Cloaked in Red

Reader: Elise S.
Age: 14
Title: Cloaked in Red
Author: Vivian Vande Velde
Publisher: Marshal Cavendish
Pub Date: Oct 1 2010
Galley: Yes
Recommend: No
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The most interesting part of the book was just seeing what she could come up with next, and how absurd it got. The majority of the short stories were unoriginal, and played exactly to the things that she complained about the original in
the introduction. There was one about a Little Red Riding Hood doll that stood out, and gave me hope to finish the rest of them. Also, it was really short, so the blahness wasn't prolonged.
Were you disappointed with the book at all: I felt like there could have been a lot more room for creativity. Every single story started out the exact same way: Once upon a time, before there were (insert electronic/modern name here). Yes, it was intentional, but
after a while just got irritating. The introduction also got on my nerves. "It has bad characters, animals acting totally against their natural instincts, a bad plot, bad role models, implausible actions, terrible setting, bad writing-" and on and on and on. And all in this
faux funny/sarcastic/hip writing. The kind that might get a laugh if it were being used in a story, but written down just looks sad and washed out. And unfortunately authors seem to think teens love. But it was the complaining that really got to me. No, the wolf doesn't act like a real wolf, but it's a FAIRY TALE. That's OKAY. And when one goes through her stories, almost all of them have anthropomorphic wolves too. Bloody hypocrite.
Cover: I thought that the cover was the most interesting thing about the book. The dark red against the green looked dramatic and mysterious. As a cloak collector myself, I covet her cape very dearly. One thing that did bother me was the age of the woman. She looks to be at least 16, and Little Red was a lot younger than that.
Did you finish: Yes
Age Range : Under 12
Quality: 2Q Needs more work
Popularity: 2P Only for special interest