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mirandyli's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.5
This book is Brave New World meets Hunger Games, with way more oppression.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Grief, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and War
baileyisbookish's review against another edition
I really wanted to like this because I thought the premise was interesting. I did enjoy it up to a point. But the main character became so uninteresting and hard to be in the thoughts of that I found myself dragging near the end. I had four chapters left before I DNF’d.
I was also disturbed by the author’s use of SA and misogyny as plot points. It is one thing to include these serious, traumatic and triggering topics as a way to explore their impact upon individuals and societies and have readers empathize with what this experience does to you. It is quite another to include this topic solely for world building or moving a plot along (violence against female characters in order to benefit the male characters? really?). That is a practice in writing that needs to be left behind.
This had a lot of potential for me to enjoy, and I just didn’t. I was disappointed. I hope the author can learn from the feedback he is receiving from the millions of women who love to read sci fi and fantasy stories.
I was also disturbed by the author’s use of SA and misogyny as plot points. It is one thing to include these serious, traumatic and triggering topics as a way to explore their impact upon individuals and societies and have readers empathize with what this experience does to you. It is quite another to include this topic solely for world building or moving a plot along (violence against female characters in order to benefit the male characters? really?). That is a practice in writing that needs to be left behind.
This had a lot of potential for me to enjoy, and I just didn’t. I was disappointed. I hope the author can learn from the feedback he is receiving from the millions of women who love to read sci fi and fantasy stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Body horror
qveenmab's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
goodman is basically a slur at this point
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, War, Death, Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Murder, and Sexual violence
Minor: Cannibalism
anni_swanilda's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Torture, Animal death, Violence, Murder, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death of parent, Cannibalism, Medical content, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War
Minor: Colonisation
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.
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.
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.okayyyanna's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence and Body horror
Minor: Rape
kale323's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.75
The Pros: Interesting world building, a few interesting characters, and a couple engaging sections within the story.
The Cons: Almost everything else. This book is completely overly ambitious. While many claim that it is Game of Thrones and Hunger Games put together, it fails at replicating both.
First: the main character, Darrow, is a flat, overly hyped up character that is a blank wall of “I’m super cool and I have no flaws that can’t be solved within one, maybe two pages.” Even at the beginning, he hypes himself up for being the best of the best, and it’s clear that he is. But it’s constantly TOLD to you, not shown. Dont tell me to think a character is cool if you haven’t SHOWN me that he’s cool. Which leads me to my next point.
Second: SHOW ME THINGS. DONT TELL ME. Oh my god, this book has fight scenes, conversations, and entire plot relevant sections get boiled down to a few descriptive, “and then they did this,” type of sentences. I wanted to pull my hair out, screaming, “WHY IS THIS NOT BEING SHOWN IN DETAIL. THIS NOT HOW YOU KEEP READERS ENGAGED AND IMMERSED. THIS IS MOVING TOO FAST FOR ME TO CARE,” which brings me to my last point.
Third: The pacing. Dear god. The pacing was absolutely terrible. It takes until half, yes, HALF, of the book until we reach the main story hook. HALF OF THE BOOK IS EXPOSITION??? HALF??? And on top of that, it has no real rising climax, and no real climax at all. At the very least, it’s hard to distinguish when the climax is, from the rest of the book. Abysmal.
Look, when it’s good, it’s good. The worldbuilding is fun, and some of the ideas are intriguing. And some of the characters (not the main one) were fun to read about. These were all enough positives for me not to DNF the book, which is saying something!
Nonetheless, an unrelatable, god-complex main character, tell-not-show writing, and bad pacing are far too much for me to find much value in this book.
Also, the way rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault are handled is very, very poor. At one point, a side character attempts to rape an unknown character. The way it was handled up until a certain point was fine. Justice was being done, and it was a titular moment for the main character to figure out how to handle justice. Interesting story beat!
Then after justice is dealt, the attempted rapist begins to be delivered to the reader as a funny, if not zany character. Wow. Personally, I would like comic relief to not be delivered by an attempted rapist.
I would recommend this book to someone that needs to just sit back and digest a simple story with a few, tidbit, interesting things. But not for anything else.
The Cons: Almost everything else. This book is completely overly ambitious. While many claim that it is Game of Thrones and Hunger Games put together, it fails at replicating both.
First: the main character, Darrow, is a flat, overly hyped up character that is a blank wall of “I’m super cool and I have no flaws that can’t be solved within one, maybe two pages.” Even at the beginning, he hypes himself up for being the best of the best, and it’s clear that he is. But it’s constantly TOLD to you, not shown. Dont tell me to think a character is cool if you haven’t SHOWN me that he’s cool. Which leads me to my next point.
Second: SHOW ME THINGS. DONT TELL ME. Oh my god, this book has fight scenes, conversations, and entire plot relevant sections get boiled down to a few descriptive, “and then they did this,” type of sentences. I wanted to pull my hair out, screaming, “WHY IS THIS NOT BEING SHOWN IN DETAIL. THIS NOT HOW YOU KEEP READERS ENGAGED AND IMMERSED. THIS IS MOVING TOO FAST FOR ME TO CARE,” which brings me to my last point.
Third: The pacing. Dear god. The pacing was absolutely terrible. It takes until half, yes, HALF, of the book until we reach the main story hook. HALF OF THE BOOK IS EXPOSITION??? HALF??? And on top of that, it has no real rising climax, and no real climax at all. At the very least, it’s hard to distinguish when the climax is, from the rest of the book. Abysmal.
Look, when it’s good, it’s good. The worldbuilding is fun, and some of the ideas are intriguing. And some of the characters (not the main one) were fun to read about. These were all enough positives for me not to DNF the book, which is saying something!
Nonetheless, an unrelatable, god-complex main character, tell-not-show writing, and bad pacing are far too much for me to find much value in this book.
Also, the way rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault are handled is very, very poor. At one point, a side character attempts to rape an unknown character. The way it was handled up until a certain point was fine. Justice was being done, and it was a titular moment for the main character to figure out how to handle justice. Interesting story beat!
Then after justice is dealt, the attempted rapist begins to be delivered to the reader as a funny, if not zany character. Wow. Personally, I would like comic relief to not be delivered by an attempted rapist.
I would recommend this book to someone that needs to just sit back and digest a simple story with a few, tidbit, interesting things. But not for anything else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape
jenmarie11's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Violence, War, Colonisation, Cursing, Child abuse, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Gore, Torture, and Death
halflingnana's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, War, Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, Murder, Classism, and Slavery
stevienotnicks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
5.0
I was searching for a series that would make me feel the way I felt with The Hunger Games and this one kept popping up. And while it’s certainly not identical, it hit the mark for me from beginning to end.
Darrow is absolutely a character you can rally behind. No, he’s not a perfect hero, but you can definitely see why he took the path he did. The first person narrative really helped this along as the author brought us into Darrow’s inner workings with each decision he made.
We also got the found family aspect that will always suck me in. Watching Darrow find his people among those he thought would be his enemies was such an interesting conflict to behold.
My only “gripe” is with the multiple loose ends that I didn’t feel were resolved, but this is only the first in a series so I’m sure those will be tackled later.
If you get the chance, listen to the graphic audio while you’re reading. It’s a totally immersive experience.
Darrow is absolutely a character you can rally behind. No, he’s not a perfect hero, but you can definitely see why he took the path he did. The first person narrative really helped this along as the author brought us into Darrow’s inner workings with each decision he made.
We also got the found family aspect that will always suck me in. Watching Darrow find his people among those he thought would be his enemies was such an interesting conflict to behold.
My only “gripe” is with the multiple loose ends that I didn’t feel were resolved, but this is only the first in a series so I’m sure those will be tackled later.
If you get the chance, listen to the graphic audio while you’re reading. It’s a totally immersive experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Classism, Violence, Sexual assault, and Slavery