Great Imaginations

I was really looking forward to Red. I wish I could say that I liked it, but I didn't. It started out okay, even though I didn't love the writing from the start. It felt very juvenile, and after the first couple of chapters my eyes started to roll, and then it just got bad, and not much later, worse. I think my main issue was the cheese factor. And suspension of disbelief. It's very difficult to believe that there is actually a town in the middle of Iowa that is a redhead sanctuary, and unfortunately the book doesn't do a great job of convincing the reader of that either. It's also difficult to tell if this book is a satire or taking itself seriously. And when you can't tell, that's generally not a good thing.

Felicity St. John is an out-of-the-bottle redhead in a town full of naturals. Every day she lives a lie about her hair. Somewhere, hidden in the town of Scarletville, is a secret salon that only the fake redheads know about. And it is run by Felicity's blackmailer's mother. Gabby finds out about Felicity's hair, and because she is a brunette in a town full of redheads, she decides to take it out on her, even though Felicity has never done anything negative to her. But that doesn't mean you won't hate Felicity. Because man is she shallow. And whiny.  And judgemental. And completely unlikeable. It was hard being in her head for the entirety of this book. Seriously tiring. 

Weirdly enough, I had the urge to DNF more than once, but even though this book was TERRIBLE, it was compulsively readable and so I pushed on. This is also why I decided to award it two stars instead of one. It definitely could have been worse. It's just such a shallow book though. The writing leaves a lot to be desired, and the characters are wholly unmemorable. There is a lot of telling going on, and the setting of Scarletville should come to life, but it doesn't due to the tone and writing style of the book. It's really sad because I do feel like there was a lot of potential here, but the execution was a complete failure. 

There's not a whole lot else to say. The characters are flat, cardboard, and what personalities they do have are most likely the parts a reader will hate. I did feel sympathy for Felicity because her mother was absolutely atrocious, but honestly, I just finished this book yesterday and I have already forgotten the minor details. It's just an underwhelming effort, and definitely a forgettable one. I think this book was trying to send me a message about beauty being only skin deep and all that, but it was totally lost in translation. I'd give this one a pass if I were you. And you know I don't say that often.