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Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence
Plot-wise, I found the first half just plain boring. There were way too many infodumps and I didn’t care that much about the info because I wasn’t invested in any characters yet. The worldbuilding itself was simplistic to the point that it felt like a middle-schooler wrote it. (The classes/job sectors in society are named after colors, and the golds rule at the top, for example.) The characters were also lacking nuance, typically falling into either the good guy group or the bad guy group. The bad guys were just stereotypical bad guys with no gray area, which is something I have less and less patience for in my reading. Darrow, the main character, was bland beyond his rage and anything we saw of his development was told to us rather than really shown. Finally, the “woman in the fridge” trope was used which left a sour taste, especially because it was super obvious to see coming and again corny. I will say the last 25% improved, both in the writing and plot. I hear that this book is the weakest in the series, so I will give the second book a shot before giving up altogether since it is so well-loved.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Excrement, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Sexual content, Cannibalism
Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Murder
Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Cannibalism
It basically is a very long winded description of a war, students need to “play” in order to get into “the institute”, a kind of university. It went so far in size and consequence (more than half of the students entering apparently are killed each time) that suspension of disbelief becomes impossible.
I found myself wondering multiple times, whether I feel inclined to read the next part. Right now, I do not.
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcohol
Graphic: Violence, Murder
Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Classism
Minor: Rape
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, Classism
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Slavery
I would describe this as Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones, set on Mars.
My ONE complaint would be the pacing - some sections moved very quickly, while others seemed to take a dozen pages to get through a conversation. I'm not docking points because this is the first book in a trilogy with worldbuilding to set up. I might knock off half a star if I read the sequel and have the same issue.
I do not recommend this book if you are sensitive to the types of violence that occur in worlds like Game of Thrones. Sexual violence descriptions are not graphic, but other violence descriptions are.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, War