In Ruby Winters's world, colour opens some doors and slams others shut.

It is May 1976 at Johannesburg when South Africa was at the height of Apartheid, where the laws of segregation were strictly enforced. Ruby’s Johannesburg neighbourhood is a far cry from the streets of Soweto where anger and hatred simmer under the surface. Yet, Ruby has been brought up seeing character rather than colour. In Ruby's house, there are no black servants. There are black guests; artists free to pursue their art without restriction. Outside the iron gates of her home, Ruby must present a face to her peers that is nothing like her true self. Ruby Red is agonising, intense and deeply romantic as Glass blends the strong issues of politics with young love to stunning effect.

For Ruby, making some choices means letting others go, particularly when a blue-eyed Afrikaans boy provides her the exciting rush of first-love but whose presence brings about disapproving glances and hushed whispers. It is a slim novel combining historic and romantic issues with the power of art and the nature of friendship. Written in a strong first-person narrative, this dramatic, emotional and deeply affecting novel is powerfully centred on intensity, suspense, love and courage.

Her life is full of separation; from her peers, from the community: but this is simply a mirror of the ugliest one of them all – that of Apartheid. Glass heavily sympathises with the Afrikaans, and tries to draw attention to their struggles. In this busy modern world; it demonstrates the injustice, shame, and cruelty shown to them. Yet at times emotion leads Glass to distorting the truth slightly, as only the troubles of the black nation are described.

This novel is a ‘page-turner’, a gripping read, and a story of deep significance. Glass cleverly presents the issue of apartheid in the 1970s with teenage romance.

I would highly recommend it for readers of all ages: 9.5/10.