Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

20 reviews

kermittothebit's review against another edition

I'm reading others' reviews and it's as if we were reading different novels. One star.

I had the overwhelming feeling that I was reading poorly-done fanfiction, even though I wasn't focused on its similarities with Hunger Games. The writing is atrocious. The main character is one-dimensional, arrogant, contradictory, and seemingly stupid. The plot is so lacking that it felt like I was missing entire portions of writing; that I was just jumping between someone's ideas for a plot without any of the fleshing-out that makes characters interesting, does world-building, or gets you invested in any character. The most complicated character was his uncle, and even that was confusing.
 
The world is poorly done: With barely any world-building done, you're asked to accept that 

  a society that achieved widespread genetic engineering (capable of altering iris coloring and the NUMBER OF FINGERS ON HUMAN HANDS??? without any side-effects?) has not figured out how to use machinery to do tasks like mining, rather than using slavery. I only got 71 pages in, so hopefully there's some "it happened before and everyone was killed off, society restarted" explanation, but...the entire mining society is so dumb that they never explored the (apparently body-sized) ventilation system that dumps directly out into a park? Or a step back, they asked how their atmosphere inside Mars was being generated and maintained (i.e. not leaking out to the surface or being affected in any way by their expansive mining) without any visible machinery to do so? (How would they not know there were vents???) They never asked why they have televisions in the main commons but don't have any other engineering feats?

Also, and maybe this one is on me, but I just didn't love the child labor or marriage-at-puberty points. Maybe they're there to make life seem extra horrible, but it's incredibly problematic that it's mentioned (unjust in itself) but then never challenged (the main character just loves his child wife, and there's no mention of WHY it's a problem, like a lack of maturity or choice or discomfort with sex or anything). An author would be crucified if they made slavery an inherent part of their world but then NEVER mentioned anything that indicated that slavery is in any way problematic.

The main character is poorly done: (And that's on me, I think I should have judged the book by the four-square-inch gloss-covered picture of the leather-clad author doing his #Smolder on the UPPER left corner of the back cover. And if you think I'm being too harsh, I'd like to note that the words Pierce and Brown were indeed used within the first 30 pages)

He has NO REACTION to seeing the garden for the first time. He is entirely motivated for his love of his wife...who is described only as beautiful (way. too. many. times.) and rebellious...until after her death, when someone immediately shits on her for not actually being rebellious or strong ENOUGH. She's smart enough to find a vent that no one else has even thought to look for (or to explore after her entire workshop becomes aware of it???) but the world-saving is left to her (apparently also incredibly handsome, eye-roll) child husband, because he's....a Hell-diver? Is that supposed to mean Brave? Because it looked a whole lot like Stupid when he miscalculated his jump, burned his hand, and almost lost his foot out of a burning desire to buy into the social-manipulation of the productivity competition.

I have more complaints but this is starting to feel like playing with my food.

I literally had more fun and used more of my brain writing this review than reading this book. Life is too short and my shelves are too packed to try this one again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Slavery, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

artmuseam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

i wasn’t entirely sure what i was expecting when i first started this book, but wow. this interesting concept of people being divided in a social hierarchy by colors (red, pink, brown, gold, and so on) and seeing the beginning of a revolution from there was an incredible story to follow. i especially loved darrow’s character as someone who went through fifteen new experiences all in one setting and yet remained a headstrong, loyal person. the action was super intense as well and kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time (some scenes were a little TOO intense…check content warnings!) one thing i will say that i wasn’t a big fan of was the writing style. maybe i’m just the type of people who like more detail and showiness, but the writing itself felt bland with so much of narration and explanation of scenes going on rather than really putting me in the moment. this might be a personal take for me so if anyone else enjoys this type of writing style, this book is for you!! 4/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use

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

lucual20's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Cannibalism and Fire/Fire injury

danaslitlist's review against another edition

medium-paced

I retract my entire review because apparently Brown only supports decolonization and rebellion and the oppressed when it comes to fiction but supports the genocide of Palestinians through the narrative of “self defensive” despite the fact that Israel has dropped over 12,000+ bombs on Gaza in the span of 18 days (killing over 6,000 civilians as of October 25, 2023) which has the same fire power as the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

Support of rebellion, support of the oppressed when it only applies to fiction is negligent and transparent. 

Edit: He also quoted the actual war criminal Henry Kissinger and said: “for those hating on Kissinger, LOL, read everything. Especially if it’s your enemies textbook. Knowledge kills evil. Stay in your own echo chamber and you will only ever know your opinion.” So he can go fuck himself

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

hapalyn'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Rape, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism and Sexual assault

5 stars. If you can push through the first 70 pages, you're honestly set. I was definitely like... "this is the book everyone's raving about...?" until I hit around that mark and everything finally unfolded. This is for people who like: -Fast plots -LOTS of tension (lots of "waiting for the other shoe to drop") -Dystopian & Scifi (however, I am NOT a scifi fan, and I really really enjoyed this) -Underdog MC -The Hunger Games (specifically the actual hunger games.... it's not going to be 100% exact, but I can see the correlation. Keep your expectations realistic!) This is NOT for: -Anyone who is sensitive to blood, death, injuries, all the squeamish things. -Anyone who is heavily triggered by sexual assault and rape (this book is pretty blunt with those terms and doesn't specifically detail rape scenes, but it's implied and acknowledged). With that all being said, what I enjoyed most was the tension, the quickness of the plot (I didn't find myself bored waiting for 50 pages of world building after every single action scene), the cleverness of the fights, the characters were all very interesting to me, and a lot more. I think this book is obviously good, and I have high expectations that the rest of the series will be way better. Because it's the first book in the series, it's easy to look past some of the pacing at the start. 1000% will be reading the other books in this series!

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

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

mollysbooklist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

It felt like an American author trying really hard to write in various British accents and Irish accents. I found it distracting and made the plot more convoluted than necessary. 

The audiobook narration was okay. I think I would’ve enjoyed this more if it had been a physical/e-book vs. the audiobook. I think the narration highlighted the problems of the writing. 

*Accents haven’t previously been an issue for me so it was surprising how distracting it was with this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism

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

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

Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

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.

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

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

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