Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hoodis the third story in Liesl Shurtliff's True Fairy Tale series.

This tale takes a slightly different turn from the earlier books in the series, which completely reexamine the characters Rumpelstiltskin in Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin and Jack in Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk giving us entertaining new stories.

We have already met Red Riding Hood in previous adventures and in this novel she teams up with Goldie. There are two twists in this story, but not enough to make it as engaging as the previous two novels. Red and her Grandmother are witches, but Red is struggling to embrace her powers and has almost killed her grandmother trying to adapt. That is not in the original tale. The second is that the wolf and Red are friends, he risks his life to save hers. Again this moves it away from the original, but not enough to make it interesting. These just aren't as the same kinds of bold changes made in the the previous novels that made them quick reads.

The crisis that moves the plot is Red's Grandmother is dying. Not able to face losing her, Red finally is compelled to consider magic as a solution to keeping her grandmother alive. However, as she and Goldie set out to find something to save her Grandmother she finds that kind of magic always has a hidden cost. The outcome is rarely what one hopes for and generally provides less than ideal results.

Along the path she meets people who help her come to terms the reality that her quest is not one that will benefit her Grandmother. A turning point comes when she discovers what the cost was for Beauty when she sought to stay young forever. On her return from that encounter she meets someone that has turned even darker pursuing eternal life and is only saved when she can fully embrace her own magic and stop fearing death.

This is an interesting tale, but not quite up to the standards set in the first two novels of the series. There are so many possibilities for an alternate story of Red's life. This one seemed a bit lacking.