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As Red as Blood

(Lumikki Andersson #1)

Salla Simukka,

Owen F. Witesman (Translator)

3.42 · Rating details · 7,237 ratings · 1,041 reviews

In the midst of the freezing Arctic winter, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson walks into her school’s dark room and finds a stash of wet, crimson-colored money. Thousands of Euros left to dry—splattered with someone’s blood.

Lumikki lives alone in a studio apartment far from her parents and the past she left behind. She transferred into a prestigious art school, and she’ ...more

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Kindle Edition, 274 pages

Published August 1st 2014 by Skyscape (first published February 20th 2013)

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· 7,237 ratings · 1,041 reviews

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Jan 11, 2015 Sarah Elizabeth rated it it was ok

Shelves: r2r-complete, read-2015, read-with-abbie, netgalley-edelweiss, contemporary, young-adult, death, mystery

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Amazon Publishing and NetGalley.)

I found this book really boring. It didn’t suck me in, I didn’t really get the fairy-tale references, and the main character made some pretty suspect decisions. The other characters all seemed less than intelligent, and why anyone would think that finding a bag full of blood-covered money was a good thing I don’t know.
I really don’t want to read the sequel.
4 out of 10

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Jul 28, 2014 Jolene rated it did not like it

Shelves: mystery, ya, reviewed, first-in-series, kindle-read-own

1.5 Stars

Lumikki is a loner. She has built walls around herself as a form of survival. She was ruthlessly bullying during elementary/middle school years and couldn't even find solace at home. To her, home was just as bad but for different reasons. She knew her parents loved her, but always felt they kept her at arms length. Now she is living alone while she attends a prestigious art school. Here she has finally been able to find a place where she is truly happy, the school's dark room. She is on 1.5 Stars

Lumikki is a loner. She has built walls around herself as a form of survival. She was ruthlessly bullying during elementary/middle school years and couldn't even find solace at home. To her, home was just as bad but for different reasons. She knew her parents loved her, but always felt they kept her at arms length. Now she is living alone while she attends a prestigious art school. Here she has finally been able to find a place where she is truly happy, the school's dark room. She is one of the few students who uses the room. So imagine her surprise when she finds thousands of blood covered euros hanging up in the dark room. Once she finds out where the money came from, she wants nothing more then to forget she ever saw it. Unfortunately, life has other plans for her.

I feel like something must have been lost in the translation of this novel. I notice most of the reviews written in Finnish and/or Swedish are pretty high, while a good number written in English are kina low. Lumikki was a strong, likable character. I just couldn't believe her back-story. She is a 17 year old who has super ninja skills and spy skills the would put the FBI to shame. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. There was never any mention of training in her past, and only one incident of her standing up to her former bullies. There is mention of Lumikki working out in the gym, but do not try and tell me she learned everything she knows at Planet Fitness.

The villains in this are out right laughable. You have a Finnish Mafia that can be taken down by small group of teenagers. All the side characters were pretty flat, with the exception of Elisa. She didn't have a fully fleshed out feel to her, but she at least strong presence and had something about her to make you care. Elisa is the one who brings out the best elements of Lumikki's personality. I had a hard time connecting with Lumikki until she became entangled with Elisa. When you get down to the bare bones mystery, I liked it. Average people get in over their heads with a crime syndicate, one mistake/misunderstanding is made, big chain of events is set off, innocents are dragged in, people die. Its a story-line that's been used thousands of times, but its one that works. Kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure. I fully believe you could give it to a hundred authors, and they's turn it into a hundred completely different books. Its the author's personal pixie dust they add that makes them so different. Simukka had all the elements for a unique, edge of your seat mystery. Sadly, the execution fell flat.

I would be willing to try another book by Simukka if it was translated by someone else. Even though I didn't like this particular book, I liked everything Simukka brought to the table. You have two female characters who could have carried the slacking parts of the story if the characters had been just a little bit stronger. There is a touch of fairy tale to it. The fairy tale connection wasn't very strong, or needed for the most part, but I still liked it. And even if it is over used, I still enjoy the story layout used. ...more

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Jul 21, 2014 Matthew Schultz rated it liked it

If I was a teenager, or maybe even early 20's, I would probably give this book 4 stars, or possibly even 4 1/2. But as an adult and a writer, there were a great many details (in plot and writing style) that bugged me, and I feel 3 stars is being slightly generous. It is difficult to know whether these annoyances are because of the author herself, or because of the translation, which can sometimes screw things up. I am trying to be fair here.

As with all the books I receive through Amazon's Kindle If I was a teenager, or maybe even early 20's, I would probably give this book 4 stars, or possibly even 4 1/2. But as an adult and a writer, there were a great many details (in plot and writing style) that bugged me, and I feel 3 stars is being slightly generous. It is difficult to know whether these annoyances are because of the author herself, or because of the translation, which can sometimes screw things up. I am trying to be fair here.

As with all the books I receive through Amazon's Kindle First program (a choice between four books each month before they are published), I stepped into this one extremely wary and ready to set it down before I got too deep. The fact that I did not set it down is a huge plus for Salla Simukka. As a whole, I enjoyed the story. Simukka has a vivid imagination and a wonderful eye for detail. She writes with clarity, showing the scenes and actions, and only leaving out what she wants to show later. She kept me captivated and interested even through the problems I had with it. And I do like how Simukka uses classic fairy tale references, even though that has been getting a bit old lately. She made it unique enough for me to not groan, "Oh, not another fairy telling retelling..."

What annoyed me most was Simukka's attempt to create her own Lisbeth Salander with main character Lumikki Andersson. Lumikki even says once, as a joke, "I'm the secret love child of Hercule Poirot and Lisbeth Salander." It is amusing, and good of Simukka to acknowledge her inspirations and pay respects where they are due, but I feel she should have gone for a more unique character, instead of using someone else's. At seventeen, Lumikki seems too good to be true, too knowledgeable, too perceptive, too lucky. She gets herself into a number of tight situations (no pun intended), and escapes from them with ease and grace, like a Finnish Robert Langdon. She is too un-believable, and the fact that three teenagers are able to outmaneuver mafia bosses and henchmen at every turn made it too difficult for me to take this story seriously. I do try to keep in consideration, though, that this was written for a younger audience.

My other nitpicking's are minor, and have to do with Simukka's writing (or the translator's translating). There are quite a few unnecessary repetitions throughout the book, and some awkwardly written sentences, which brought me out of the scene and my imagination, as I had to stop and reread it to gather the full meaning. Also, there are a few instances where Simukka uses multiple different sentences in a paragraph that essentially say the same thing. This usually interrupted the flow and pacing, which are otherwise very well done. ...more

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Mar 13, 2017 Cindy rated it did not like it · review of another edition

The main character is the epitome of the trite sentiment, "I'm not like all the other girls". She doesn't have any meaningful relationships, values, or goals, but she involves herself in another character's contrived plot where she somehow outsmarts and escapes from a mafia gang. The book plays out like a thriller, yet every plan in the story follows through smoothly and easily. I actually don't even care if anything goes wrong, because the characters are so flat and uninspired that I have no re ...more

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Jan 28, 2015 Sophia Sardothien rated it it was ok

Shelves: arc-review

This book is so dull, I guess perhaps is the translation that made this book so lacking?

Thank you netgalley for proving me this book

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Dec 03, 2016 Teodora rated it really liked it

Bulgarian review: https://bookishipster.wordpress.com/2...

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

Now that's a really quick read! I'll probably spend more time writing its review than i spend reading it. It was fast-paced, quite entertaining and overall good. It wasn't something spectacular or amazing, but i still liked it. The fact that it is finnish was also really interesting - i found the descriptions of the places and the whole atmosphere really enjoyable. I didn't really connect to any of the characters ...more

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Nov 07, 2014 Kelly added it

Shelves: ya-fiction, read-in-2014

This YA novel in translation from Finnish has many of the hallmarks of the series it's been compared to, Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. That's not a bad thing, though. The writing here is tighter, though it follows some of the same overly-detailed contours which make me wonder if that's a particular writing style or done purposefully to be similar to Larsson's series.

Lumikki lives by herself in a small apartment while she's attending an arts school. When she stumbles upon mone This YA novel in translation from Finnish has many of the hallmarks of the series it's been compared to, Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. That's not a bad thing, though. The writing here is tighter, though it follows some of the same overly-detailed contours which make me wonder if that's a particular writing style or done purposefully to be similar to Larsson's series.

Lumikki lives by herself in a small apartment while she's attending an arts school. When she stumbles upon money covered in blood in the school's dark room -- where she likes to collect her thoughts and have some alone time -- she begins to wonder what's going on with it. She doesn't act when she sees it, but she can't stop thinking about it. When she returns to the dark room later that day, she notices a boy taking off with a backpack. That was unusual, and when she follows him, she realizes he has the money. Then Lumikki realizes he, along with another boy and a third person, Elisa, have something to do with this blood money and despite her better mind about it, she wants to know what's up.

Elisa tells Lumikki they found the money in her yard. Elisa lives in a verrrryyy nice house and has luxury everything, despite the fact her parents don't work in lucrative jobs. Something's suspicious here, and Lumikki takes off to figure it out. Cue an underground drug ring, Elisa's shifty father, and a man...or someone...or someones...named Polar Bear, as well as a big wig named Boris, and there's a huge series of betrayals, lies, and a murder about to come to light.

Simukka's novel is fast-paced and Lumikki is an awesome character. She's definitely hard as hell, and she's got a backstory we don't get to know. She's sharp and observant, and she takes no shit from anyone. It's very similar to Lisbeth Salander, and she even makes a Lisbeth joke in the story. It doesn't feel like it tries too hard or it's trying to be an homage; rather, it just feels like it's part of the landscape and cultural narrative. It works for, rather than against, the story.

What doesn't work, though, is the weaving of fairy tales here. I'm not sure if this was meant to play off Sleeping Beauty or Snow White or the Snow Queen or if it was meant to sort of twist them all together. I think maybe this got a little lost in translation. It wasn't distracting or annoying. It just didn't coalesce.

There's a great friendship that emerges between Lumikki and Elisa, though it's clear that Lumikki's means of seeing and feeling friendship don't have much emotion to them. Again, there's something going on with this girl that we're left at a distance from, and it works. This is the first book in a series, and while it's entirely self-contained (almost a little too cleanly, with the wrap-up to the crime in the epilogue), there's so much here that begs for a second or third installment. Who is Lumikki? I want to know.

Pass this off to readers who like crime thrillers. The foreign setting is as fun as it is cold and bleak, and Lumikki is a compelling and frustrating-yet-enjoyable character. ...more

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Apr 12, 2017 Tala rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, cover-fabulousness, faaaast-paced, from-pub, out-of-the-box, contemporary-and-etc, read-in-2017, this-is-wickedly-good, that-ending-though, dark-prose

Hmmm. I quite like this one!

When I initially picked up AS RED AS BLOOD, the first issue I ran into, believe it or not, was the fact that it was pitched as Six of Crows meets Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And I know that pitches are usually so very off, and that they mean nothing, but the comparison to SoC a)made me miss that series so much, and b)gave me the impression that AS RED AS BLOOD was either very confident, or is going to be setting itself up for failure.

Apparently, ARaB is very confid ...more

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Aug 05, 2014 TimeyWimeyBooks rated it it was ok

I think this is more for the really "young adult" crowd in a literal sense. Some YA lit is well suited for everyone, no matter the age. But this one not so much. I was kind of bored with it, not that much happened. I also think the author tried to hard to make her mysterious and also tried to hard to make her seem bad-ass, better than everyone else. ...more

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Dec 24, 2015 Eline rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1-own-physical-copy

Meh

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Apr 05, 2017 Μαρία Γεωργοπούλου rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars

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Jun 16, 2016 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Anyone who reads my blog knows that the colder the location of a book, the higher the likelihood that I will want to read it! That’s no different here because as soon as I saw Finland I was sold!
I don’t usually read YA, in fact I can probably count on one hand how many YA books I’ve read in recent years so that was the only thing making me wonder whether or not I’d enjoy this book as its a little different to my usual reads.
Lumikki is a fun character. She reminds me of Lisbeth Salander, a compa ...more

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May 04, 2016 Megalion rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, year-read-2016, series, author-finnish, first-book, loc-finland, genre-crime-thriller, young-adult, english-translation, culture-finnish

I'm not sure how it happened but I thought this book was something along the lines of dystopian fiction.

Not at all. It's a YA crime thriller set in Finland. Which is awesome for suomiphiles like myself. Really appreciate having hits from other countries being translated for English speaking readers.

So as a YA crime story. It was interesting. I suspect my three star rating was because I didn't successfully shake off the surprise mentioned above.

One thing that must be kept in mind, there will b ...more

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May 04, 2016 Pia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, pia-s-around-the-year-in-52-books, young-adult, nordic-noir, src-summer-2016, week-31

I love all Scandinavian authors and Nordic Noir is one of my favorite genres.

The first in the Lumikki Andersson trilogy, "As Red as Blood" introduces us to Lumikki (Snow White), a young girl who has been through a bad time at school at home. She now lives alone in the city of Tampere, where she studies.

We know something bad happened to her at home, but we'll have to wait until the end of the book to find out what it is.

When she finds thousand of euro banknotes hanging to dry in the school's phot ...more

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Apr 24, 2016 Tijana rated it it was ok

2,5 stars

There's a line on the cover of this book that says this novel is being sold in over 40 countries. The only way I could understand that fact would be by someone coming to me and saying Salla Simukka was giving publishing rights to everyone for free. I mean, no way publishers in 40 countries wanted to pay for THIS.
And don't get me wrong, this book isn't BAD, but it's just so average it hurts.
Unoriginal characters, unoriginal story, unoriginal plot twists.
I haven't been cringing my teeth ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Katie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book was really bad, it fell short on so many levels. The “I’m not like other girls” comments, the awful attempts at humour and shitty “witty” comments. I couldn’t even make it half way before I dnf it.

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Jul 03, 2014 AJourneyWithoutMap rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviews

As Red as Blood by Salla Simukka is the first book in the projected Lumikki Andersson trilogy, and is superbly rendered into English from its original language by Owen Witesman. This young adult mystery crime thriller has much going for it with a plot that is simple and engaging, but the author in trying to give an added touch to its intensity has in a way spoiled the flow and coherence of the story. Having said that, I’d like to insist that As Red as Blood is still one of the best novels I have ...more

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Apr 25, 2015 Katie (Kitkatscanread) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-books-i-own

Actual rating : 3.5 stars

Received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book. It is my true opinion only.

This book started off to be quite promising.
I think for me the storyline just slipped a bit.
An interesting YA crime/thriller though.
And it was great to read a translated book.
I will still continue with the next book to see what happens, even though this one didn't end with much of a cliffhanger.
This is told in third person, so it ...more

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Mar 25, 2016 Georgia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Snow White, is an alone but not lonely girl that has learned to go under the radar, as a way of life. She now leaves alone in Tampere, while still going to school, when she discovers something really unusual in the school's darkroom...

The main character is very interesting, smart and strong. She becomes kind of a detective, as the situation becomes something of a personal vendetta (kind of). The YA story touches topics like drugs and bullying, without getting dull, though making a twist to the p ...more

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Feb 19, 2017 Christina rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

Teens.

A mysterious bag of money.

And dangerous drug lords.

As Red as Blood is touted a thriller/mystery, but it wasn’t that thrilling or mysterious—and the story didn’t pick up until around or after the 50% mark, which isn’t good considering it’s such a small book. The beginning was dull and at times confusing. I didn’t like most of the characters—Elisa was all right—and the bad guys were portrayed as every mafia stereotype out there with no depth.

There were certain things within the plot that ...more

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Aug 24, 2017 Ravencrantz rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, romanceless

2.5/5

Impulse reads are rarely good, I don't know why I keep doing this.

This book was promising, with a lot of talk about murder and corruption, I was excited to read this. Unfortunately, it seemed to drag a lot and was incredibly disjointed. One of the middle chapters started with "Once upon a time..." and it really threw me off. Why put that in the middle? Then it had a chapter from the point of view of a dead person as if they were still alive. It was really all over the place.

I don't really ...more

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Sep 26, 2020 Susy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, português, specfic-2020-tbr-challenge

3 stars
I enjoyed the story and its characters though Lumikki is just a bit too good to be true with no training or anything.

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Feb 09, 2017 Vanessa rated it liked it · review of another edition

“It wasn’t a request or a command, simply a statement. A fact. Never give people opinions, just give them simple directives. Don’t beg or demand, just tell them how things are.”

I’m a sucker for retellings and when I saw that this was also a crime/ thriller, I was more than curious to see how it all played out. As Red as Blood is told in third person and a through few different characters, but our main protagonist is Lumikki Andersson, a high school student who doesn’t like to get involved in oth “It wasn’t a request or a command, simply a statement. A fact. Never give people opinions, just give them simple directives. Don’t beg or demand, just tell them how things are.”

I’m a sucker for retellings and when I saw that this was also a crime/ thriller, I was more than curious to see how it all played out. As Red as Blood is told in third person and a through few different characters, but our main protagonist is Lumikki Andersson, a high school student who doesn’t like to get involved in other business. She would rather keep to herself, but when she finds thousands of Euros and three of her classmates involved, she get’s roped into not just helping them out, but also a web of lies and deception.

I really liked that this wasn’t just a fairytale retelling but also its own book. It wasn’t overshadowed and it had Snow White references in the beginning of a few chapters that fit perfectly with what was going on in the book along with the setting/ atmosphere. This book takes place in the winter, and the snow covered setting compliments everything going on.

The main character is Lumikki Andersson. She’s a high school student who lives by herself and enjoys being left alone. She was an interesting character because right off the bat we learn that although she stayed in the sidelines, people remembered her name. She was the one who played Ophelia in a school play very well, but also didn’t participate in pranks or parties. From the very beginning, she’s a puzzle piece that makes you want to read more about her. As we keep reading we quickly realize that she’s very smart but also hesitant. But she handles herself a lot differently than most high school students would. She seemed more if an adult than a young adult, which worked fine for the story line.

The plot was also very well written. We are thrown into the mystery from page one. It didn’t take pages of build up and background. The only thing was that it was slow at times, but the chapters were short enough that they don’t discourage. The book is to the point and doesn’t give room to put down, which is a good thing. Every time my attention would start to waver (which it did occasionally), something would happen and the plot would pick up.

However, I didn’t like that some of the other characters seemed less than intelligent. In fact, some of the scenes and decisions where a little too cliché for my taste. Because of this, I wasn’t able to get sucked into this book as much as I had hoped, but the plot and everything going on was intriguing enough to keep me going.

Overall, I’m a sucker for retellings and when I saw that this was also a crime/ thriller, I was more than curious to see how it all played out an fell together. Reading this story had its ups and downs. It was slow in some parts, but it always managed to pick back up. I really liked the main character Lumikki Andersson. She was independent and really smart, but she was more of an adult character than young adult. It was a quick and light read and overall, I liked how it wasn’t just a retelling, but also its own story. ...more

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Jul 24, 2015 Lillian rated it it was ok

Shelves: received-for-review, retelling, suspense, young-adult, mystery-detective, coyer-summer-scavenger-hunt-2015

I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

As Red as Blood by Salla Simukka was not at all what I expected. Personally I was expecting a loose retelling of Snow White. Instead what I got was a subpar crime novel about a supposedly ordinary girl who just happens to know a lot about stealth.

Lumikki Andersson is 17, away at boarding school, finishing up her senior year in what she hopes t I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

As Red as Blood by Salla Simukka was not at all what I expected. Personally I was expecting a loose retelling of Snow White. Instead what I got was a subpar crime novel about a supposedly ordinary girl who just happens to know a lot about stealth.

Lumikki Andersson is 17, away at boarding school, finishing up her senior year in what she hopes to be a quiet affair. She keeps to herself, is untrusting and when she finds a pile of Euros covered in blood in the photo lab at school she tells no one. Why would she? (Seriously that is how this girl thinks!!!!) I'm not sure I liked her at all. There were a lot of holes concerning her character. For example, how does a teenage girl know all this spy stuff when she admits that she has no special training?! I mean seriously what girl at 17 knows that if she styles her hair differently or stands a certain way than she will be less recognizable?!

Then there's the other characters. They are major part of the story, in fact they are the reason there is money covered in blood in the school lab. All I can really tell you about them is that the two boys come from different walks of life (one is rich, the other not) and both like to party. The girl is also rich and likes to party. Besides that nothing! These characters fell flat, so flat that I can't remember their names or really even be bothered to look them up.

The plot was just okay. There's the mystery of the money covered in blood. Where did it come from? Why did it fall into the other students' hands? Why is it covered in blood? Honestly there wasn't a lot of excitement or intrigue in my opinion.

And honestly I wonder if (and this is a big if) something was lost in translation. This book/series was not originally written in English and if like me you check out Goodreads the reviews written from the original version are all 4 or 5 stars while the English are mostly 3 or less. Why? Well there's a lot of unnecessary adjectives and the dialogue is a bit repetitive.

Overall I nearly DNFed this book several times, but stuck it out. The ending (and by ending I do mean the last 2 chapters of the book) picked up. It was like the plot was stalled throughout the entire book and the the end BAM! it all came together in a nice neat little package. Personally I wouldn't recommend this book, however if you like crime novels and annoying MC maybe you'll enjoy it. If you pick up the book, come back and let me know how you liked it! ...more

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Apr 21, 2015 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, review-on-blog

**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net**

2.5/5

As Red As Blood is the first book in the Snow white trilogy, or the Lumikki Andersson trilogy. I struggled with this book. It was originally written in Finnish and it takes placei n Finland, so maybe something was lost in translation, but I just could not get into this story. And that seems like a real shame to me, because I really, really liked the main girl Lumikki. I thought she was resilient, and smart. But **You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: http://bookbriefs.net**

2.5/5

As Red As Blood is the first book in the Snow white trilogy, or the Lumikki Andersson trilogy. I struggled with this book. It was originally written in Finnish and it takes placei n Finland, so maybe something was lost in translation, but I just could not get into this story. And that seems like a real shame to me, because I really, really liked the main girl Lumikki. I thought she was resilient, and smart. But the story was too jarring for me. The book felt kind of choppy and all over the place. The pace was brisk but the story felt like, scene. event. new person. confusing thing. scene. scene. without any explanations or time to catch your breath. I think for people that enjoy foreign or noir gritty crime thrillers might really love this, but it is not my normal read so the flow of the story was almost too big of a hurdle for me to overcome.

As I said before Lumikki is a great character. I went back and forth many times on what rating to give this book. I almost gave it 3 stars because I really enjoyed Lumikki. I loved how tough she was and when she stood up to the principals son early on, I cheered her on in my head. And I also liked the premise. She finds blood covered money hanging to dry in her school dark room. Umm, what??? That sounds like a crazy story! So I decided to give it a try, and it was kind of crazy, but it just wasn't really my thing. I feel like it might translate better on the tv or movie, but in a book, at least with this translation, something wasn't adding up for me to really get into the story.

As Red As Blood deals with a Finnish crime ring. Again a cool concept, and people that read crime thrillers or noir crime novels I think will love the snow white trilogy. The writing style is very distinct and the landscape felt very pungent, and fitting. It is a quick read, so I was glad that I stuck this one out. It was a good story, but not great for me. Lumikki is the winner of As Red As Blood. I wish I could have liked this one more, but I do hope people give this a shot if it sounds like your kind of read.

This review was originally posted on Book Briefs ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 Elizabeth rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley-read

As Red as Blood (Lumikki Andersson, #1) by Salla Simukka

Seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson is hardly your average teenager. She lives by herself in the city of Tampere, Finland, and has a firm rule to mind nobody's business but her own. But that rule is put to the test when she happens upon five hundred washed euro notes hanging up to dry in her school's darkroom, and it is shattered once Lumikki realises who owns them.

Caught in an increasingly tangled web of deception, corruption and danger, Lumikki finds herself navigating the Tampere's dark ...more

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Oct 11, 2014 Christina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: part-of-series, read-to-review, read-2014, 5-stars, owned-read

I loved As Red As Blood. It was intriguing, exciting en mysterious. Although the ''mystery'' wasn't as mysterious as you would think, it still was a thrilling ride to find out how all the pieces fit in to each other. Because in this book, you have a lot of loose pieces, but not yet a puzzle.

The protagonist is Lumikki, a 17 year old student. A thought of her as some sort of Veronica Mars. She wants to solve puzzles and have justice in the end. But her curiosity brings her in trouble, when she fin ...more

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Jul 11, 2014 Jacki Myers rated it it was ok

Shelves: shelved-unfinished

Had to stop reading after our protagonist climbed in a freezer to hide and then couldn't get out because people set 4 cases of wine on top. The style is a direct channelling of The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo and the dialogue is just as wooden. Full of the same kind of product placements too. I bailed with just 15% left, it had gotten that bad. ...more

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Jun 03, 2015 Tina rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley

Pre- Review

There wasn't any real similarities between this and Snow White.

The story was jumpy and I had a hard time figuring out how one thing lead to another.

The narrator's voice was nice but the story wasn't that great.

I mostly enjoyed the mystery of the money and all that but found the story to be unrealistic because how many teenagers could seriously pull off that stunt??

...more

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Jan 17, 2019 Ivi Oltovska rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1002-before-i-die

I totally loved this book

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Mystery, read it in about 2018. Fairytale theme party, long lost sisters. [s]	5	246	Nov 21, 2021 01:55AM
Play Book Tag: As Red As Blood by Salla Simukka - 4 stars (Finnish author)	1	6	Aug 03, 2016 07:49PM
Op: As Red as Blood by Salla Simukka → Start Date: October 7, 2015	15	17	Nov 15, 2015 01:00AM
YA Buddy Readers'...: As Red as Blood (Lumikki Andersson #1) by Salla Simukka, Owen Witesman - Restarting April 11th 2015	24	43	Apr 27, 2015 05:44PM
Crazy for Young A...: As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy #1) by Salla Simukka → Start Date: September 14th, 2014	29	38	Sep 17, 2014 05:31AM

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About Salla Simukka

Salla Simukka

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EN: Salla Simukka is Finnish writer and translator who lives in Tampere. She has studied Nordic philology, Finnish language, general literature, creative writing and women's studies at the University of Turku.

Besides books, Simukka writes book reviews for the newspapers Helsinkin Sanomat and Hämeen Sanomat.

FI: Salla Simukka on Tampereella asuva suomalainen kirjailija ja suomentaja. Hän on opiskell ...more

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As White as Snow (Lumikki Andersson, #2)

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Quotes from As Red as Blood

“You aren't those words. You aren't the shouts and names. You aren't the awful things spat at you like flavorless gum. You aren't the punches or the bruises they cause. You aren't the blood running from your nose. You aren't under their control. You are not theirs.

Inside you is always the part of you that no one can touch. You are you. You are your own and inside you is the universe. You can be whatever you want. You can be anyone.

Don't be afraid. You don't have to be afraid anymore.” — 34 likes

“Do not seek power for revenge. Seek power in order to avoid situations that would make you want revenge.” — 19 likes

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(Lumikki Andersson #1)

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