As Red as Blood

Lumikki was good at fading into the background at school. She had places to hide, to gather herself, and to start her day off right or all over again. She goes to her one of her favorite places, the darkroom in the high school, but is thrown off her quiet meditation when she finds money, a lot of money, in baths tinged red with blood. She leaves, questioning what to do with the knowledge, knowing she does not want to get involved. When she goes back to check, it is gone, but a boy in her class, Tuukka, is walking away with a stuffed backpack. When she follows him to investigate, she starts a chain of events that breaks her number one rule: Don’t get involved.

As Red as Blood shares more in common with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo than just location. Both main characters have a hidden past, rife with danger and abuse. However, this one targets a younger audience, and, though Lumikki has no special powers, her sense of observation rivals that of Jennifer Barnes’s characters in The Naturals series. Though short, this story weaves a dangerous past with a chilling present for a must-read YA novel.