‘There can be beauty anywhere. Even here. And if it ain’t, you can make it yerself.’
Silverlake: home of Saba and her family. At least it is until mysterious horsemen appear out the red dust and take Lugh away from the only place he has ever known. Saba is left, with only Emmi at her side, to find a way to get him back when she, too, must leave the familiar for the unknown.
This section focuses in quite a lot on the world Saba inhabits. The reader can sit back for the first half and relax as she introduces her home to us. One of the most significant features is the climate and landscape, ‘hot an dry’, ‘hear the earth crack’, ‘no rain’, ‘wicked hotwinds’. There is also world-building in the fact that the nearest neighbour is ‘four leagues north of here’. It is clear that this is some version of a post-apocalyptic world, left to waste by the ‘Wreckers’. These can be assumed to be humans as we are now, who have supposedly ‘died out’ and taken their developed civilisation with them. This is supported by the fact that Saba’s family seems to have some pagan practices; her father has ‘charms an spells’ and there is continuation of the language of destiny that was seen in the prologue, ‘sent her back to the stars’, ‘there ain’t nothing written in the stars’. Essentially, Saba is living in an austere and beaten land, with little or no life left at all, including that of humanity. Nevertheless, there are still negative influences seen in today’s society such as drugs. ‘Chaal...poison to mind an soul...is offered say no’ is chillingly similar to our own parents’ mantras: JUST SAY NO.
‘Dead lake. Dead land. Dead life.’
We also meet an array of other characters in Silverlake. Saba’s ‘Pa’ is a broken man, ‘ain’t been right for a long time’, due to the death of Saba’s mother during the birth of their third child, Emmi. This in itself shows how far below a civilised society they have fallen; that women are dying from childbirth. He’s a quiet man, ‘never says naught’ and whilst Lugh expresses some animosity towards his detached state, ‘foolish old man’, it is obvious that he still cares a great deal for his children, ‘I've et plenty, child. Share the rest between yuz’. Saba maintains a belief in her father, ‘he knows what he’s doing...he’s a star reader’, and therefore she also holds onto his belief of fate and reading the stars for the future. Lugh’s response shows how naive he thinks this is of Saba, ‘he cain’t believe what I just said’.
‘He’d warn us of the wickedness of the world beyond Silverlake’
This complex relationship between the twins continues. Saba is presumably the one who cares, or at least shows her care, the most, ‘What did he get me? Nuthin. Like always’. This is not to say that Lugh is uncaring, for he most certainly isn’t; he makes Saba promise to keep herself and Emmi safe and he takes on the role of his detached father for Emmi, ‘Emmi always does what Lugh tells her’. Lugh is unhappy in the first section of Blood Red Road, he’s angry with his father and distressed about his family’s circumstances; it has caused him to lose faith, ‘I ain’t never gonna love nobody. It’s better that way.’ Moira has said before that she believes in the power of language and that singular words can be full of meaning. And this is certainly seen in Saba’s statement that ‘what Lugh says is true’. When isolated by itself, it denotes just how much she believes in him. Her closeness to Lugh is also seen when she follows him instead of staying with her pa and Emmi after they fight, ‘I go right on past ‘em’. The emphasis on their twinhood connotes a uniqueness to Saba and Lugh; they are special, ‘twins born unner a full moon at the turnin of the year, that’s even rarer’. The moon imagery, as seen in their tattoo, is fairly mysterious and thus adds to suspense as the reader waits to find out why these twins are so special.
‘Love makes you weak’
Of course then, there is also Saba’s other, considerably cuter, sibling – Emmi! Our first image is one her ‘running wild’, something that we all know she continues to do. And whilst this might seem endearing to us, for Saba, our narrator, is not quite the same. She views Emmi somewhat as a pest; one she isn’t overly fond of. But it runs deeper than a sibling grudge. Saba essentially blames Emmi for the death of her mother, ‘before she was born when Ma was still alive, everythin was happy’. In Emmi’s nine years, Saba has been unable to let go of this, ‘We’re doin jest fine without you!’, and she seems only to ‘put up with’ her younger sister. Emmi isn’t much warmer to Saba, ‘I hate you!’. And yet, without Lugh or their Pa, these two sisters are set out on a journey together where they will surely be able to reconcile their differences.
Not forgetting Nero, or the mysterious Procter John either! Yes, we meet Saba’s flighty companion first in Silverlake. Despite being an animal, he is definitely his own character, ‘always got his an opinion...real smart’. There are also parallels between Saba and her crow, ‘fell outta the nest with his Ma nowhere to be seen’, ‘my hair’s black as Nero’s feathers’. Now these similarities might be nothing, but they might also tell us something about Saba’s character: she’s smart and determined, and she’s also associated with death, after all she does become The Angel of Death, and ‘crows bring death’.
On the other hand, we have our first antagonist: Procter John. His actions at the beginning of the chapter are questionable; visiting and checking up only on the twins before hastily leaving. He also first appeared when they were born, which is most definitely something to be suspicious of. And these doubts are proved correct when he is the one who leads the mysterious four horsemen to Saba’s home, and ultimately to Lugh.
‘We’re in trouble’
This is the moment everything changes, ‘the world’s turned red’, and Saba begins down her Blood Red Road. The most prominent line in Silverlake, for me, is ‘We cain’t outrun it...it’s comin too fast’ which seems to sum up Saba’s adventures throughout the two published books so far.
Our main character, Saba, experiences her ‘red hot’ for the first time when Lugh is taken. She proclaims of herself that she ‘ain’t no quitter’ and ‘once I set my mind on something...I stick with it’. Her decision to leave Procter John ‘for the vultures’ shows her desire for revenge, in any way she can get it. (Although as an aside I do have to add how humorous I found Saba’s counting, ‘One Missus Ippi’; I might have to take up that one!)
‘I ain’t ever comin back to this place again’
In conclusion, Silverlake builds a world that is both chilling and intriguing with characters who live a life so different from that of the 21st century societies that you just have to read on.
~Ella
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