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pamelamoreno's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Animal death, Death of parent, Death, and War
bookfulthoughts's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Magnetic and captivating ✨
“I am the spark that will set the worlds afire. I am the hammer that cracks the chains.”
I really liked this one! The story was extremely well written and interesting. The world building was excellent and extremely detailed. I was able to visualize exactly what was happening and what everyone looked like! I like that the plot was never lost in the storytelling and this book sets up for the rest of the books in the series perfectly. I do believe that I can see this book becoming a classic in the near future. I loved the concept of the color classism and how that was presented. In my opinion, that was a unique aspect of the story. I also loved that Darrow wasn’t perfect! I he has many flaws but that’s what makes this book good. It gives his character room to grow and develop in complexity.
My reasoning for not giving it 5 stars. Personally, in certain parts of the book it was very reminiscent of the Hunger Games. Having inspiration is fine and I have no problem with that. I’m not sure if it's just me but some scenes felt too familiar. Another thing I took points off for was the fact that I felt like I should have been more emotionally attached to certain characters but I didn’t feel much when things happened. I felt like it was a little cold at times with other characters. Besides these issues, I really liked this book and I do plan on reading the rest of the series in the near future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexual assault, Murder, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Stalking, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Racism, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Genocide, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Animal death
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Self harm
amacat's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, War, Toxic friendship, and Death
Minor: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Slavery
caterina_1212's review against another edition
Bailed as soon as I found out I couldn't attend book club. I'm already over all these books with castes with their own names and rules and shit. Eo's death pissed me off right from the start, why couldnt she be the hero of the story? The amount of medical procedures to change his body was also beyond belief, and i wasnt clear at what stage the other 90+people before him had failed
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Medical trauma, and Torture
archaicrobin's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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
This “novel” is absolute garbage. How this book was published let alone praised is mind boggling.
Why does this book suck?
-characters are weak, unoriginal, and poorly crafted. Every female in this story is raped, tortured, and valueless. The only merit a female has in this novel is what she offers a man, or what a man does to her, or how she can be used against a man. There is rape or mentions of rape in almost every chapter and it’s thrown in like it’s nothing. Pierce Brown should take some classes on sexism and how writing scenes like this when they have no context of what they are talking about is harmful. Along with the lack of any actual female characters, the main character is a joke. His alliances change every page or so, he is a misogynist, he is a Mary-Sue amazing at everything and he is overall dull.
-The Plot. The plot is a mash up of every single YA apocalyptic story you’ve ever read but the cheap knock off version. You have Hunger games, Divergent, and even Harry Potter all thrown in to create this monstrosity. Nothing is original, everything is taken from something else, and the plot of Darrow rising to I guess avenge his people is lost in the silly “war school” which is basically Harry potter but without the magic, atmosphere, gripping characters, exciting trials, or anything of merit really. The plot devolves into raping young girls while the men suck their own dicks to claim the title of “proctor” or “primus”. The misogyny is absolutely rampant.
- this “novel” is the biggest toxic masculinity, misogynistic, idiotic, compilation of text I have ever seen. This is by far the WORST book I have read this year and I think it is actually detrimental to society.
Do not read this book where women are raped and considered things, where the main character justifies the rape by saying it’s simply “war crimes” where men are emasculated every page and beaten down to make the main character look valuable. There is nothing good about this book and I’m personally offended that this was published let alone allowed to continue in a series. Do not let your teen read this, do not let anyone you care about read this. This is MY OPINION and I am not ashamed to share it. Whoever read this and decided to market it let alone published at all should be ashamed.
Why does this book suck?
-characters are weak, unoriginal, and poorly crafted. Every female in this story is raped, tortured, and valueless. The only merit a female has in this novel is what she offers a man, or what a man does to her, or how she can be used against a man. There is rape or mentions of rape in almost every chapter and it’s thrown in like it’s nothing. Pierce Brown should take some classes on sexism and how writing scenes like this when they have no context of what they are talking about is harmful. Along with the lack of any actual female characters, the main character is a joke. His alliances change every page or so, he is a misogynist, he is a Mary-Sue amazing at everything and he is overall dull.
-The Plot. The plot is a mash up of every single YA apocalyptic story you’ve ever read but the cheap knock off version. You have Hunger games, Divergent, and even Harry Potter all thrown in to create this monstrosity. Nothing is original, everything is taken from something else, and the plot of Darrow rising to I guess avenge his people is lost in the silly “war school” which is basically Harry potter but without the magic, atmosphere, gripping characters, exciting trials, or anything of merit really. The plot devolves into raping young girls while the men suck their own dicks to claim the title of “proctor” or “primus”. The misogyny is absolutely rampant.
- this “novel” is the biggest toxic masculinity, misogynistic, idiotic, compilation of text I have ever seen. This is by far the WORST book I have read this year and I think it is actually detrimental to society.
Do not read this book where women are raped and considered things, where the main character justifies the rape by saying it’s simply “war crimes” where men are emasculated every page and beaten down to make the main character look valuable. There is nothing good about this book and I’m personally offended that this was published let alone allowed to continue in a series. Do not let your teen read this, do not let anyone you care about read this. This is MY OPINION and I am not ashamed to share it. Whoever read this and decided to market it let alone published at all should be ashamed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexism, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Hate crime, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Cannibalism, War, Bullying, Death of parent, Classism, Torture, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Violence
eliaa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Excrement, Sexual assault, Sexism, Genocide, Gaslighting, Cursing, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Gore, Confinement, Rape, Classism, Animal death, Violence, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Blood, War, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Grief, Murder, and Misogyny
Minor: Vomit and Death of parent
lillelow's review against another edition
DNF 40%.
The book begins the worst possible way with drunk father figures and community leaders laughing about raping the protagonist’s wife - and no one raises an eyebrow. Misogyny, machoism, masochism, prostitution as a means of female survival and male pleasure, a world in which all women are beautiful, marry when they’re 14 and work with silk while all the manly men work in the mines… This is a sci-fi novel, a world of make believe. You can write about ANYTHING. Create ANY future. Yet this is what we get. I’m SO F* TIRED of reading about this bullshit.
I wanted to put the book down then and there, but decided to give it a go because of all the good reviews.
I shouldn’t have bothered. It doesn’t get better.
The premiss is interesting, but the execution and the character portrayal is horrible.
I didn’t like the protagonist at all. Clever, brave, strong, humble, hardworking, loving… All the right things! At least, that’s what I’m told. Honestly, all I see is a self absorbed insular teenager with no weakness who excels at everything he does for no reason other than he’s the chosen one. He doesn’t have to be likeable, but believable is quite important, and this book does none of it.
The supposedly romantic interactions between the protagonist and his wife are probably supposed to be charming and sweet but only feel stiff, cliche and childish and evoke no emotions at all. But hey, at least she is incredibly beautiful and we’re told everyone loves her… I guess that was enough for the author.
I didn’t like any of the other characters either. Even the ones who are described in good light are horrible, not to mention the way they express themselves. I’m not prude. Explicit language and swearing is fine. But most of the writing, dialogue, slurs and expletives in this book are just disturbing and annoying. You cannot make me believe people talk like this for real. Is it supposed to be cool?? I couldn’t stand it, I hated almost everyone and the flat writing did nothing to help.
At 40% through, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t care about the story or the characters and was mostly annoyed at it all. Ender’s Game’s the perfect chosen one meets the segregation and killing of The Hunger Games or Gladiator (only it’s terrible) in a violent color-coded elite school on Mars with some sprinkles… no, make that a heavy rain…. of machoism and sexism.
No thank you.
★★-
The book begins the worst possible way with drunk father figures and community leaders laughing about raping the protagonist’s wife - and no one raises an eyebrow. Misogyny, machoism, masochism, prostitution as a means of female survival and male pleasure, a world in which all women are beautiful, marry when they’re 14 and work with silk while all the manly men work in the mines… This is a sci-fi novel, a world of make believe. You can write about ANYTHING. Create ANY future. Yet this is what we get. I’m SO F* TIRED of reading about this bullshit.
I wanted to put the book down then and there, but decided to give it a go because of all the good reviews.
I shouldn’t have bothered. It doesn’t get better.
The premiss is interesting, but the execution and the character portrayal is horrible.
I didn’t like the protagonist at all. Clever, brave, strong, humble, hardworking, loving… All the right things! At least, that’s what I’m told. Honestly, all I see is a self absorbed insular teenager with no weakness who excels at everything he does for no reason other than he’s the chosen one. He doesn’t have to be likeable, but believable is quite important, and this book does none of it.
The supposedly romantic interactions between the protagonist and his wife are probably supposed to be charming and sweet but only feel stiff, cliche and childish and evoke no emotions at all. But hey, at least she is incredibly beautiful and we’re told everyone loves her… I guess that was enough for the author.
I didn’t like any of the other characters either. Even the ones who are described in good light are horrible, not to mention the way they express themselves. I’m not prude. Explicit language and swearing is fine. But most of the writing, dialogue, slurs and expletives in this book are just disturbing and annoying. You cannot make me believe people talk like this for real. Is it supposed to be cool?? I couldn’t stand it, I hated almost everyone and the flat writing did nothing to help.
At 40% through, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t care about the story or the characters and was mostly annoyed at it all. Ender’s Game’s the perfect chosen one meets the segregation and killing of The Hunger Games or Gladiator (only it’s terrible) in a violent color-coded elite school on Mars with some sprinkles… no, make that a heavy rain…. of machoism and sexism.
No thank you.
★★-
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Classism, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Body shaming, Alcohol, War, Trafficking, Slavery, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Death of parent, Sexism, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Cursing, Racial slurs, Body horror, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Rape, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Excrement, Gore, Death, and Eating disorder
lonelylooper's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Death of parent, Classism, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Body shaming
Minor: Homophobia, Excrement, and Cannibalism
mnkeemagick's review
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
2.0
**LONG AND SPOILERS AHEAD**
Having finally read this book after it's long stint on my TBR, I must say that I'm disappointed. It seems to me that this is a book that neatly falls into the hype over substance category.
This is the story of a "lower Red", the lowest members of a color based caste system, as he realizes his life of mining under the surface of Mars to aid in terraforming efforts is a lie. He is awakened to this lie and enters the fold of a group of revolutionaries that wish to place him high in society that they might overthrow their oppressive color caste system.
To start, our protagonist Darrow is definitely a Mary Sue esque character, exceeding all expectation in strategy, intelligence, and physical prowess despite being a 16 year old whose whole life has been relegated to mining, drinking, and fighting. It's expressly mentioned that he's different from other Reds and lower colors, that he is a new step in evolution that is naturally above the others. Even after his transformation into a Gold where he is enhanced so that he can begin working his way through the upper reaches of society, he is described often as more than the standard for their perfectly crafted selves.
More dexterous in a new body he has to learn to function in, stronger despite size, smart enough that he is one of the highest scorers of the entry exam, to the point he must be interrogated to determine if and how he cheated, and immediately having a mind for logic puzzles and politics. All against people who were bred, raised, and literally modified as he was for their entire lives to do these things. He even prevails over those who have already passed the testing and are considered the highest of the high.
Yet at the same time, he's naive or easily fooled as the plot needs. In the last hundred or so pages he's caught in a trap alone 3 separate times using the same trick.
Then there's his motivation, given to him expressly and with no subtlety by his wife in the early stages of the book, cemented by her martyrdom. She is literally written as an exposition tool to open his eyes and die, then be pined after as needed. Much the same is true of his few interactions with lower colors after he leaves the mines. Symbols of virtue or strife, but certainly not people.
The world building is haphazard and doesn't make much sense. It's loosely tied to Greco-Roman mythos, mostly in name and style more than substance or message. There are little details surrounding the story happening on Mars that irk me, namely the constant thinking about how they are in "low gravity" or specifying that it's 0.376 Earth gravity even though he has spent his entire life on Mars and only learns the difference when training his new body under higher gravity to strengthen it. Names and references aren't consistent, with images given from Egypt, the Bible, and The Reaper. It's frustrating that there's so many little details constantly being shoved at you to remember it's on Mars, only to have slips, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities like the artificial fortress that watches over the game is referred to as Olympus when it could have been set in a valley at the base of the actual Olympus Mons on Mars.
There's also odd societal tidbits that nag at me throughout. This story apparently takes place around 700 years after Earth begins terraforming the solar system, and 300 years after they have successfully done so on Mars, keeping the Reds underground as slave labor to produce Helium. This led me to believe that the Reds were somehow kept a secret, that the upper world is more ignorant with dark forces at the top being malicious, but I was wrong.
Apparently all the people on the surface, including OTHER REDS, know that this is a thing and just don't do anything. Centuries of being complacent with actual slavery and regular death with no social movement at all, explained and handwaved away as people being disappeared when they speak out, even though there must be billions of them watching considering its said that there's at least a billion Reds just underground. No matter how brutal an empire is, there would be more than just The Sons of Ares trying to do something.
I think this all feels so underthought because I noted a delineation in the book where we got to the part I feel Brown actually originally wanted to write and haphazardly built a world around it to make it fit.
There's also a bit about the most inhuman, animalistic, and violent caste being "Obsidian". Not that we ever meet one, mostly sticking to what seem to me to be very Irish coded (and a little stereotypes) Reds and the very European, largely British Golds.
All that being said, there's a solid change in the writing once we enter the game. The entrance and exam this world uses to determine the baseline for the top of the top. This section, while full of tropes from other YA Dystopia, is much more engaging.
Golds enter an elite testing ground after their entrance exams, 1200 total, where they will be sorted into 1 of 12 Hogwarts houses named after the major Gods of the Roman pantheon. Once sorted, they're dragged away in the night, dropped into stone cells naked in pairs, and only one gets to leave. The 1200 become 600 as the high testers cull the lowest scorers and they're dropped into a valley with fortresses and resources with a simple goal: conquer all the other houses.
I like this play on the battle Royale, especially when it's initially mentioned that they're not supposed to kill other students intentionally. It's a nice twist on the format, it's much more cohesive and engaging, even though it has it's own faults.
The not intentionally killing students goes out the window almost immediately. The themes here are darker and I think intended to be more shocking, especially the instances of sexual assault that are again just using women, most of whom are nameless and faceless, as shock props for the story and not characters. The women who are named largely treat this as something either deserved for weakness (per their cultural upbringing) or something to simply heal from, minus one who finds it particularly repulsive.
There's plenty of lagging about as this section takes almost an entire in-book year, lots of space initially dedicated to more or less wandering at the start. None of the twists land because they're telegraphed so hard.
As with the rest of the book, the messaging is about as subtle as a shotgun. Even when they make minor philosophical stabs at violence not being the answer, all their problems and messages are solved or perpetuated with violence. It's even alluded to early on that dreamers and peaceful martyrs are worthless, a dime a dozen, while violence is the only way to really change anything.
All told, not great. I'm leaving some space for the shallowness and the prose (the choppy little sentences and poorly executed plays to make our Mary Sue seem a genius warrior philosopher grated on me) as it's largely considered YA and was a debut. I wouldn't recommend it to friends but read it if you want, but after seeing more of the same in the Golden Son excerpt, I'm going to leave the series here.
Having finally read this book after it's long stint on my TBR, I must say that I'm disappointed. It seems to me that this is a book that neatly falls into the hype over substance category.
This is the story of a "lower Red", the lowest members of a color based caste system, as he realizes his life of mining under the surface of Mars to aid in terraforming efforts is a lie. He is awakened to this lie and enters the fold of a group of revolutionaries that wish to place him high in society that they might overthrow their oppressive color caste system.
To start, our protagonist Darrow is definitely a Mary Sue esque character, exceeding all expectation in strategy, intelligence, and physical prowess despite being a 16 year old whose whole life has been relegated to mining, drinking, and fighting. It's expressly mentioned that he's different from other Reds and lower colors, that he is a new step in evolution that is naturally above the others. Even after his transformation into a Gold where he is enhanced so that he can begin working his way through the upper reaches of society, he is described often as more than the standard for their perfectly crafted selves.
More dexterous in a new body he has to learn to function in, stronger despite size, smart enough that he is one of the highest scorers of the entry exam, to the point he must be interrogated to determine if and how he cheated, and immediately having a mind for logic puzzles and politics. All against people who were bred, raised, and literally modified as he was for their entire lives to do these things. He even prevails over those who have already passed the testing and are considered the highest of the high.
Yet at the same time, he's naive or easily fooled as the plot needs. In the last hundred or so pages he's caught in a trap alone 3 separate times using the same trick.
Then there's his motivation, given to him expressly and with no subtlety by his wife in the early stages of the book, cemented by her martyrdom. She is literally written as an exposition tool to open his eyes and die, then be pined after as needed. Much the same is true of his few interactions with lower colors after he leaves the mines. Symbols of virtue or strife, but certainly not people.
The world building is haphazard and doesn't make much sense. It's loosely tied to Greco-Roman mythos, mostly in name and style more than substance or message. There are little details surrounding the story happening on Mars that irk me, namely the constant thinking about how they are in "low gravity" or specifying that it's 0.376 Earth gravity even though he has spent his entire life on Mars and only learns the difference when training his new body under higher gravity to strengthen it. Names and references aren't consistent, with images given from Egypt, the Bible, and The Reaper. It's frustrating that there's so many little details constantly being shoved at you to remember it's on Mars, only to have slips, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities like the artificial fortress that watches over the game is referred to as Olympus when it could have been set in a valley at the base of the actual Olympus Mons on Mars.
There's also odd societal tidbits that nag at me throughout. This story apparently takes place around 700 years after Earth begins terraforming the solar system, and 300 years after they have successfully done so on Mars, keeping the Reds underground as slave labor to produce Helium. This led me to believe that the Reds were somehow kept a secret, that the upper world is more ignorant with dark forces at the top being malicious, but I was wrong.
Apparently all the people on the surface, including OTHER REDS, know that this is a thing and just don't do anything. Centuries of being complacent with actual slavery and regular death with no social movement at all, explained and handwaved away as people being disappeared when they speak out, even though there must be billions of them watching considering its said that there's at least a billion Reds just underground. No matter how brutal an empire is, there would be more than just The Sons of Ares trying to do something.
I think this all feels so underthought because I noted a delineation in the book where we got to the part I feel Brown actually originally wanted to write and haphazardly built a world around it to make it fit.
There's also a bit about the most inhuman, animalistic, and violent caste being "Obsidian". Not that we ever meet one, mostly sticking to what seem to me to be very Irish coded (and a little stereotypes) Reds and the very European, largely British Golds.
All that being said, there's a solid change in the writing once we enter the game. The entrance and exam this world uses to determine the baseline for the top of the top. This section, while full of tropes from other YA Dystopia, is much more engaging.
Golds enter an elite testing ground after their entrance exams, 1200 total, where they will be sorted into 1 of 12 Hogwarts houses named after the major Gods of the Roman pantheon. Once sorted, they're dragged away in the night, dropped into stone cells naked in pairs, and only one gets to leave. The 1200 become 600 as the high testers cull the lowest scorers and they're dropped into a valley with fortresses and resources with a simple goal: conquer all the other houses.
I like this play on the battle Royale, especially when it's initially mentioned that they're not supposed to kill other students intentionally. It's a nice twist on the format, it's much more cohesive and engaging, even though it has it's own faults.
The not intentionally killing students goes out the window almost immediately. The themes here are darker and I think intended to be more shocking, especially the instances of sexual assault that are again just using women, most of whom are nameless and faceless, as shock props for the story and not characters. The women who are named largely treat this as something either deserved for weakness (per their cultural upbringing) or something to simply heal from, minus one who finds it particularly repulsive.
There's plenty of lagging about as this section takes almost an entire in-book year, lots of space initially dedicated to more or less wandering at the start. None of the twists land because they're telegraphed so hard.
As with the rest of the book, the messaging is about as subtle as a shotgun. Even when they make minor philosophical stabs at violence not being the answer, all their problems and messages are solved or perpetuated with violence. It's even alluded to early on that dreamers and peaceful martyrs are worthless, a dime a dozen, while violence is the only way to really change anything.
All told, not great. I'm leaving some space for the shallowness and the prose (the choppy little sentences and poorly executed plays to make our Mary Sue seem a genius warrior philosopher grated on me) as it's largely considered YA and was a debut. I wouldn't recommend it to friends but read it if you want, but after seeing more of the same in the Golden Son excerpt, I'm going to leave the series here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Classism, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Racism
alainral's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, War, Death of parent, Slavery, Murder, Classism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Excrement
Minor: Kidnapping