Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: Hardcover
Series: No
Pages: 436
Date Finished: 30.05.15
Rating: 5/5
Summary: When Rachelle was fifteen, she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

I genuinely don't understand why this book is rated 3.78 on Goodreads. It's a delightfully creepy, imaginative, well thought out and exhilarating fantasy about a heroine who is selfish and horrible at times, but also one of the best heroines I've ever read.

Crimson Bound is my favourite kind of book. The fantasy is just delicious to read, and the world building oozes through onto the page without huge paragraphs of exposition. Hodge wonderfully introduces the world in a way that feels natural and organic, and immediately I was enthralled (and a little creeped out) by it.

I think that the forest is genius. It slightly reminded me of the Wood in Naomi Novik's Uprooted, but although the books are on a similar vein, Crimson Bound feels so original. Right from the start the creepy setting is interwoven with the protagonist, Rachelle. Actually, every single element of the book is so wonderfully connected that it unfolds beautifully from start to finish.

"In all your life, your only choice," Aunt Léonie said to her once, "is the path of needles or the path of pins."

Rachelle remembered that, the day that she killed her.

At the beginning of the book, Rachelle was presented with a choice. Marked by a forestborn in the wood, she either had to kill someone within three days and surrender to the forest's power, or be killed herself.

As soon as I met Rachelle, I knew that I'd love her. She's my favourite kind of protagonist, one that's every bit dark as she is strong, and right the way through the book I was so, so happy that she was portrayed as she was. So often in YA fiction, the men are always the ones with the ambiguous pasts and the internal conflict, and it's just wonderful to read about a heroine who doesn't fall into genre stereotypes yet also doesn't hide from femininity.

Every single character in this book has a purpose. It's like they were all part of an intricate web, and in the last quarter of the book everything came together. It was impossible to predict how it would unfold, and even if I could've, I didn't want to know what happened.

Even if it wasn't as much as Rachelle, I loved Armand. His characterisation was wonderfully refreshing and I'm not ashamed to admit that he was definitely swoon worthy. In fact I loved pretty much every character, as none of them were perfect and each one had just the right amount of wicked in them. It was also great to see Rachelle's friend, Amélie, as female friendships are often left out in YA and it's really nice to see them portrayed well.

I don't want to give away too much about the story and the plot itself, but it was amazing. I was expecting a great conclusion after reading Hodge's first book, Cruel Beauty, and it did not disappoint. Everything was so unexpected, and just when you thought that you'd figured it out it went in another direction.

"You're to guard the living martyr himself. And you say, 'Oh, Armand Vareilles', as if he were last weeks laundry." 

"I'd rather guard the laundry," Rachelle muttered. 

Just like with Cruel Beauty the writing is excellent. I love how Hodge uses language, and the dialogue was hilariously witty. Everything about this book is just so clever and I can hardly praise it enough.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of fairytales or their retellings, and although Crimson Bound is only loosely linked to its source material it still had a fairytale vibe to it and I loved it. I can't wait to see what Hodge writes next.