Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

19 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

This book book did not hook me from the very beginning. It takes a but of time to get a feel for the setting and what is going on. I found myself thoroughly captivated during the second half.

This book is about 16 year old Darrow - a member of the Red's on Mars who beleiie they're slaving away in the planets mines for a higher purpose of terraforming the planet to get it ready for future generations. He lives with his family and wife, in terrible conditions. An act of disobedience triggers a series of events which shatter his entire world and he learns Mars is already terraformed and Mars is a bustling, fairly high tech civilization run by the Golds. His people, the Reds have been lied to in order to create an entire cast of people who are literal slaves. Darrow is then presented with the opportunity to infiltrate the Golds and must push himself beyond the limits to move up in society in order to reform the system.

So much happens in this book. The book takes place over the course of a couple years and it's fantastic. There's a ton of characters but they feel complex. The stakes feel super high in this book. I love feeling afraid for the main character. There's little twists and turns throughout the whole story. I loved not knowing how things would play out. The character growth is unreal. Darrow changes so much during the story and it's empowering to experience his growth - although he messes up quite a bit too.

I can see how some people may think of the Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies while reading this but it's definitely it's own story. I am not someone who enjoys series a lot, but I am really excited to keep reading this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, War, Grief, Toxic friendship, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Death, Murder, Misogyny, Slavery, and Bullying

Moderate: Cannibalism, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Excrement

A lot of dark things happen in this book but none are described in absolutely excruciating detail. You can probably handle it.

baghaii's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Slavery, Sexism, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia

jombo65's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

1.5

I thought this book was edge-lord bait drivel. Seriously, the main character starts being unironically called "Reaper" by everyone toward the end of the novel. He's a 16-18 year old, by the way. 

Darrow is a textbook "mary sue/gary stu"  who always realizes his opponents' motivations and understands people and gets the upper hand on them. He's boring as shit. 

Hate the writing style, too. This book contains the line "I roar like a rage god." If you like that kind of thing, great, but to everyone else over the age of 13, please steer clear.

Pure unadulterated cringe for little boys. Was expecting so much more from this one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Gore, Blood, Rape, Sexual violence, Animal death, Physical abuse, Child death, and Death

Minor: Sexual content

oakdogs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Violence, Classism, Grief, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Rape and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual content

porcinitortellini's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

I'm not going to lie, I almost put this book down because of how Darrow was in the beginning of the book, but a really good friend insisted I keep going and I'm glad I did. This series has become one of my favorites. This book feels a little YA due to the age of the characters, but halfway through the book you forget how young they are (late teens). There IS character development, which kept me hooked and I felt the character development worked well with the plot. Darrow still sometimes feels like a Gary Stu, but he became rather endearing so I'll overlook it this one time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Classism, Death, Rape, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content

There is a trope in here that is usually a MAJOR turn-off for me in sci-fi, but is unfortunately hard to avoid in the genre (I think some of you can see where I'm going with this...). It's a little bit of a spoiler so read at your own risk:

why the good golly GOSH DO WOMEN HAVE TO DIE TO ADVANCE THE PLOT OR GIVE THE MMC PURPOSE????

bibliochica's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Classism

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

jj_tj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Torture, Death of parent, Suicide, and Animal cruelty

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

linneak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Slavery, War, Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Medical content, Murder, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Animal death, Trafficking, Death of parent, Blood, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Bullying, Police brutality, Cursing, Rape, and Sexual content