Red Dirt Girl

This book went beyond my expectations. The writing is thoroughly engaging and once J started it (as a try a chapter game before I went to bed) I ended up reading the book the entire night!

Well, there are some triggering scenes which you will figure out are necessary for the story.

The kind of atmosphere the story has been written just pulls you in as you dive more and more into it. The chapters are short. That's another plus point I say!

The story reflects the blurb and the cover is quite dauntingly reflect the plot. I really appreciate both.

The characters and what they would do next are quite unpredictable. Do not forget to tell yourself to calm down while reading this book. Because I had to do it myself.

And that ending. I need another book. Yes, please.

Thank you, The Book Guild, for the advance reading copy.

this was not my normal genre of book but was pleasantly surprised was an ok read.. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review

This sci-fi noir novel sets up a murder mystery in a dystopian near future where human genetic modification is used to curb population growth and bio-engineer perfection. When the body of a young woman is found, detective Cooper-Clark begins an investigation that reveals some troubling secrets about his ordered community. The author creates an interesting world not all that removed from our own, setting up an intriguing puzzle whose missing pieces end up casting a light on various suspects as well as where we may be headed as a society. There are some interesting twists in the narrative, but I didn’t find the characters engaging enough to make an emotional investment in their varied stories. A good book. Just simply not one that stands out amongst 2022’s many offerings.

I know my patrons will LOVE this book. It gives a Handmaids Tale feel. I love the book and the writing throughout.

Interesting dystopian world. The world's resources have dwindled and restrictions have been placed on reproduction. All males are sterilized at birth and anyone wanting to procreate must apply to the Program, with all it's many restrictions and rules.

A girl is murdered and it's discovered that she had been illegally pregnant and had, willingly or not, lost the baby. The story evolves around the people in her world and the ongoing murder investigation.

Set in the future several hundred years, not everything is explained and the language/slang takes a bit to get used to. All-in-all I did enjoy the story and the characters. Would be fun to read more from this world.

This is a difficult review to write. I liked this book. But that's it - I just liked it. It had such a great premise and I really wanted to like this book more. And I enjoyed it, but did not love it.

This combines a dystopian novel with a murder mystery - I mean, hello that's my jam right there.. It deals with genetic modification to control population growth and bio-engineering perfection. And let's be honest - how far away from that are we in reality? So I got all ready to dive in to this book.

The book was well written, it was interesting, it was a great concept, and there were some good twists.

But... and this is a big one... I didn't connect to the characters. I didn't care what happened to any of them. I was not emotionally invested. And this is my primary criteria in reviewing a book. If I really connect, I can forgive a lot in a book. But I just felt like that spark was missing. Like when you do on-line dating. You meet someone online that seems perfect, but when you meet in person, that extra spark is just missing. I am phrasing it that way because that spark might be there for some of you - it just wasn't there for me.

so how do I rate 3.5 stars? I will round to 3 because it was just average to me. That sounds so harsh, and I do think some of you will love it - so try a sample yourself before you decide.

**Did Not Finish**

The book was just honestly not what I was expecting it to be- so many made-up terms were introduced in the first 40 pages that my head was spinning. It was good, and I wish I could finish reading it, but it's something that I would have had to dedicate more time and energy to, and I don't have that time right now. I look forward to reading it completely in the future!

I really enjoyed this story but I wanted a little more clarity in terms of who was speaking when and with the slang that the characters used. I loved the world-building, it was so stark and scary and very easy to see how our world got to the setting of the novel. The twist surprised me, and I liked the ending. The middle was a little slow for me, but I liked the investigation process!

To be honest I found the writing style and writing itself confusing. It’s written in as if it’s spoken and some of the terms were unfamiliar to me. I had a hard time keeping up and wasn’t able to finish it because the story line lost me . Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced. Copy .

This story is set in the future. Preganancy is controlled by a corrupt state based Corp. All males are sterilised and only allowed to be fathers if they enter the program, and only with program selected partners. Courts have become run for the pursuit of pleasure; judgements are based on the public recommendation, rather than real justice. Having a baby out-with the program is illegal. There are the Citi dwellers and less fortunate struggling others; some are for the program and others are definitely not. Into this setting and maelstrom of characters we find a young woman murdered and left. Will this be covered up and forgotten, or will the real story and murderer be exposed. This is a thought provoking good read that will also challenge you. Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for sending me an ARC. The review is my freely given opinion.

The future author C.A. Lupton presents is gritty and harsh. The climate has been damaged, and after years of genetic experimentation on humans, reproduction is carefully controlled and regulated through membership in the Program run by GenCom, a genemod company. Only Program couples are fertile and allowed to procreate, while all other men are sterilized at a young age. Non-Program pregnancies are illegal, and penalized severely.

Also, those with the wealth live in the Citi, with many others living in Banleus where life is harder, less healthy, and conditions feel more chaotic.

When Viki, a young, Banleu woman, the “Red Dirt” girl of the title, tells her musician boyfriend Seth that she’s pregnant, he is shocked and does not believe that he’s responsible, as he was sterilized years earlier. When Viki turns up murdered, Detective Cooper-Clark is reluctantly assigned to the case (he just lost jurisdiction on another case as Program security assumed control when there appeared to be a reproductive angle to it), and begins the careful process of vetting people who knew the murdered young woman.

I loved how grungy the world felt. I was reminded of the texture, chaos, noise, violence and to some extent the desperation, of some of William Gibson’s cyberpunk agglomerations. Cooper-Clark has the world weariness and dedication of any noir detective, and, amusingly, considers himself a “consulting detective”. That he is good at his job is why he’s assigned to the thorny case, and why he solves it, despite dealing with people, who knew Viki, shading the truth, lying, or in one person’s case, meddling in the case.

I liked this book, and the little details the author added to the case, including the slang spoken by the potential suspects, or the way music sung and played by real musicians is no longer all that common, or the types of food people ate. It all brings a believable texture and veracity to the world.

Thank you to Netgalley and to The Book Guild for this ARC in exchange for my review.

DNF-10%
The premise was interesting, but I personally could not enjoy the writing style. To me, it seemed like a lot of incomplete and run-on sentences. Sentences that start with verbs or adverbs like "Not," "Need," "Doesn't" etc. Also some sentences in which the structure seemed confusing, like "Follow docilely where the facts may lead, as the greatest, to his mind, of all the early scientific sleuths would say, concentrate yourself upon details."
I could not find anything much about the author so I am not sure if English is their fist language, or if this will go through further editing before its final publication. This may be for someone else, but it was not for me personally.

The cover caught my attention, and the unusual blurb convinced me to give this book a try. Set in a fictional future where reproduction is controlled by the 'Program' and only approved humans are allowed to become parents at all, the murder of a 'red dirt girl' not only starts an investigation, but also opens a lot of questions about the morality and rightfulness of the Program.
The first half of the story was dragging along quite slowly and took some time to disentangle and understand the implications of the sci-fi like 'Program' world. Also, I did not enjoy some of the characters' language with their horridly garbled vocabulary (e.g. 'ovs'). When I reached that point where I only wanted to be done with the book, the second half transformed the story into a cleverly constructed and gripping murder investigation, peaking my interest once again.
Altogether, a not too bad sci-fi mystery once you leave the bumpy beginning behind.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

Red Dirt Girl is a murder mystery, sci fi novel set in a dystopian world where a regimented Program is in place which divides humans who can reproduce from those who can’t.

Things I did like:

The world was unique and we learned a lot about the inner workings of the Program and the patriarchal society without an info dump - it was seamlessly woven into the story

The premise is interesting - I like the dystopian take on child bearing and the divisions in society between who can reproduce and who can’t.


Things I didn’t like:

Despite us receiving a detailed account of the characters lives, motivations and internal struggles, I just did not feel attached to any particular character. Perhaps there were too many perspectives. I think with the word count that needs to go towards world building, it’s hard to achieve depth with so many characters.

I did not like or understand how some of the characters dialogue was being spoken - the slang and strange accents were jarring and off putting at times.

This is such a minor thing but it really annoyed me - when we were introduced to Seth’s father, it said “He sees the hunched shape of his father, Marcus, through the window…”

In my experience, nobody ever mentions their parents by their first name. I just thought that sentence was so strange and an unnecessary way to provide us with the fathers first name, when they could have started the dialogue with ‘Marcus said’ and the reader could figure out what his name was.

Overall thoughts:

Unfortunately this story was not for me. I know how much work is put in to write a book, and there was clearly a lot of research and planning involved in the dystopian world and sci fi concepts.

However, what was lacking was any attachment to the main characters, despite there being a lot of potential to do so. As this was a murder mystery novel, I thought the first half should have been quicker paced to truly engage the reader.

Sometimes different works, but this time, for me, it didn’t

Red Dirt Girl has a very intriguing premise and the prologue got me invested from the get-go. Genetic experimentation and it's dystopian possibilities have always been an area of interest for me. The world Lupton created is dark and futuristic. I love the grittiness of it all, with the book having an almost noir feel at times.

However, the first half of the book moves painstakingly slow. If this wasn't received as an ARC, I might have DNFed which would have been a shame because the second half of the book really picks up and the mystery is enthralling.

I also have to say I didn't really feel connected to any of the characters. Even characters I got backstory for still fell flat. I feel like I couldn't truly get a grasp of any of their personalities. It may have been due to the style of the book--I feel like things were written a bit impersonally for the grungy aesthetic.

Overall, the book had a few shortcomings, but had enough positive elements that I ended up enjoying my read. I'll be interested to see what else C.A. Lupton writes in the future.

This story took too long to pull me in and struggled to keep me there. My suspension of disbelief was challenged by the prologue’s assertion that these events take place in the 303rd millennium when the technology they have is barely more advanced than ours and they constantly reference things from the 20th century. Excusing that, however, it still felt like the story threads were kind of all over the place. You can tell that the author is talented, however her skill at writing is disguised in somewhat ineffective sci-fi dialogue. The mystery is sufficient, all the hints are there ahead of time and they unfold intriguingly.

Essentially this is a crime thriller, a murder mystery, but what makes it exceptional is the setting: the far distant future.
I was relieved to be reading fiction - at least for the moment - as the author's vision of the future is an utterly terrifying one.
George Orwell with 1984 and P.D. James with The Children Of Men both created dark dystopian futures but they pale in significance in comparison to Red Dirt Girl.
This is an extraordinary, innovative and intelligent modern sci-fi masterwork.

This book has a great premise and some incredible character and plot work that I really enjoyed. However, parts of this book move so slow that I considered DNFing it. However, I am glad I persisted because I ended up really liking this book despite its pacing issues.
I really enjoyed all of the different perspectives, tones and voice of each character. This dystopian backdrop is a scary place that currently feels all too possible in the future. Thank you to net galley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.