Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

67 reviews

francestea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

Fast-paced and compelling. I really enjoyed reading this story. Yes it reminds me of a lot of similar type YA dystopian series but still very much worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Murder

Moderate: Death and Physical abuse

Minor: Death of parent and Rape

joshoonet's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

• I expected the protagonist to be more impulsive and to make annoying, irrational decisions since he's 16-18 years old, but he can actually use his brain! Positive surprise there
• Read this in like 3 sessions, because i got lost in it completely
• FOR SURE gonna buy the whole trilogy (?) and read it asap
• The plot isn't reinventing the wheel here, but it's an interesting take on the "YA-trilogy/dystopian/uprising" kind of genre. The way this book ended, I'm left wondering what the protagonist will decide in the future, when hard decisions have to be made.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cursing, Death, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Grief, Rape, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, and Excrement

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, and Cannibalism

Classism: the society in the book is separated into different "colors" (not skin colors) which act like castes, and the ones high in the hierarchy see everyone else as less than. Death of parent:

the protagonist's father dies by hanging prior to the starting point of the book. It isn't described in too much detail, the protagonist is not actively grieving.

Grief (and for what character!):

the protagonist's wife dies by hanging as an act of martyrdom. She is mentioned all through the story, her dream is what keeps the main character going. The writing style doesn't strike me as very emotional, but it's clear that he loved and misses her.

War, Slavery and ALL OTHERS:

the protagonist gets into an academy, where the students must try to defend their own house and take over the others'. Think of Capture the Flag but over the span of ~a year and pretty serious. Students aren't technically supposed to kill each other, but sometimes they do. Some (very few, and only in the first half) rape some female students; this is not described in detail. By touching students of other houses with one's own flag, they become that house's "slave". They can technically break that "oath", but are then shunned. They are all freed by the end of the game.

sashawins's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.5

📚Book Review📚

Rate: 4.5🌟🌟🌟🌟💫/5

🎼Song for Book

 " We dream of Stars" 

Fav Quotes

" Emptiness is life without freedom."

" Man cannot be freed by the same injustice that enslaved it."

" Not all scars heal. Not all sins are forgiven."

" I will make my purpose your glory."

My Review

"Perspective is a wicked creature."

  Red Rising is a book about oppression, greed, politics, and the poison of power.

Humans and those who are superhuman now live on Mars after the destruction of Earth. The Mars society is made up of 14 colors and influential families. Each color plays a vital role in this world. Hierarchy is essential; at the top, the Golds are the ultimate beings; they are super strong, fighters, and more-- they run shit.

    Then you have the Reds who are oppressed-- they live underground in squaller, in poor health, and are hardworking. Their primary employment is Helldivers digging for Helium to " Make Mars a safe and better place for all the colors"-- sadly, when we learn it was all a lie. For centuries, Red families and their descendants toil on the red soil. Until one day, the death and song of the girl, Eo, set the stage for Darrow to set off.

The book started slowly; some parts were very dense, as I had to learn about the roles of the different colors and their purpose. Once the action started, it did not stop! As the main character, Darrow was not my favorite-- he was cocky, arrogant, and hard-headed. Yet, I respect his desire to uphold Eo's dream of freedom and " To live for more."

His intense transformation to become a Gold was WILD -- the mental, physical, and emotional toll he endured to become them was executed well by the author. Once he became a Gold---his perspective changed after he saw how the Elite Golds operated in the name of strength and obedience.  

The relationships built between the characters were genuine until death came again-- Though I wasn't a fan of Cassius at first, I felt sad for him. Yet, I can't believe he spit blood in Darrow's face, and Darrow didn't bust his ass ( that is a whole other conversation)...

I loved all the supportive characters, especially Servo, aka the Goblin. As I read his parts, I told myself he was crazy. The whole sleeping in the belly of dead horses...took my gross meter to another level. Then, we meet the crazy-ass Jackal--- the man who cut off his damn hand---with no problem. Like was slicing a damn apple #Dead.

The " adults" Protors glorious seat of power on Olympus was destroyed by a group of hard-ass teenagers-- I was Happy!  They deserved all that smoked!

I am still reeling from that ending-- I can't believe Darrow choose to align with the Augustus family... my hope is book 2 explains this choice. I truly can't accept it.

💓What I loved

•That plot twist at the end-- the •Twin Augustus

•Darrow becoming Primus

•Potential Love

•The Rage of House Mars

•Pax au Telemanus-- Big man with •a Big heart and a girlie laugh

•I love the space element of the story

👀What I dislike

The language used was weird  " Bloodydamn," " Gorydamn," and " Goodman"-- threw me off, but I understand it depicted the different dialects of those higher up on the hierarchy of prestige.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

readsbyrach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Gore, Violence, Slavery, Murder, War, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Death, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Torture, and Child death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood and Vomit

hesitantlitmas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Classism, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Blood

raspberrytia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

5.0

Bloodydamn

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Animal death and Slavery

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, and Rape

bibliorama's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

Now that was fun!

Enjoyment - 5
I put this off for so long -- I'm talking years -- because I was intimidated by it being in the Sci Fi genre. That is a genre I'm not entirely interested in and the few books I have read in that area were a little heavy with the lingo. However, this felt like the perfect mix between having Sci Fi elements that felt Fantasy esq. I had a fun time with the progression of this story and the book is really high on Darrow like he's the best, but that was part of the fun for me. He does some rad stuff along with Sevro and Virginia. I would ride or die for Sevro and Virginia. This book feels like the high of reaching the mountain top only for you to get to the second book to then realize this is only the first, tinier peak in a larger mountain range. This was a fun ride. 

Start - 4
My least favorite part of the book. The beginning is fine though the writing was a little grating at times, this went away as the book went on. I didn't like how Darrow's wife was fridged. For being the character that Darrow's entire arc hinges upon, she wasn't very fleshed out and was more superficial. Maybe in the third book Darrow will see how little he actually new about her, because he didn't seem to know much. Or at least, not a lot of info was given to us about who she actually was. This section only gets a 4 instead of a 3 for the the Charlie Chaplin "machine minds and machine hearts" reference. It fits the theme.

Characters - 5
Virginia and Sevro *chef's kiss* and Darrow was cool to. I didn't mind that he was a Gary Stu, it meant we got scenes that were very satisfying to watch go down. Overall, the characters feel very theatrical in how they act, like the whole Gold society is a play. 

Atmosphere - 4
I can't say the physical world overall is one I completely can visual without adding my own imagination to it because we didn't see much of it. The competition part I felt was described well, but it definitely invokes more of a typical Fantasy setting rather than a Sci Fi one. The political and societal atmosphere is laid out in a clear way and impacted all the characters realistically.
 
Plot - 5
Hmm, was this really a plot? I'm not sure. All I know is it was fun to be swept away by the actions of these characters and their little war games. Strange for that to be fun because the reality of those theories and actions is dark, but the characters had goals and acted towards reaching them and that gave the book movement. 

Ending - 5
Satisfying and what I wanted to see go down. Rooted for Darrow the whole time and

dammit I fell for the trap of being suspicious of Virginia.

Style - 4
The writing was serviceable and I didn't have any issues with the made up slang parts. The beginning writing with the Reds felt a bit off and stilted, so not my favorite. This seems like a good YA/Adult crossover book. It uses some pretty common YA tropes, but adds in some Adult ones as well. 

Overall - 4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Gore, Slavery, Excrement, Classism, War, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Sexual violence

emilineopines's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Classism, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, and Rape

karirae7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, War, Violence, Torture, Gore, Rape, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Cursing

itendswithe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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? No

3.75

This book follows a boy crafted to lead a rebellion against a caste-based society that is reinforced by selective breeding. Also, it's on mars.

It starts with a close look at the rough life in a low-caste mining community before throwing you into a Hunger Games-esque war simulation.

This book has a great premise, but the level of brutality was hard for me.

I would recommend checking out this book if the description intrigues you, but maybe look at the content warnings before diving in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Slavery, Murder, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, and Medical content

Moderate: Cursing, Self harm, Stalking, Rape, Sexual assault, Bullying, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Death of parent