What a remarkable debut! Blood Red Road lived up to my expectations and is definitely going to be one of my favourite reads of 2011. 
 Although I had problems with the intentional grammar mistakes at first, I got used to them after the first 80 pages or so, and by then I was so enthralled by the story that I didn't even care. If anything, it was a constant reminder of the general decline of human civilization. 
 I found Saba a strong and enjoyable character, but most of all she felt human. Her every action, her every thought, made me think of her not as a fictional character but as a real person. The fact that he wasn't perfect helped a lot, too. Her difficult relationship with her sister, her self-preservation instinct, her irrationality when it came to her brother or to her feelings for Jack: with her "normality", Saba wins the readers' sympathy and affection, and the author captures them with the unique prose and setting, which, I must admit, was pretty amazing. 
 The love story was as natural and sweet as it could be, and I really appreciated the fact that there was no love triangle (one brownie point for you, Moira!) and that the relationship between Saba and Jack progressed as a normal one in a normal world would. 
 Jack was a fantastic character, I loved everything of him, from his smugness, to his wittiness, to his inner strength. I think he's the perfect match for Saba and I can't wait to meet him again in the second installment in the Dustlands series. 
 There were some holes in the plot and, in my opinion, the end was slightly anticlimactic. I hope the sequel will fill up those holes and be as interesting as Blood Red Road was. 
 Also...there was this little thing that bugged me through the whole book...you know, I would have really, really, REALLY have liked to read more of DeMalo. The guy managed to give me the creeps and arouse my curiosity (and not just that) at the same time, so I hope the author will use him in a more substantial way in the next books, because, as much as I like statues, using him as one was such a waste!