I greatly prefer the movie over the book. I just didn't care for the book adaptation. ( )

At first, I really enjoyed the backstory this book provided to the movie. I don't know that it holds well on it's own (it's disjointed, just like the movie). But, soon, I found my attention wandering and I wasn't terribly interested in the story.

I think a lot of of this has to do with the way the POV is told. I wanted the POV to be Valerie, which is mainly the POV of the main character of the movie too. But the POV roamed from person to person, letting us in on their motivations and interpretations of what was going on. I find it frustrating when books do this. And I didn't feel like this book went deep enough into the story or the characters for me to get any new information than the movie gave.

and the ending was annoying at best. ( )

thought it was odd that had to go on line to read the last chapter. Couldn't put it down had to read it all before i could go to sleep. ( )

Got through the ending of the book with no ending. Have not seen movie yet so now do I see movie first or just read ending on Internet? The storyline held my interest until I realized the characters just wouldn't grow or change by giving more info as I read. Never find out why Peter and father must leave village. Grandmother seems nice to Valerie's family but yet is strange with Valerie imagining wolf-like traits. Father is drunk, mother worthless. Henry is almost too nice, too chivalry - makes deal with Peter out of love. Bringing in a werewolf hunter adds suspense but just is a hater. ( )

Okay, I am so confused at the end of this book. Is Peter the Wolf? Or her Grandmother? I don't know, and it irritates me!
I need to see the movie, too.

**Update** (later that same day)
I figured it out! If you go to www.redridinghoodbook.com and read the onus chapter, we finally get all the shit we didn't know explained. ( )

I'm not a big fan of fairy tales, not even the originals (which are much, much darker than the disneyfied ones we generally see today) but I have found that I have a real fondness for retellings of fairy tales and this is definitely one of my all-time favorites! I only wish the author was planning to revisit this world but I haven't seen any evidence that she is. ( )

*** 3/5 Stars ***

This book was enjoyable. If you're ever looking for a fairy-tale story with lots of plot twists, danger, and romance then I recomend Sarah Blakley-Cartwright's novle, Red Riding Hood. Which is actually based off a screenplay created by David Leslie Johnson.

At first I was slightly disappointed, believing I figured out who Daggerhorn's werewolf was, but then, going deeper into the story I realized I felt like Valerie (the main character). She started noticing certain traits in the people around her - making everyone seem like they could be the wolf. It was nice that the wolf's identity was kept a mystery until the end.

Speaking of the end, I was disappointed again, or so I thought I would be. The story was left open ended. You didn't know who the wolf was or what happened to our main characters. Thankfully I flipped the last page and saw that there was another chapter, not included in this book, but on the books website. Of course, I had to know the rest of the ending and immediately went to the website and clicked on the link for the last chapter. My disappointment cleared up. I loved the ending; I thought it was sweet and fitting.

I can't imagine having to wait until the movie was released in order to view the final chapter online. It must have been so frustrating to wait for the end. Im glad I read this novel now.

I don't think this story is perfect, of course. I wish there were some things that could have been added. More emotion/dialogue between our characters would have made the story much better IMO. But the plot twists, mystery and danger is what kept me to the end. Now I'm off to find its movie counter part and relive this story in another way. ( )

twisted ( )

Cappuccetto Rosso Sangue è un romanzo tratto dalla sceneggiatura di David L. Johnson "Red Riding Hood"; come la stessa Catherine Hardwicke afferma nell'introduzione è stato "pensato" a tavolino. La scenggiatura lasciava ampio spazio di analisi della psiche dei protagonisti e quindi è stato progettato affidando il compito alla neo laureata in scrittura creativa Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.

L'idea di un libro "tratto" da un film lascia un tantino perplessi, ogni lettore che si rispetti sa perfettamente che non esiste al mondo un film in grado di riprodurre la grandezza e la profondità di un romanzo. Vedersi offrire un prodotto nato "al contrario" ha suscitato non poche polemiche, soprattutto fra i lettori più accaniti che hanno seguito tutto il procedimento.

Dobbiamo anche dire, però, che Cappuccetto Rosso Sangue non è stato il primo libro-film che recentemente ha riproposto in chiave moderna vecchie favole, magari personalizzandole un po' troppo. Come non ricordare Beastly di Alex Fliin (di cui presto avremo il piacere di vedere il film sul grande schermo anche in Italia), oppure la riproduzione cinematrografica di Alice in Wonderland? Hollywood ha deciso di creare questo filone della "favole" e niente sembra fermalo e, di conseguenza, un libro, scritto per puro scopo commerciale, finisce per non sorprendere più di tanto.

Nonostante le premesse non proprio idilliache, in Italia si è atteso con molto fermento questo lavoro, edito Mondadori.

Il romanzo si apre con uno squarcio del passato della piccola Cappuccetto Rosso, Valerie, che si trova face to face con il terribile licantropo che terrorizza il suo paese da quando ha memoria. Una volta al mese il villaggio sacrifica un animale in pasto alla bestia e viene lasciata in pace per il resto del mese, peccato che Valerie da sempre intraprendente, indipendente e coraggiosa non ci sta a sacrificare la sua capretta, che ha visto nascere, e si reca nel bosco per salvarla. Lì incontrerà per la prima volta la bestia e quell'attimo le cambierà la vita, per sempre.

Il romanzo a questo punto slitta e vediamo che la nostra Valerie è cresciuta, è una giovane donna in età di marito, molto attaccata a sua sorella maggiore e incredibilmente acuta, forse un po' fuori da mondo, nulla di quello che interessa le sue coetanee sembra aver presa su di lei. Il lupo continua a ricevere i suoi sacrifici mensili e la mente di Valierie è presa dal ricordo di quei occhi, quasi umani, che la fissarono tanti anni prima e dell'amico, Peter, trascinato via dal padre quando era ancora una bambina.

Improvvisamente, però, la vita semplice, anche se chiusa e limitata, di Valierie viene sconvolta. Al villaggio torna Peter, lui si ricorda della bambina che gli aveva rubato il cuore; il licantropo improvvisamente attacca il villaggio e comincia ad uccidere e Henry, amato da tutte poichè bello e ricco, la chiede in sposa.

Da quel momento in poi la trama vortica velocemente verso una serie di accadimenti che porteranno il lettore a chiedersi: Chi è il Licantropo? E perchè sembra voler Valerie?

Vieni via con me...

Con queste poche parole, sussurrate nella mente di Valerie, capiamo che il lupo, in realtà, non vuole nessun altro che lei e che farà di tutto per averla, perfino distruggere l'intero villaggio.

La prima impressione che si ha leggendo le prime pagine di questo romanzo è quella di trovarsi di fronte al classico romanzo horror che prevede: un villaggio piccolo e bigotto, una foresta, un nemico (in questo caso il lupo) che li costringe a chiudersi - mentalmente e fisicamente - all'interno del villaggio e un triangolo amoroso in cui, ovviamente, la ragazza verrà promessa sposa all'uomo che non ama.

Di romanzi horror che prevedono quest'impostazione - in cui ovviamente la ragazza avrà uno spirito indipendente e ribelle - ce ne sono a decine, non ultimo il recente La Foresta degli amori Perduti e questo scoraggia un po' il lettore paventando un remake tremendo del film The Village, di nuovo.

Dopo qualche capitolo, invece, la trama rimane concentrata sul lato gotico e horror della "fiaba", non perdendosi interamente in tafferugli amorosi al punto che l'attenzione torna sul chi vive. Il licantropo fa la prima vittima e cambia interamente le carte in tavola spingendo Valerie a porsi delle domande. Il lupo sembra essere chiunque e l'arrivo di un fanatico cacciatore di licantropi al villaggio non fa che incrementare l'ansia, la rabbia e la paura della gente... Nuovamente Valerie si troverà al centro di tutto, apparentemente senza scampo.

L'autrice - o dovremmo dire lo sceneggiatore? - punta moltissimo sulla psiche del villaggio, il suo essere socialmente pauroso, bigotto, chiuso e avventato lo porterà a compiere una serie di errori, fin dalle prime pagine, che causerà una serie di eventi a catena che travolgeranno tutto causando vittime innocenti.

Quindi, in realtà, la lotta vera che compierà Valierie sarà contro la sua famiglia che la vuol dare in sposa ad un uomo che non vuole, verso un villaggio che, impazzito, accusa ingiustamente poveri innocenti e contro se stessa e la sua paura di uscire, definitivamente, dal mondo che conosce.

Si nota in alcuni punti l'inesperienza dell'autrice che cade spesso nella stesura di scene confuse oppure, per quanto riguarda i personaggi, in comportamenti prettamente illogici e un po' artificiosi.

Lo stesso richiamo alla favola di Cappuccetto Rosso è un po' forzata, relegando le poche scene rievocative, allo status di "sogni" e niente più... Se escludiamo il mantello rosso donato dalla nonna alla nipote. Per il resto è un romanzo carino, piacevole da leggere ma non abbastanza vicino all'originale per poterlo consiederare una vera "reinterpretazione" della favola.

Il fatto, poi, che per poter leggere il finale del romanzo ci si debba collegare a internet e cercare la pagina web riporta violentemente l'attenzione del lettore al fattore "commerciale" allontandolo drasticamente dalla piega gothic-romance che aveva preso il romanzo, alla fine.

Ci aspettavamo qualcosa di più da questo romanzo, senza dubbio, se non altro l'aspetto grafico è ben curato e il testo tradotto bene. ( )

So now that I'm done, I decided to start over with my review. Part one was indeed different, like a prologue to the story, in the movie Peter is always part of Valerie's life but in the book he was absent for so long.

But when we enter part two, you could see that the book follows the movie to a fault! But the author seems to dislike Peter and Valerie, when she describes some feeling or event, I feel I disagree with her analyze. She omitted so many beautiful lines and the whole ending of the movie.

Still I expected more than that or at least something a bit different. I didn't like this book. ( )

Intriguing premise to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood! This book follows the original closely, even down to filling the belly of the wolf's body with heavy stones. The back stories of the characters are nice additions and very plausible in a story that has wolves talking.

It was a nice, easy read, which I needed after finishing my last (rather intense) book. I read this one in a few hours.

Recommended as a great "palate cleanser" between books. ( )

THIS BOOK HAD ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT THE WHOLE TIME. IT WAS AN GREAT READ. YOU TY TO FIGURE OUT WHO THE WOLF IS AND THE TRUTH JUST BLOWS YOU AWAY. i NEVER GUESSED THAT EXPLOSIVE ENDING!!!!! ( )

Good to read after watching the movie! ( )

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright presents a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Valerie is loved by two men in a town plagued by a wolf who comes at the blood moon to kill. The town and the wolf have had a treaty of sorts for many years. Each family--at their time--sacrifices one of their animals during the blood moon to feed the Wolf. It's been this way Valerie's entire life, but things change when the Wolf kills a beautiful girl of the village whom Valerie loves. As the novel progresses, every character is suspected as being the Wolf, so no one can be trusted. As the reader vacillates between the two men who love Valerie (yes, one is named Peter), the reader questions if one is the Wolf--obviously, is Peter the Wolf?

This novel is a simply written novel--it seems like a first novel. It's better than anything I can write, but it's far from well-written. It's almost too silly in its attempts to keep you guessing as to who the Wolf is. Will she pick the obviously choice or go for some character you don't expect? Therefore, you guess almost everyone so that you won't be wrong in the end. It's very much a fluffy novel that has a very different ending than I've ever seen before that I recall. ( )

Torn between two and three stars on this one, but I'll be a kinder, gentler reader and give it three. The story was ok - I did like some of the characters, in particular Valerie, Peter, Grandmother and Claude - but the story has no sense of closure.

The townspeople are at one moment scared and the next fearless, at one moment cruel and heartless, and the next united against the obvious evil in their midst. Sounds interesting, right, and full of drama and mystery? The problem is, I just didn't buy it. Where were their motivations? They never really became clear other than at the most basic, surface-level.

And what of the over-hyped "love triangle?" Basically, it is non-existant. Valerie is constant in her affections for one man only, and I never felt any real tension in her character on that score.

The thing that bugged so many other reviewers - the complete lack of an ending or of any catharsis at all - also bothered me. I get it, you don't want us to know who the wolf is. But let me tell you something, I better find out when I go see the movie next month! If there is one thing I hate more than books with no endings, it is movies with no endings!

Ugh! I'm resisting the urge to scroll up and give this book 2 stars instead of 3 now. I'm just not sure it was worth my time. Hopefully it will pay off in a big way once I've seen the movie. Stay tuned... ( )

Due to copy and paste, formatting has been lost.

Valerie was not who she had been. She felt parts of herself softly crumbling off, like a cliff falling into the sea.

Looking back at this book, I didn't find it to be very memorable at all. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, Valerie included, and to be downright honest with you? I actually think that I liked the movie more. And that never happens. It was a pretty big disappointment, storywise. I was expecting some big twist, with a terrifying take on an old fairytale - which unfortunately didn't happen. It was kind of blegh.

Valerie's character was like cardboard. I feel like she didn't think through any of her decisions, and really she just had no pizzazz. Even her feelings of "love" were flat and underdeveloped. Not to mention the fact that the poor girl is an idiot. I'm not even being mean. But really, she is. It seemed like every five minutes, her opinion on who the wolf was changed... and she stabbed her boyfriend. Real smart, sweetie. (Don't worry, he still "loves" her.)

You know what? Now is the perfect time to talk about the feelings of instalove! Blegh! Let us all fall madly in love with each other over nothing! Grrr. Not only did Red Riding Hood have a terrible case of instalove, it also had a love triangle. A badly done love triangle, that basically made me want to eat my ball cap or something. No romance! No feelings! But don't forget, we're madly in love! (Also, I don't remember if this happens in the book - if it did, I rolled my eyes - but in the movie, he tells her that he'll "eat her up". SERIOUSLY.)

The point of view switched several times without warning, and while it wasn't very confusing, it was pretty annoying. It killed me. And let's not even mention how open the ending was - like really bad open. AND THE LAST CHAPTER IS ON THE INTERNET. *RAGE FACE* I'm not even going to pretend that it was a good ending. It was predictable, dumb, and everything I don't want in an ending.

All in all, Red Riding Hood was okay... but I have many rants on it. So it wasn't great - only read it if you like the movie, I guess. Because everything that happened in the book was in the movie - and the book was written to "give more life" to the screenplay. Fail. ( )

Well, I was intrigued to finally learn which character was really the wolf. Three stars, because minor characters weren't developed more and the main character flip-flopped between the two love interests way too easily. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm interested enough to rent it. ( )

I'm not sure what to say, other than that I didn't care about the book, the characters in the books, or what happened. I hadn't seen the movie before I read the book and after reading the author's intro I was interested to see how much detail the book went into. (I plan to compare it with the movie.) I guess I expected more knowing the director's thoughts on the book.

It was a fast read, I didn't realized how many pages had passed as I read. I finished it, though I was a bit annoyed I had to go online to get the last chapter. I guess I cared enough to go find the last chapter. Maybe it was just that I was unsatisfied with 'end' of the book. ( )

Excelente nueva adaptación del clásico cuento de caperucita roja. Una historia mucho mas misteriosa, apasionada y emocionante. ( )

Under the light of a rare blood moon, Valerie finds herself torn between two men: the handsome, gentleman suitor who she’s been betrothed to, and the dark, mysterious childhood friend who wants to run away with her. However, when all of a sudden the werewolf that has stalked her village for generations kills Valerie’s sister, her life unravels. Panic and paranoia rises among the villagers as they realize the Wolf could be anyone -- even one of their own. No one is safe, Valerie least of all…

Based on the 2011 feature film, this retelling of the classic fairy tale blends a mix of gothic horror and paranormal fantasy with young, wistful teen romance. It’s a story that questions the way society treats those who are different, and shows that courage sometimes means going up against what you used to know, no matter the consequences. This would be entertaining read for high school readers. ( )

When I picked this up, I was doing so under the impression that the movie starring Amanda Seyfried was based on Blakey-Cartwright's book. Not so. Apparently director Catherine Hardwick came up with the idea of turning it into a book during production. Prior to knowing this, I actually enjoyed the book and what I had assumed was an alternative ending. Now that I know this I feel very let down.

The characters were interesting, and it was nice to get inside Valerie's head a bit more. I enjoyed the movie, and thought it was fairly well done. A bit Twilighty, but decent. Valerie's character in the book comes across a bit more selfish and wishy-washy as far as her affections went. Henry was also a bit more developed than he was in the movie and I actually could see why Valerie might have wavered, especially considering how in the book Peter has been absent for years, only showing up right before the wolf attacks the first night.

The slight differences in the beginning of the book were nice, making it at least feel like I was getting something new out of it. The minor differences between the movie and book pop up often enough that it kept me read, if only to find out what else would be changed. Which leads me to the ending. Or what I thought was the ending. Apparently, the library book I borrowed was one of those printed before the movie released, and was published with the ending missing. On purpose. Yeah. So while I thought the author had deliberately left things hanging with a mystery or at least a suspicion that Peter was the wolf, what really happened was the publisher decided to work with the movie production company and not release the last chapter(s) until the movie came out. It totally ruined the book for me. I mean what a way to give in to the movie industry and sacrifice your story for a few extra movie tickets.

If you've seen the movie, then skip this one. At least that way you'll get the actual ending. ( )

Se vi è piaciuto "The Village" di Night Shyamalan e in fin dei conti sapevate fin da piccoli che il lupo di Cappuccetto Rosso in realtà era un lupo mannaro questo libro fa per voi. Come tutti i libri nati dopo il film risente del taglio da scenggiatura, rapido e leggero, ma a volte un po' di leggerezza è necessaria. ( )

ISBN: 9780316176040
Publisher: Poppy
Pages: 352

"The Blacksmith would marry her.
The Woodcutter would run away with her.
The Werewolf would turn her into one of its own."

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is a twist on a classic fairy tale. Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind and sweet. Now she is dead.
After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, The Wolf had been kept at bay with monthly sacrifices. But now no one is safe.
It soon becomes clear that only Valerie can hear The Wolf's voice, and to save everyone she loves she must surrender before the blood moon wanes.... or they will die.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Although, the book was good, it was just not what I expected and not my type of book really.
Maybe I didn't enjoy it as much because I have always loved the original fairy tale version of Red Riding Hood?
Maybe I would enjoy the film more?

Available at Amazon.co.uk. ( )

This book is about a girl named Valerie. Valerie is loosing everyone she loves. Her village is cursed with a wolf and every month something or someone gets sacraficed. In this case valerie loses her sister when the wolf kills her, after that valeris's world has changed and she discovers that the wolf is someone in her family. The blood moon came and attacked the village and cornered valerie and her friend then soon valerie was talking to the wolf, but her friend could only hear growling.

This book is really great. It is filled with nonstop action and will keep your blood pumping. I think you should read this book if you are up for a real scare. Anyone who likes wolves, romance, and nonstop killing then this is the book for you to read. I hope you read Red Riding Hood and i hope you love it. I rated this book a 5 out of 5 stars. ( )

I read this when unexpectedly stuck in A&E for hours, and this was the only book available. It was ok, a bit YA for me, but ok! I have to find the end online which seems a bit odd. Not sure what that is all about! ( )