Red in Tooth and Claw by Lish McBride Published by Penguin on October 8, 2024
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Horror, Young Adult Fiction / Westerns
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Faolan Kelly’s grandfather is dead. She’s alone in the world and suddenly homeless, all because the local powers that be don’t think a young man of seventeen is mature enough to take over his grandfather’s homestead…and that’s with them thinking Faolan is a young man. If she revealed that her grandfather had been disguising her for years, they would marry her off at the first opportunity.
The mayor finds a solution that serves everyone but Faolan: He hires a gunslinger to ship her off to the Settlement, a remote fort where social outcasts live under the leadership of His Benevolence Gideon Dillard. It's a place rife with mystery, kept afloat by suspicious wealth. Dillard's absolute command over his staff just doesn't seem right. And neither do the strange noises that keep Faolan up at night.
When Faolan finds the body of a Settlement boarder, mangled by something that can’t possibly be human, it’s clear something vicious is stalking the palisades. And as Settlement boarders continue to drop like flies, Faolan knows she must escape to evade the creature’s wrath.
First off, I know the summary said that Faolan’s grandfather disguised her as a boy, but I was still expecting the theme of gender or non-conforming gender would have come up. It did in certain aspects with the settlement and the division of boys and girls, but there wasn’t anything in relation to Faolan. Faolan’s grandfather started disguising Faolan as a boy when she was between 8-10 after her grandmother died because he thought the mayor would take her away. Apparently, men can’t properly raise girls. So, yea…there was a few sentences in relation to Faolan’s friend Dai Lo, but that’s it. There’s no discussion about how Faolan feels in regards to her own gender or how she felt with being raised as a boy.
The Settlement scenes were okay. The intermixed scenes of Faolan meeting the Rover camp, including Tallis, made the Settlement not as much of a looming force. Plus, the whole idea of Gideon Dillard stealing valuable items from the people who came to the Settlement was to be expected. When I heard about this novel, it reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and thought it would be a similar idea of the animal being man made. The magical and fantastical elements made it a let down. I mean, yes, Dillard controlled his creature, but when they faced off at the end, it all was wrapped up quickly with no troubles.
The romance was a bit jarring. In the moment, I was thinking oh this is kinda cute. But stepping away from it, I just find it odd. One, only after meeting Tallis twice does Faolan declare this is the love of her life, which okay, calm down. Two, Tallis’s age is never stated and we’re supposed to assume he’s around the same age as Faolan (seeing as they do end up together by the end), but he kept reading as way older. I mean around late 20s older and that’s just not what I’m here for. Three, the romance felt jammed in because it’s a young adult novel and there has to be a romance.
The concept was fascinating and could’ve explore a lot of themes about gender, religion, and what happens in a post-apocalyptic world. The execution left something to be desired, especially in regards to the world-building.
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