Book Review: Red

TITLE: Red
AUTHOR: Alison Cherry
PUBLISHED: October 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction...sort of, Parody (was supposed to be anyway)
PREMISE: In a town where redheads are revered, Felicity has a dark secret: she's not a redhead. But if anyone finds out, her popularity is in severe jeopardy.
MY REVIEW: It pains me to say this, but this one was sadly, kind of a mess. I say sadly, because this could have been great. Subversive, at the very least. Unfortunately, it fell entirely flat and that was mostly due to its set up.
I admit, I was wary of this one mostly because the scenario of people discriminating against you for not having red hair (which by the way, is a pretty rare natural hair color) seemed ridiculous. But I gave it a chance because sometimes ridiculous premises can work out well (look at Hunger Games). Unfortunately, this was very much a case of not thought through. Apparently, the redhead thing only happens in this particular town. Apparently, no one in the town thinks it's bizarre when the rest of the world doesn't treat non red heads like dirt. No reason is actually given for why red heads are even considered special! They just are in this place for some reason. Not helping matters, is the main character, who isn't that likable, uses the system to her advantage, and mostly fights just to keep her popularity. Not at all against a system that is wrong. Oh, and the kicker? The blackmailer who is fighting against the system is treated like the horrible one. Oh, the character does go through SOME sort of revelation at the end. But she seriously never out right admits that the blackmailer has a very good point. She's just miffed that she got dragged into all of this.
The biggest surprise for me though, came when I went to do background info on this book. Turns out, this was supposed to be a parody. A parody of what, I don't really know. But apparently it was. The thing about parodies though, particularly written ones, is that I'm supposed to know as I'm reading it that it is a parody. If I don't think it is at all while reading and wind up surprised to learn that it was...that kind of implies that this is not a good parody. This read like a regular book. Not like a parody at all.
So...this was a disappointment all around for me. Cherry's actual writing is okay (has good grammar, dialogue, etc.) and it was a interesting idea...the execution of the story just fell entirely flat.
WHO SHOULD READ: Um...honestly, I have no clue who to rec this too, sorry.
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five dyed hair jobs