Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

36 reviews

beth_taggard's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

There is so much hype for this series right now — one that began ten years ago with Red Rising — and I don't get it. Maybe I'm simply over the brutal annihilation of teenagers for the sake of a better society. It's a noble goal; equality always is, but why must the young be sacrificed?

Then there is our too-perfect, enhanced main character. Yawn. Beyond the physical changes he endures to appear gold, not red (societal class is denoted by color in this world), the insinuation is that his intellect, instincts, and athletic prowess have always been this perfect. I prefer more nuance and, frankly, flaws in my main characters. 

The pacing is also off. It's a super slow slog in the beginning, though the back half did pick up the pace a little. Was this enough to save the series for me? Will I continue? At the time of this review, I Just don't know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Violence, Confinement, Mental illness, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Classism, Bullying, Death, War, and Suicide

kaylanicholsmith's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Hmm... where to begin with this....

I feel like I was really excited to get to this finally because of all the hype that I've heard over all the years and it was... fine? This book is kinda dense. You get thrown right into the world of Darrow, the main character, and you are learning as you go. There is nothing about the world, the language, the setting that is really explained to you. Darrow, as a character, kinda expects people to just know what he is talking about. Sometimes this narrative style works for me and other times it doesn't. Ultimately, the writing style as a whole just wasn't my favorite. I kept trying to remind myself that we are primarily reading from the perspective of teenage boys (yuck) but it just felt over the top with the juvenile quality sometimes. Also, my biggest pet peeve in books, any genre, is when the author has to insert fart jokes or fart commentary (usually as an insult to another character). I just can't stand it. The amount of times the author used "turd" could also warrant some kind of an award.

Despite the issues with the writing my biggest question with this story was the handling of sexual assault. On one hand, I feel like the author did do something a little different than a lot of other male fantasy/scifi writers - the female characters were not only there to be sexually assaulted and serve no other purpose. However, on the other hand, the amount of sexual assault still felt gratuitous and the female characters underdeveloped. While there is nothing graphic on the page, there is ample talk about the sexual assaults taking place, and not all of it is condemning the actions taking place. Granted, sexual violence is quite commonplace in war situations and the bystander effect is a terrible thing that happens everyday, but the author didn't really seem to tackle the issue quite as head on as he might have thought he was. Perhaps that was because there is SO MUCH going on in this first book - I think that we cover about 2 years in the course of this first book - and it flies. There is no real delving into any of the social issues that are being raised in the book. Everything felt super surface level.

I haven't totally written off the rest of the series but I'm in no major rush to continue on. I wonder if, as the story continues to build, that the commentary will become stronger and the writing more palatable but who knows. Maybe I never will... we'll see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Bullying, Racism, Sexual violence, Vomit, Ableism, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Slavery, War, Gore, Murder, Animal death, and Blood

deanswallow's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Red Rising is a fast paced book with a constant flow of events and action, the authors writing style really lends itself to the fast paced narrative that this book presents. However as a side effect, alot of information is left out and sometimes I found myself having to reread/relisten to sections as I thought I had missed something. Unfortunately alot of descriptions for locations/items are not present, which while it does leave it to the readers imagination, I found it also left me with little to no starting point or inspiration. The themes behind the book are really great, seeing almost a parody of what real life demographics could evolve into in the extreme.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Bullying, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug abuse and Cannibalism

aelytacchan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I can't say I understand why Red Rising is a fan favorite. It wasn't bad, but its tempo is so gruelling that I almost DNFd it - saved only by the fact I already had all the audiobooks from a past sale.

I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but I found a lot of it foul. I think that might be on purpose, but a lot of the violence seemed unnecessary and out of bounds even for the world's laws and customs.

Women were constantly used as symbols, to further plot points, or as convenient caretakers. Despite there being women peppered into the story, they were mostly inconsequential or, when they were of consequence, they just naturally decided they would rather follow Darrow.

I'll take some time to reflect on whether I want to invest more time into the following books, seeing as they're somewhat on the longer side, but as of now, I don't particularly feel like jumping into the next part of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Classism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death of parent, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Sexism

sadie_honey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide attempt, War, Confinement, Sexual assault, Grief, Blood, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Slavery, Torture, Rape, Cursing, Death, Excrement, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, and Cannibalism

marla_arguelles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Child death, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Confinement, War, Self harm, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Sexual content

sttormy's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Edit: as I sit with the content longer, the misogyny really bugs me and isn’t necessary at all… and the rape/sexual assault isn’t needed either? 
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Overall, REALLY loved this book. Only one complaint… using being a girl as an insult is unnecessary.

There is a theme of looking down on women/ using “being a girl” as a negative. In such a futuristic, heightened society, this isn’t necessary and literally adds nothing… the Golds are all supposed to be equal, but calling someone a girl is a negative. Also, with the Golds being at the top of society, gender binary shouldn’t matter?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Slavery, Gore, Classism, Bullying, Death, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Torture, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal death

Lots of talk of rape/sexual assault that occurs

ahalpine's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Slavery, Sexism, Rape, Death, Cannibalism, Bullying, Blood, and War

lybarron's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Gore, Excrement, Blood, Bullying, and Classism

ka_ke's review against another edition

I got bored. The book is predictably dystopian. 

I’m all for rallying the people against the oppressors, I think these stories are truly important, however there has to be a way to get the point across in less pages or with faster pacing. 

Also… you can tell a hetero-cis-male wrote the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Slavery, Confinement, Violence, War, Gore, Misogyny, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Body shaming, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Rape