Red Hill

Red Hill
Written by Jamie McGuire

When the world ends, Can love survive?

About the Author
Jamie McGuire was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was raised in Blackwell, and graduated High School in 1997 where she then went on to attend Northern Oklahoma College. She later graduated with a degree in Radiography. She now lives with her husband and 3 children in Enid, OK.

The Story
After a mad scientist finds a way to recreate the dead, a virus overtakes the world and slowly works its way into peoples bodies. Quickly spreading from one victim to another, the dead start to take over the world in large numbers. 
But when Scarlett goes on a dangerous mission to find her daughters in the outbreak, she meets survivors who are on the road to find their loved ones and find a safe place away from the Shufflers. Scarlett makes her way to the one place she knows that many people wouldn't think to hide. In the countryside. She makes her way to Red Hill, a cabin farm house that she would clean for her boss during the holidays. She makes her way there with the hope that her children will one day find her there. Instead more people start to arrive there to find shelter; including the two daughters of the gentleman that Scarlett worked for, and their boyfriends Bryce and Cooper. Miranda and Ashley find their father is gone and there is no way of bringing him back. But with them they bring Nathan and his young daughter Zoe. All looking for a safe haven, the group of survivors start to work together along with the help of their Military Officer survivor, Joey. Working together to keep alive and help Scarlett's daughters to find her at Red Hill, they meet new people and some old friends. whilst also making new connections, finding new loves, meeting enemies and finding out deadly secrets.


Characterisation
Red Hill has a large group of characters that are involved in the building of this wonderfully thrilling story. They are as follows;

• Scarlett - One of the 3 characters in which this story is told by. She is an X-ray technician who is desperately trying to find her daughters in this messed up, apocalyptic world.
• Nathan - The second character the story is told by. Nathan is running with his young daughter Zoe whilst trying to keep her from having another turn.
• Miranda - The final character who tells us her events. She is running with her boyfriend Bryce, her sister Ashley and Ashley's boyfriend Cooper.
• Joey a military officer who has survived thus far, running with Miranda and her group of survivors to find a safe place to hide.

The story evolves around all of these characters including new survivors and old friends.

All of the characters above have made it safely to Red Hill with the help of others, whilst trying to help more survivors on their way.

One of the characters that I really found to make an impression on me the most, was Scarlett.
When the story began she was a divorcee with two daughters and a job she enjoyed. By the end of the story she was still a divorcee, with no job, but a new love in her life. One thing I loved about Scarlett is the fact that she was spending the story making a clear way for her daughters. She believed with all her heart and soul, deep down inside, that her daughters Halle and Jenna would find her message left at their fathers home, and join her at Red Hill one day. She prayed every day they would return to her. She would patrol the fields on the farm, walk to the nearest town and take out as many zombies as possible, so that she felt better and knew her daughters had a chance to find her. But do they?

Plot Lines
Writing this part of a review is always difficult. When reviewing any book, it is difficult, especially when you love it so much that you just want to tell the world everything that happens. When describing it to my friends I find it difficult not to blurt out everything that happens. So lets try it with this one.

Now, we all know that zombie apocalyptic stories are, very commonly, the same in one way or another. For example; A spread of a virus? Or an experiment gone wrong? Nowadays, many zombie stories start the same. A sickness is spread. Which is Red Hill, yes, a sickness is spread among the world, passing it through bites from a zombie to a living being. But to start the story, Jamie decided to give us a background view of a crazy scientist from Europe. He wanted to find a way to reanimate the dead. Which he successfully did, but it went all wrong. That was what made Red Hill interest me the most. It wasn't just the usual sickness. A crazy scientist decided he wanted to make a difference, little did he know that he would cause the end of the world instead of making it better by keeping the living, well... Living.
Throughout the story characters come and go. Survivors are met and leave again. And the best couple of survivors that I believe made the story different to others was the strangers who walked over the hill to the farm. A father and his daughter are arriving at the farm and are invited into the house by Scarlett and Nathan. Everyone is very wary. The father is very controlling over his daughter and wants her by his side at all times. Now, it is obviously understandable under the circumstances they are in, however, he really wont let the girl be by herself unless he is in the bathroom, pretty much.
But once a revelation is made about the pair, things turn dangerous. Scarlett is out for blood and she wont stop until she gets it. 
I won't be the one to ruin the story, but the way that Jamie McGuire has written about this event, it really makes your realise the dangers of the world. Its not just the dead you should be afraid of. But the living too.

But with the end of the world still in play, what will the group decide to do when the Military starts to take control of the problem at hand?

A Wonderful story that needs to be enjoyed by all audiences. Well, maybe not the young ones.

OVERALL

Story: 7/10

Characterisation: 7/10

Re-readable: Yes

Recommendable: Yes

The wonderful thing about Red Hill, is that apart from the fact it is like many Zombie Apocalyptic stories or TV shows, it allows for a little humour in some parts. Not only that, but the group of survivors seem to be very alike in the interest of readers, yet different at the same time. When watching TV shows like The Walking Dead, characters are very different and come from very different backgrounds, that way there is diversity. For example, different ethnic origins, different careers, skills and languages. It helps with the building of a new life and survival. Whereas with Red Hill, Miranda and Ashley (being sisters) are very alike and scared of nearly everything that stands in their way, and wont allow certain things to go ahead. Scarlett acts like she isn't scared of what is out there, but Nathan puts her in her place about it because he really is.
The story is deeply immense and has you on your toes at the end of many cliff hanging chapters, whilst always keeping you interested in the relationships being built.

After reading many peoples reviews about this book too, I found that not many people were fans of the characters. They found that they were "Scaredy Cats" many times. Well what do you expect? The dead are walking the streets looking to eat your face... Its only natural to be scared. But on the other hand, yes they do need to be a little braver if they are going to make it in the world.  I personally found the characters to interest me deeply.

Read Jamie McGuire's Providence and see if you can carry the series with you.

Jamie McGuire is a wonderful writer, and I may be being biased, but she has written wonderful love scenes in the past, wonderfully beautiful books and stories, that I have just had to read them again and again and AGAIN. So after finding this book on shelves across the country, I just had to get my hands on it. Baring in mind the fact that it is very different from Beautiful Disaster & Walking Disaster, she still manages to put in the wonderful love story that we all wish we had. I praise her.