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The retelling of fairy tales has become a popular writing style that’s begun to increase in popularity among young adults. It’s only natural that we turn to the stories we were told as children to find amusement and good times as young adults. Sisters Red is the first installment of a fairytale retelling series by Jackson Pearce. It is dark, eye-catching, and a very clever twist on the classical Little Red Riding Hood tale.

However, calling it a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood is a stretch in my opinion. Yes, it deals with a wolf. Actually it deals with clans of werewolves. There are girls wearing red cloaks to attract them. However these girls are lethal as they wield axes, knives, hatchets. Little Red Riding Hood is the tale of a helpless young girl who visits her grandmother to bring her goodies. In the end she is saved by the dashing woodsman and the world is well once again. Sisters Red is far beyond that simple story of a damsel in distress

Sisters Scarlett and Rosie March have first-hand experience with the troubles of werewolves. Their grandmother was viciously murdered by a werewolf of the Arrow pack, that very same wolf took out Scarlett’s eye and left her forever defined by the scars that mar her once beautiful body after she tried to protect Rosie. After years of hunting Fenris (the werewolves) the sisters have formed a bond that goes beyond that of sisterhood. They consider themselves two halves of the same person. That is until the handsome Silas comes back to town. He used to be Scarlett’s hunter partner as he was is a ‘woodsman’ and that kind of thing is passed down through woodsmen apparently. Rosie begins to fall for Silas in the midst of increasing Fenris attacks on pretty young girls.

To solve the case of the growing casualties the trio goes into the city in hopes of finding out why there are so many Fenris just chilling there. They find out that all the packs have found out about a Potential, an incredibly rare occurrence of when a human is on the verge of turning into a werewolf and all he needs is a bite from one to change.  All the while Silas is encouraging young Rosie to attend classes at a local community center, thus driving a wedge even further between the once loving sisters. Eventually Scarlett finds out about her sister and Silas and the fact that they’re together now. She feels betrayed by her sister, her other half, and runs away to hide in the park. Of course we know that will all stories you never run away because that just means things will get worse. Rosie is kidnapped and held hostage. The Potential reveals himself and sisters save him from the threat of the packs. In the end Rosie and Silas end up being together and leave Scarlett to the world she loves, the world of the hunt.

Aside from being an interesting spin on an old fairytale, Sisters Red is also one of the most aggravating books I’ve read.  The characters start off strong and catching. In the first scene we see a young girl take on a full grown werewolf armed with only a shard of glass. How much more awesome can you get? That little girl grows into the strong, independent Scarlett March who has a tendency to obsess over hunting. She never really progresses past the older, defensive sister. Rosie March stays the wide-eyed, almost vapid little girl. She falls in love with the hunky woodsman. Thankfully we were not introduced to Silas in the opening chapter, so we don’t have as high of hopes for him. However, he is one of the most cookie cutter styled characters in the book. He’s hot. He used to love Scarlett March because she was beautiful, but when she got pretty beat up and scarred he turns to the next sister, who is much more attractive than her older sister now.

Poor character build-up aside, the plot is actually really well structured. There was hardly any down time and the pace was pretty exciting. There were hardly any dull times, except for the chapters in which Rosie is fantasizing about her relationship with Silas, and then it gets really annoying. The “unexpected” plot twist, as some reviewers call it, wasn’t really all that unexpected. If you find yourself sitting there wondering who the Potential is then you probably aren’t paying close enough attention, because it was obvious. Overall, the novel was good and had only a few let downs and I plan on continue the stories by Jackson Pearce.