Red. Outside of Red, the cast of characters includes her brother Adam, parents, a few people she encounters, and a repeated mentioning of her grandmother. Red loves her parents and is especially protective of her mother, whose health is compromised. The dynamic between Red and her brother Adam is both relatable and frustratingly annoying. Both siblings seem to possess an “I know more than you” mentality. And Red’s dynamic with the various people she encounters while on the way to Grandma’s house, a few of whom I thought of as “the wolves,” is understandable given the context of her journey.

Christina Henry does a phenomenal job of building suspense throughout the story. I could not stop listening to find out how Red went from being with her brother and parents in the retrospective timeline to ultimately traveling alone in the main timeline. Christina Henry does, however, do a few things that I am not a fan of. The Girl in Red employs a trope that I do not care for: the protagonist has prepared a sort-of-good plan for what to do next but no one is listening to or taking the protagonist seriously for “reasons.” Red has an intense “told you so” mentality throughout her journey. And—maybe this last thing is petty—there is not a single wolf in this book. But there’s a wolf on the beautiful book cover! In spite of these, I still really enjoyed the experience of this book.

My final rating for The Girl in Red is 4 out of 5 stars. I listened to the audiobook in 2022 and it has stuck with me since. I knew I wanted to post a review of this book when I started this blog. Although published just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the themes and topics throughout the story resonate more deeply in the 2020s than many other post-apocalyptic fictional tales. I enjoy the fairy tail retold approach to story writing that Christina Henry takes here and in her other works. The ending of The Girl in Red left me with unanswered questions, leading me to think that perhaps Christina Henry has a sequel planned for this book. But there is also an acknowledgement in the story that Red, the protagonist, does not now all the answers either. No matter the intent, Christina Henry left me wanting more. The Girl in Red has stayed in my mind for over two years and, considering how many books I read, that is absolutely impressive to me.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of The Girl in Red by Christina Henry.

A Brief History of Halloween

October is my absolute favorite month of the year for one reason: Halloween! From ancient traditions of honoring the dead to modern-day celebrations of all things horror, Halloween is a time to appreciate mortality, the supernatural, and the macabre. Let’s take a look at the origins of this holiday.

A Quick Definition of Terms

Many use the terms “Celtic” and “Gaelic” interchangeably, but Celtic and Gaelic are not one and the same. The Celtic people (or Celts) include Indo-European communities spanning from western Europe to Anatolia (located in modern-day Turkey). The pronunciation of the word Celtic matters. If you say Celtic with a “k” sound at the beginning (“kell-tick”), you are referring to the groups of Indo-European peoples. If you say Celtics with an “s” sound at the beginning (“sell-ticks”), you are referring to the professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. The specific Celtic community discussed in this post are the Gaels. The Gaels are an ethnolinguistic group of Celtic people in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man who speak the Gaelic languages. In short, the Celts are a people and Gaelic is a language spoken by some Celtic peoples.

Samhain, the Celtic New Year & Harvest Festival

Samhain (pronounced “saw-win”) is an annual celebration held by the Celtic peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man to signal the end of the harvest season and the first day of winter. Similar celebrations are held by many other Celtic peoples in Wales and western mainland Europe. Samhain is referenced in the earliest recorded pieces of Irish literature, dating to the 8th Century, and is identified as one of the most important events in Irish mythology. A version of the tale of Tochmarc Emire (“The Wooing of Emer”) written in the 10th Century identifies Samhain as the first of four festivals to mark the seasons of the year. Celtic peoples who celebrated Samhain would make bonfires, gives sacrifices, and practice divination using apples and nuts to predict the events of the upcoming year.

For the Celts, Samhain was a time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the Otherworld (where spirits and the dead remained) became blurred. This liminal time allowed aos sí (spirits and fairies, pronounced “eess shee”) to cross into the world of the living and move among us. Once crossed over, aos sí would wonder the world of the living, with the spirits of deceased people visiting their living family in search of hospitality. Celtic people would leave food and drink outside their doors as offerings to the wandering aos sí in exchange for good luck and greater chances of surviving the upcoming winter. Not leaving offerings for aos sí could incur their spite and cause bad luck for people and livestock alike.

Allhallowtide, the Christian Season of the Dead

By the 19th Century and early 20th Century, European scholars of anthropology recognized the connection between the Celtic and Christian roots of Halloween. These scholars noted that many cultures in Europe and Southeast Asia combined celebrations for the dead with what those cultures recognized to be the New Year. But there was an undeniably direct line between the Celtic tradition of Samhain and the Christian season of Allhallowtide, both celebrated at the same time of the year to honor the dead.

Christian monks stationed in England in the early 8th Century observed the Celtic tradition that honored the dead and celebrated the New Year at the end of every October. And celebrations that resembled Samhain were observed by Christians as far south as France. By the 9th Century, Pope Gregory IV urged Catholic leaders in western Europe to establish All Saints’ Day on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November in an apparent (albeit still contested) attempt to erase Samhain and all similar Celtic traditions in the region. The Christian triduum known as Allhallowtide is what came out of these alleged eradication efforts with All Hallows’ Eve (or Halloween) celebrated on 31 October, All Hallows’ Day (or All Saints’ Day) celebrated on 1 November, and All Souls’ Day celebrated on 2 November.

But the deeply rooted Celtic tradition of Samhain would not easily be removed. Up to the 19th Century in Ireland and the Isle of Man, many Gaelic-speaking communities still recognized Samhain as the time to honor the dead and bring in the New Year. Today, many Celtic communities as well as practicing Wiccans continue to keep the tradition of Samhain alive and well. The Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is also celebrated during 1-2 November, possibly taking influence from Allhallowtide.

Halloween in American Popular Culture

The tradition of celebrating Halloween became widespread in the United States by the 19th Century with the mass immigration of Irish and Scottish populations to the country. By the early 20th Century, Halloween became adopted by Americans of all races and religions and has since spread to countries and communities around the world. Today, Halloween is widely recognized as “spooky season.” It is the time of year when film and literary genres of horror, suspense, and the supernatural are put on full display and enjoyed by their devoted fans around the world.

The traditional Celtic practices of Samhain do not look very different today than they did over a thousand years ago. The Samhain practice of leaving food and drink outside your door for wandering spirits turned into leaving candy for wandering trick-or-treaters. The divination practice of using apples and nuts to predict what the upcoming year had in store turned into bobbing for apples. Irish Catholic folktales like that of Jack-o’-lantern and Stingy Jack became tied to the celebration of Halloween and are signaled by carving faces into hallowed out pumpkins to ward off spirits. And the 16th-century practice of dressing in disguise to either impersonate a wandering spirit or cause mischief if you were unwelcomed turned into wearing costumes and trick-or-treating.

Closing Thoughts

An annual Celtic tradition known as Samhain honoring the dead and celebrating the New Year was practiced by Gaelic-speaking people in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man from the end of October to the beginning of November. For centuries, the Roman Catholic church allegedly attempted to eradicate this celebration before eventually Christianizing it. The Christianization of this Celtic tradition laid the social foundation for what would become Halloween. Today, Halloween is widely recognized and celebrated by people of all races and religions around the world.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 21 October 2024