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sagarific's review
2.0
ok, 2 stars for all the culturally-specific elements and the solid plot and its actually science-y descriptions of the world; however, I have a complicated relationship with sci-fi as a genre and this book didn't do much to exceed expectations on that count
j_daskiewicz's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
annarella's review
3.0
There's a plenty of reasons to love this story but I didn't like the style of writing (too much information) and the story fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
paperbacktomes's review
3.0
Rise of the Red Hand is a feat of the imagination to give us a convincing dystopian world.
My Rating: 3 Stars
I loved the idea represented in the book. This is based on a South Asian dystopian setting where robot-like-humans (those who don’t feel any empathy towards others) rule the world. It’s a search for humanity on the verge of its extinction. In simple terms, it brought out the differences between humans– or what’s left off them– and the robots. I was engrossed in the story, but I felt that the book lacked something. In some places, things were moving faster, and the dialogues felt conversational too. There are a few twists in the story, but it ends with a positive note.
Though the book is set in South Asia, it felt mostly Indian. If you like a dystopian novel set in a super-advanced world, where mangoes are rare, filled with bots and technology, then this might be your book.
TW: Deception, Human Experimentation, Mind Control, Anarchy, Violence, Mass Murder.
Thanks to Erewhon Books, Edelweiss+, and the author for this DRC.
Read the full review on my Blog.
My Rating: 3 Stars
I loved the idea represented in the book. This is based on a South Asian dystopian setting where robot-like-humans (those who don’t feel any empathy towards others) rule the world. It’s a search for humanity on the verge of its extinction. In simple terms, it brought out the differences between humans– or what’s left off them– and the robots. I was engrossed in the story, but I felt that the book lacked something. In some places, things were moving faster, and the dialogues felt conversational too. There are a few twists in the story, but it ends with a positive note.
Though the book is set in South Asia, it felt mostly Indian. If you like a dystopian novel set in a super-advanced world, where mangoes are rare, filled with bots and technology, then this might be your book.
TW: Deception, Human Experimentation, Mind Control, Anarchy, Violence, Mass Murder.
Thanks to Erewhon Books, Edelweiss+, and the author for this DRC.
Read the full review on my Blog.
valthereader's review
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
thelastpage's review
3.0
↠ 3.5 stars
Rise of the Red Hand provides a glimpse at a future that could be right on our doorstep. A planet ravaged by climate change, and a society that must deal with the aftermath. For the province of South Asia, the population is split in two. The upper class that live in the climate-controlled biodome, being deemed genetically worthy, and the others, that live outside and must fend for themselves. Ashiva, a smuggler for an underground resistance group known as the Red Hand, uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that reaches into the very government that has turned their back on the population outside.
Right from the start, I felt immersed in the potential future that Chadha layed out over the course of the book. A world that has had to adapt and innovate in order to survive. For the most part, aspects of this world hit way too close to home, which was clearly the authors intention. To create a story surrounding the possibility of problems arising from climate change and governmental instability. The rising sea levels, loss of plant and animal diversity, and outcomes from nuclear warfare were really at the forefront here. The three main characters provided a necessary perspective from each part of this society, both inside and outside the dome. However, I think that far too much time was spent laying the groundwork for the problems that would play out in this book. This is due in part to the amount of background given to this world and the characters. More than half the book was spent in this way, and I think that deterred my enjoyment of it as a result. The book in and of itself was incredibly thought provoking though, and I am glad I stuck through it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review
Trigger warnings: blood, violence, suicide, murder, disease, kidnapping, starvation, death, death of loved ones, medical procedures, bombing, stabbing, human experimentation, mutilation, child abandonment, war (mentioned), seizure
Rise of the Red Hand provides a glimpse at a future that could be right on our doorstep. A planet ravaged by climate change, and a society that must deal with the aftermath. For the province of South Asia, the population is split in two. The upper class that live in the climate-controlled biodome, being deemed genetically worthy, and the others, that live outside and must fend for themselves. Ashiva, a smuggler for an underground resistance group known as the Red Hand, uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that reaches into the very government that has turned their back on the population outside.
Right from the start, I felt immersed in the potential future that Chadha layed out over the course of the book. A world that has had to adapt and innovate in order to survive. For the most part, aspects of this world hit way too close to home, which was clearly the authors intention. To create a story surrounding the possibility of problems arising from climate change and governmental instability. The rising sea levels, loss of plant and animal diversity, and outcomes from nuclear warfare were really at the forefront here. The three main characters provided a necessary perspective from each part of this society, both inside and outside the dome. However, I think that far too much time was spent laying the groundwork for the problems that would play out in this book. This is due in part to the amount of background given to this world and the characters. More than half the book was spent in this way, and I think that deterred my enjoyment of it as a result. The book in and of itself was incredibly thought provoking though, and I am glad I stuck through it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review
Trigger warnings: blood, violence, suicide, murder, disease, kidnapping, starvation, death, death of loved ones, medical procedures, bombing, stabbing, human experimentation, mutilation, child abandonment, war (mentioned), seizure
maria_hossain's review
4.0
I'm gonna try something here before I talk about this book. I'm gonna mention five young adult dystopian novels in two rounds and I'll tell you what they have in common.
THE HUNGER GAMES
DIVERGENT
THE MAZE RUNNER
THE SELECTION
RED QUEEN
What do they have in common other than hailing from the same category and genre?
They're all by white authors, about white protagonists, set in a futuristic dystopian USA/North America.
Now, second round:
WANT
REBEL SEOUL
WAR GIRLS
RISE OF THE RED HAND
THE LIGHT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD
The second list of books have BIPoC authors, BIPoC protagonists, and are set in a dystopian world that's not North America. The second list of books are also some of the bestest dystopian novels I've read recently, full of nuances and deeply delved topics not at all explored in the first list of books. We get to see dystopia in the rest of the world. We get to see BIPoC protagonists being the heroic (or antiheroic) center of the stories. We see them kick ass riding gigantic mechas and sporting cyborg limbs. We see them try to bring justice and balance into a chaotic, grim-dark world full of hellish, nightmarish injustice. In these books, hope is beaten to a pulp, in black and blue to the ground until hope pushes back and stands tall and wins the day.
After the surge the young adult dystopian books saw in the early 2010s, a sucker punch followed and the genre got such a bad rep, nobody wanted to buy and read YA dystopian books anymore. Before the call for diversity started in late 2010s, dystopian died before giving BIPoC authors a chance to write and explore our own characters in them. But seeing the newest, albeit more timid and hesitant, surge coming to dystopian fiction, I'm having hopes.
Because you see, dystopian genre before was heavily authored by and featured white people. Other than two to three series, I cannot name any more series that wasn't authored by and weren't about white American protagonists. The books were written in such a way, the worlds in those books only focused on North America. No mention of the rest of the world. As if the rest of the world perished into wasteland and only America survived. I cannot tell you how toxic and problematic this America-centric writing is, especially to readers from the global south.
So it was such a breath of fresh air and relief when I found, in several recent YA dystopian books, settings being not at all North America. I found Seoul and Taipei and Nigeria become the center of the stories. I found Asian and African protagonists storming the center stages.
Finally late last year, I found the Indian subcontinent climb onto the center stage.
I wept in joy inside, I swear to God.
When I heard that Erewhon Books bought a cli-fi dystopia set in grim-dark futuristic Indian subcontinent, my claws grew and ached to get my grips on the book. But I had to wait. So I waited. Impatiently. Desperately.
Last year, around October or November, I finally got access to the eARC of this book I've been waiting for so long. But I decided not to rush through. I decided to slow down so I could savor it like you savor a food so delicious you do not want to run out of it and then be left with the hurried experience. So I savored this book for two whole months. I read about 4-5 pages every day, if not more. But I slowed down as slowly as snails and turtles and sloths combined. For an ADHD reader like me, this was not at all easy.
This book wasn't easy either. Not in the bad sense. More like, it shows you how terribly hopeless and grim and unfair and dark the future can be if we let our earth crawl to the demise it's being led to due to climate change and global warming, if we allow our corrupt politicians to control our lives and feed us lies until we're so surfeited with deception, we lose touch with our humanity and conscience and become zombies who will destroy one another just to survive and get to the top. This book was full of all the hard-hitting questions young adult dystopian books have previously either shied away or skirted around. You'll find little romance here. No love triangle for the protagonist to choose from. No dress rehearsals or charming princes to please. None of that. Here, you'll find an antiheroine who loves as hard as she loathes. Badass doesn't even begin to cover what Ashiva is. But she doesn't lose touch from her humanity. Survival is her number one priority; survival of her own self and those she loves. But that doesn't mean she becomes the monsters the corrupt government is. Several times she comes close to mirroring them. But a little like Katniss, she has a flat arc, where she possesses the truth from the get go, however, her truth spreads toward the supporting characters, especially Riz-Ali and Taru. Like Katniss to Prim, Ashiva is ready to do anything to protect and survive with her foster sister, Taru. But unlike Katniss, who until her own book 3, doesn't jump into action to change her world, Ashiva does. She dives headfirst and dives deep until she finds what she's looking for before she swims back up, victorious and rebellious.
The world here is, again, grim and dark and hopeless and corrupt af. The unfair imbalance you'll find in this book eerily resembles the stark, unjust contrast between the general populace and the billionaires of our own world; as if a symbolic mirror the author held before the reader, saying "Make of it what you will". By placing the lustrous and polished Neocities next to the dirty, polluted slums, Ms. Chadha reminds us how in some of the megacities around our world, homeless people sleep on the streets in cold, next to air-conditioned parliaments and mega skyscrapers. The Z fever pandemic in the book just makes our own reality with covid-19 circa 2020 even more realistic and horrifyingly close to becoming real. The setting will grip your heart with its sharp edges, but the protagonists relentless pursuit is like an immunity to the Z fever. They survive and they bring changes to the world too. They don't stop at living another day, they use the day to topple over the ivory towers. As in the words of Katniss Everdeen,
"If we burn, you burn with us."
Thank you, Erewhon Books and NetGalley, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
THE HUNGER GAMES
DIVERGENT
THE MAZE RUNNER
THE SELECTION
RED QUEEN
What do they have in common other than hailing from the same category and genre?
They're all by white authors, about white protagonists, set in a futuristic dystopian USA/North America.
Now, second round:
WANT
REBEL SEOUL
WAR GIRLS
RISE OF THE RED HAND
THE LIGHT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD
The second list of books have BIPoC authors, BIPoC protagonists, and are set in a dystopian world that's not North America. The second list of books are also some of the bestest dystopian novels I've read recently, full of nuances and deeply delved topics not at all explored in the first list of books. We get to see dystopia in the rest of the world. We get to see BIPoC protagonists being the heroic (or antiheroic) center of the stories. We see them kick ass riding gigantic mechas and sporting cyborg limbs. We see them try to bring justice and balance into a chaotic, grim-dark world full of hellish, nightmarish injustice. In these books, hope is beaten to a pulp, in black and blue to the ground until hope pushes back and stands tall and wins the day.
"You can't wash off the past so easily."
After the surge the young adult dystopian books saw in the early 2010s, a sucker punch followed and the genre got such a bad rep, nobody wanted to buy and read YA dystopian books anymore. Before the call for diversity started in late 2010s, dystopian died before giving BIPoC authors a chance to write and explore our own characters in them. But seeing the newest, albeit more timid and hesitant, surge coming to dystopian fiction, I'm having hopes.
Because you see, dystopian genre before was heavily authored by and featured white people. Other than two to three series, I cannot name any more series that wasn't authored by and weren't about white American protagonists. The books were written in such a way, the worlds in those books only focused on North America. No mention of the rest of the world. As if the rest of the world perished into wasteland and only America survived. I cannot tell you how toxic and problematic this America-centric writing is, especially to readers from the global south.
So it was such a breath of fresh air and relief when I found, in several recent YA dystopian books, settings being not at all North America. I found Seoul and Taipei and Nigeria become the center of the stories. I found Asian and African protagonists storming the center stages.
Finally late last year, I found the Indian subcontinent climb onto the center stage.
I wept in joy inside, I swear to God.
When I heard that Erewhon Books bought a cli-fi dystopia set in grim-dark futuristic Indian subcontinent, my claws grew and ached to get my grips on the book. But I had to wait. So I waited. Impatiently. Desperately.
"But being alive is not always living."
Last year, around October or November, I finally got access to the eARC of this book I've been waiting for so long. But I decided not to rush through. I decided to slow down so I could savor it like you savor a food so delicious you do not want to run out of it and then be left with the hurried experience. So I savored this book for two whole months. I read about 4-5 pages every day, if not more. But I slowed down as slowly as snails and turtles and sloths combined. For an ADHD reader like me, this was not at all easy.
This book wasn't easy either. Not in the bad sense. More like, it shows you how terribly hopeless and grim and unfair and dark the future can be if we let our earth crawl to the demise it's being led to due to climate change and global warming, if we allow our corrupt politicians to control our lives and feed us lies until we're so surfeited with deception, we lose touch with our humanity and conscience and become zombies who will destroy one another just to survive and get to the top. This book was full of all the hard-hitting questions young adult dystopian books have previously either shied away or skirted around. You'll find little romance here. No love triangle for the protagonist to choose from. No dress rehearsals or charming princes to please. None of that. Here, you'll find an antiheroine who loves as hard as she loathes. Badass doesn't even begin to cover what Ashiva is. But she doesn't lose touch from her humanity. Survival is her number one priority; survival of her own self and those she loves. But that doesn't mean she becomes the monsters the corrupt government is. Several times she comes close to mirroring them. But a little like Katniss, she has a flat arc, where she possesses the truth from the get go, however, her truth spreads toward the supporting characters, especially Riz-Ali and Taru. Like Katniss to Prim, Ashiva is ready to do anything to protect and survive with her foster sister, Taru. But unlike Katniss, who until her own book 3, doesn't jump into action to change her world, Ashiva does. She dives headfirst and dives deep until she finds what she's looking for before she swims back up, victorious and rebellious.
"But the thing is you can't make yourself a hero. You can't help being one of you are unlucky enough to have that dumb courage inside you."
The world here is, again, grim and dark and hopeless and corrupt af. The unfair imbalance you'll find in this book eerily resembles the stark, unjust contrast between the general populace and the billionaires of our own world; as if a symbolic mirror the author held before the reader, saying "Make of it what you will". By placing the lustrous and polished Neocities next to the dirty, polluted slums, Ms. Chadha reminds us how in some of the megacities around our world, homeless people sleep on the streets in cold, next to air-conditioned parliaments and mega skyscrapers. The Z fever pandemic in the book just makes our own reality with covid-19 circa 2020 even more realistic and horrifyingly close to becoming real. The setting will grip your heart with its sharp edges, but the protagonists relentless pursuit is like an immunity to the Z fever. They survive and they bring changes to the world too. They don't stop at living another day, they use the day to topple over the ivory towers. As in the words of Katniss Everdeen,
"If we burn, you burn with us."
Thank you, Erewhon Books and NetGalley, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
jdavis025's review
5.0
One of the things I hate is when authors hold your hand and spell everything out for you about this new world in the first 15 pages. Which is why I loved that the author didn’t spend a lot of time in the beginning spelling out acronyms or detailing how the technology works. The underlying drama in the story is how the powerful will use what ever tool possible to justify why some should be excluded.
Overall it was a well done first book and I impatiently wait for the second.
Overall it was a well done first book and I impatiently wait for the second.
natnoble66693's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Ashiva and Riz-Ali live two very different lives in the South Asian Province; Ashiva is a smuggler from the slums while Riz-Ali is a hacker from the central city where everything is provided. In a world that has been ravaged by climate disasters and only a few privileged people are able to live in an environmentally controlled city, rebellion by the Red Hand is the only way to help everyone survive a startling government conspiracy. I thoroughly enjoyed the world building the happened in Rise of the Red Hand, establishing a world where the climate is destroyed and world governments have had to adapt to help humanity survive, but the character development and plot progression was rough. The overall story was a great adventure, but there were a few points where it got confusing, and sometimes switching narrators was more confusing than helpful. Honestly, even though Asiva and Riz-Ali were the main characters, I was much more invested in what was happening with Taru than anything else. Watching Taru learn and grow and become such a strong character was a delight. Unfortunately we don't see that as clearly with Ashiva or Riz-Ali, and the 'romance' was barely there and kind of just popped up out of nowhere.