The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

 

I read another novel by Ms. Henry and liked it enough that I grabbed this when I saw it at the library. While the antecedents are there and clear, it's not so much a modernized retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" you might guess from the cover copy; it has elements of Apocalyptic Plague in lines of King's The Stand or Wendig's Wanderers though it's a much more personal story than either of those novels. It's more hopeful in a lot of ways, too. The prose is solid and occasionally musical, the characters are well-conceptualized and clear, the story is remarkably clear while happening in a couple of timelines. It looks as though much of Ms. Henry's other work is novels in series, which means I won't chase those down, but I bet they're really good.