Book Review: Love Is Red by Sophie Jaff

Media Type: Ebook (ARC)

Title: Love Is Red
Author: Sophie Jaff
Publisher: Harper
Pages: Hardcover; 384
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours / Publisher
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Genre: Suspense / Thriller

HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart

Recommended to: Readers who like books that keep you guessing, and aren’t afraid of some violence.

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Redefining the thriller’s tale of the hunter and the hunted, This electrifying, hypnotically beautiful debut spins dark suspense and literary fantasy into a mesmerizing story of survival.

Katherine Emerson was born to fulfill a dark prophecy centuries in the making, but she doesn’t know it yet. However, one man does: a killer stalking the women of New York City, a monster the media dubs the “Sickle Man” because of the weapon he uses to turn his victims’ bodies into canvases for his twisted art. People think he’s the next Son of Sam, but we know how he thinks and how he feels . . . and discover that he is driven by darker, much more dangerous desires than we can bear to imagine. He takes more than just his victims’ lives, and each death brings him closer to the one woman he must possess at any cost.

Amid the city’s escalating hysteria, Katherine is trying to unknot her tangled heart. Two very different men have entered her previously uneventful world—handsome and personable David, alluring yet aloof Sael—and turned it upside down. She finds herself involved in a complicated triangle . . . but how well does she really know either of them?

Told from the alternating viewpoints of Katherine and the Sickle Man, Sophie Jaff’s intoxicating narrative will pull you in and hold you close. As the body count rises, Katherine is haunted by harrowing visions that force her to question her sanity. All she wants is to find love. He just wants to find her.

Ablaze with fear, mystery, and possibility, Love Is Red is the first book in the Night Song trilogy. With this unforgettable novel—one that combines the literary and the supernatural, fantasy and horror, the past and the present—Katherine’s moment of awakening is here. And her story is only just beginning.

So, I still honestly don’t know exactly how I feel about Love Is Red. If you love a book for the first three-quarters of it, and then are completely baffled at the ending, how does that translate? I can definitely say that this is an interesting read. Whatever you might be expecting, I doubt very much you’ll walk away from this book without being surprised.

Love Is Red alternates chapters from the point of view of Katherine, our “Vessel”, and this mysterious serial killer who is more than what he seems. It becomes apparent quite quickly that this evil is more entity than man. He can see into the minds of others. Read the “colors” that they give off. Truth be told, I was more entranced by our killer than Katherine. His descriptions of the way colors feel, and smell, was gorgeous. His chapters were brilliantly written, and fascinating.

Katherine’s point of view, on the other hand, felt very underwritten. Her thoughts were scattered. She felt hollow, vapid, and sometimes flighty. The only true thing I felt about her was that she really loved Lucas. Everything else felt manufactured to push this story along. I suppose, in a way, that’s almost fitting. Since she’s supposed to be an empty vessel? Still, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around her choices, and it made it hard to feel anything for her.

Now plot wise, this book started off quite stellar. Quick moving, I could only watch in horror as the plot led me from one unfortunate victim of our killer, straight on to the next. I watched as he wooed them. As he stalked them. It was terrifying and intriguing. I thought I had pinned who he actually was and, as it turns out, I was so very wrong. Sadly, as I mentioned above, the last quarter of the book was maddeningly unfinished. I felt like nothing was really tied together. It was as if the author remembered that there were more books to come, and so decided to just leave everything undone. Not nice. I have so many questions, and I’m not happy about it.

For the simple fact that this book did give me a lot of great reading time, I’ll offer up three stars. I also truly believe that the writing in the chapters told by the killer are well worth your time. The writing is gorgeous, and not to be missed. Just be warned, you might be a bit angry at the ending.

FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.