Author: Tarryn Fisher
Genre: Mature Young Adult, Chick-lit
Goodreads
Dear Opportunist,Review by Nara
You thought you could take him from me, but you lost. Now that he's mine I'll do anything to keep him. Do you doubt me? I have everything that was supposed to be yours. In case you were wondering; he doesn't ever think about you anymore. I won't let him go...ever.
Dirty Red
CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE OPPORTUNIST
As you can probably tell from Chantelle's review of The Opportunist (which I wholeheartedly agree with), Tarryn Fisher is an amazing author. After finishing The Opportunist and discovering that Fisher was going to be writing a sequel from Leah's point of view, I was somewhat skeptical of the quality that she would be able to bring her sequel up to i.e. whether it would keep up with the standard of The Opportunist. And DID SHE EVER!! I thought The Opportunist was good, but Dirty Red.....wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. It was freaking amazing.
Reading Dirty Red, Leah is probably the first fictional character I have actually absolutely detested. Sure, some characters have been annoying, or badly written, or illogical, but Leah is on a whole new level. Fisher sets up her character is The Opportunist, where we see she is, bluntly put, a conniving bitch. But in Dirty Red, we see new facets of Leah which dig her deeper and deeper toward the Ninth Circle of Hell.
I had zero sympathy for Leah. She is insane. She is a horrible person, with no real friends and seems even to be disliked by almost everyone in her family. Of her mother, she says:
She never touched me unless she had to. Even when I was little, I was lucky to get a hug on my birthday.
And although comments such as these are perhaps used to gain some sympathy for Leah, at that point, it was far too late for me to EVER think of forgiving her for the things she has done. Jesus, I thought she was bad enough in The Opportunist, but in Dirty Red, she is arrogant, she is manipulative, and again, a total bitch. Further evidence:
He was drawn to kindness, turned on by it even- which is exactly why I was insecure. I wasn't exactly on Santa's Nice List. Either he hadn't figured that out yet, or he was too distracted by my boobs to care. Admittedly, I had a really nice set.
Well, at least she acknowledges her own flaws, she knows exactly how evil she is, but then she has to follow it up with arrogance...
I was beautiful. I knew that, men told me all the time and most women were jealous of me. So jealous it was almost impossible to maintain friendships.
WHY DO YOU THINK THEY HATE YOU??? Also, seriously Leah, you would not have friends even if you were not beautiful.
Her only redeeming factor is her apparent love for Caleb, but even that is spoiled by her possessiveness. I mean, for God's sake, she doesn't even want to share her husband with her own daughter, unable to bond with her as she is female. HOW INSECURE CAN YOU FREAKING GET?
And holy Jesus, the ending. THE ENDING. All I can say is that I will eagerly be awaiting Book 3 of the series. Tarryn Fisher, I applaud you.
Instead of Similar Books, I'm going to recommend Happy Books so that you don't go insane and accidentally stab the next Leah that you meet:
1. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
2. Slammed by Colleen Hoover
3. Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
4. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
5. A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger
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Ratings
Overall: 10/10
Plot: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 1/5
