Blood Red Horse

                                                                                                                             Jenna Sulzer
                                                                                                                             Honors World History
                                                                                                                             Mrs. White

Main Characters:

Ellie- Protagonist; Round 
Gavin- Round; Dynamic
Will- Round; Dynamic
Hosanna- Protagonist; Round; Dynamic


Summary: 

The three main characters are Ellie, Gavin, Will and Hosanna. Gavin, Will’s older brother, is supposed to marry Ellie. In search of a new horse, Will goes looking and finds a blood red horse named Hosanna. “Hosanna looked the color of sunset, the silver trappings that Hal had put on him sparkling against the deep red of his coat.” (36) Gavin and Ellie eventually get married even though they do not have feelings for each other. After they get married Will finds himself jealous. Will uses the calling of the crusade to keep his mind off of his jealousy problems. “It was a relief, the next morning, to put Ellie out of his mind as he surveyed the crusading preparations.”(96) King Richard called a crusade to go fight to regain the Holy Land. They are transported to the Holy Land with Sultan Saladin and his adopted son, Kimal. The main theme shown in this book I think, is that with every action comes a consequence. This book gave you a good general ideas of how life was like in the crusades. “But since the king had taken his turn—and had very nearly been captured by Saladin’s troops when, after six hours in the boiling sun, he had dismounted and sat underneath a shady tamarisk bush for a rest—the knights had no excuse not to volunteer.” (151)  This just goes to show how miserable the temperature and the war days were like.



Quotes:
“Hosanna looked the color of sunset, the silver trappings that Hal had put on him sparkling against the deep red of his coat.” (36) This quote tell us where the book got its title. Also, it describes how beautiful Hosanna was and why she stuck out to Will so much. 

“It was a relief, the next morning, to put Ellie out of his mind as he surveyed the crusading preparations.”(96) Will was getting jealous of his brother marrying Ellie and realized that he actually had feelings for her. He used the crusade to keep his mind occupied. 

“But since the king had taken his turn—and had very nearly been captured by Saladin’s troops when, after six hours in the boiling sun, he had dismounted and sat underneath a shady tamarisk bush for a rest—the knights had no excuse not to volunteer.” (151) This just goes to show how hot and miserable it was to fight in a crusade. They still did it because they wanted to regain the Holy Land. 

(All these are added in my summary as well.)


Author and Sources:

K. M. Grant has written many books. One being Blood Red Horse which I read. She has written two trilogies one being The De Granville and the other is Perfect Fire.  All of K. M. Grant’s books are historical fiction. Some if her books were written about her own things or things that happened to her family in history.  Blood Red Horse’s Hosanna was written about Grants horse named Muffet. Another was How the Hangman Lost his Heart, it was written about Grant’s ancestor, Frances Townely, who was executed by cutting his head off, then shipping it around the world.  Being that all her books are historical fiction and that she adds great information about history in her book, I think she was qualified to write this book. 

Critique:

I think that this book was very well written based on the crusades. She added great detail about the crusade like who fought and what they were fighting about. The crusade in this book was between the Muslims and Europeans trying to regain the Holy Land. The details about the crusades that she wrote, were the same details I learned in class making it an easier book to read. Also, this book was very well organized and had the right ratio of history and Will, Gavin, and Ellie’s lives.