This is a tentative 4 stars, it’s probably more like a high 3 star but whatever

I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would after reading reviews. A lot of reviews I’ve seen talk about Red Hood not sitting right with them, and I totally understand where that feeling is coming from but I don’t think I agree? This might be somewhat spoilery so heads up, but it’s also the premise of the book so? Anyways, those reviews I read talked about how it’s wrong for Bisou and Sybil to be killing these men, and if they were killing men then yes of course it would have been. But at the time of the killing, the men were literally wolves seconds away from murdering someone else; if not for the main characters killing them first, an innocent woman would have died. So of course I agree with the reviews I’ve read that the answer to violence is not more violence, but in this (fictional) case I don’t think what the characters were doing was wrong. It’s not right either, but it’s not like there were a whole lot of other options at the time. That’s my take on that *shrug*

But onto the book itself, I found Red Hood to be a surprisingly compelling read. I really love fairytales but haven’t read all too many modern retelling, and I don’t think any of Little Red Riding Hood, so this was something completely new for me. I was skeptical in the beginning with the overly descriptive writing style, the second person POV (which I don’t hate but I do find kind of jarring), and the heavy emphasis on this child’s blooming sexuality. But I found once I started skim reading over the unnecessary descriptions that I was actually really enjoying this book, so much though that I’ll actually consider reading Arnold’s other books. I love anything to do with a found family, and this one really hit the mark for me. I love me a bunch of women loving and supporting each other unconditionally

My favourite character was definitely Sybil, especially because of her relationship with Bisou and her friends. I just found Sybil’s entire presence as a character to be very peaceful, even though she’s also a total badass

Plot and pacing were good for the most part, although I found the ending to be kind of lacking. I like the direction it took, but I feel like one more chapter would have made things more satisfying. There was also one thing about the writing that kept getting on my nerves, and that was the constant “I don’t know how I know this, I just do.” It felt like rather lazy writing, like the author didn’t feel like taking the time to figure out the logistics of something and just chalked it up to being mystical or instinctual. Which I guess in a fantasy you are a allowed to do, but it was kind of frustrating that nothing actually had an explanation, and the reader is just expected to take things at face value without being able to ask question. I was left with a whole lot of questions at the end of this book that easily could have been answered if the author took the time to figure it out herself. But alas, I’ll just have to deal with my unanswered questions

Anyways, while this wasn’t a perfect read by any means, I did still like it quite a book and would recommend it for those looking for something quick. It is definitely worth the read and talks about some extremely relevant topics to today’s social climate

Side note, there is a whole lot to be discussed about the lack of representation for trans women and women of colour in this book about violence against women. I feel like Red Hood should have at least touched on that topic at least one. However, I am not particularly good at articulating and don’t have concrete facts, so I encourage everyone to go read the reviews that talk more in depth about this topic