Scott Reads It!

Seen at Scott Reads It! For 3 months I waited on my library's waiting list for Rebel Heart and you're probably wondering if the wait was worth it. I'm happy to say that Rebel Heart is a great sequel that was definitely worth waiting for. I truly love the world Moira Young created in her Dust Lands series. It's definitely not your typical dystopian setting. For one "The Dustlands" remind me of Tatooine for some reason and I couldn't stop comparing the two. The Star Wars geek in me kept on trying to find similarities between Dustlands and Star Wars. Every single time I read about the tonton, I instantly thought of the Tusken Raider (natives of the planet Tatooine). From watching the Star Wars films, you get the impression that the Tusken Raiders are some sort of evil desert inhabiting nomads, I always think of them as ruthless bandits. For some reason I really think that the tonton were inspired by the Tuskens because they both wear those white robes, are raiders, live in the desert, pray on the weak, and are just straight up evil. Either I am 100% correct or I am definitely just trying to connect the two series using meaningless mumbo jumbo. Saba, why do you do this to me? In Blood Red Road I loved Saba so much because she was fierce, loyal, and 100% kick-ass. During Rebel Heart Saba acted so reckless and she never bothered thinking before she took action. People you always have to think things through before you act otherwise you are just going to get yourself stuck in a bind. In Rebel Heart Saba not thinking through her actions gets Saba into so much trouble. You would think that after a couple of times of acting reckless Saba would try to be more responsible but she doesn't. Saba continues to act reckless despite all of the repercussions. Rebel Heart was a bit slow paced at first and it took me a while to get into. Rebel Heart definitely has a more relaxed pace than Blood Red Road, RH didn't catch my attention as much as BRR did. Rebel Heart is more character oriented than BRR and it spends a decent amount of time on relationships. You would think that Young would spend a ton of time exploring Jack and Saba's relationship but this is not the case. Young spends a decent amount of time trying to set up a love triangle. The love triangle in my opinion doesn't really work at all and it was a bit on the disturbing side. I would never have even thought Saba would even like the love interest in RH not to mention sleep with him. Correct me if I am wrong but Saba and Jack have never slept together yet Saba sleeps with the most disgusting character. I was really disappointed with the idea that there is only one Jack and Saba scene. One can only hope that the 3rd Dustlands has lots of Jack and Saba moments to compensate for the lack of them in RH. There were a couple of times in RH where I felt like there were loose ends that were never fully resolved. A couple of times Young mentions something that feels very significant but within a few pages, it feels like that element was never even a part of the book. For example in the beginning where Saba is being treated for seeing dead people and hallucinating pops up in the beginning of the book but it never seems to resurge. The shaman-like character warns that something terrible will happen if she doesn't complete the ritual properly, yet nothing seems to happen. Despite it's flaws Rebel Heart is definitely a must read for fans of Blood Red Road. I really hope that there is more Jabba (Jack and Saba) in the next book. (Jabba is also the name of a villain in Star Wars and that was my lame attempt at making a Star Wars reference). I really enjoyed reading Rebel Heart and I look forward to reading the next installment of the Dustlands series.