Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

48 reviews

lybarron's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Gore, Excrement, Blood, Bullying, and Classism

rubyroses's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad 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? No

4.75

Red Rising is marketed as a mix between the Hunger Games & Enders Game. Like the Hunger Games the society of this novel is fractioned into  classes all with specific job and varying hierarchies. Meanwhile, like Enders Game it focus more on a battle arena type school then an all out Hunger Games killing fest. Yet, even with all this being said Red Rising is a unique novel. It’s premise is fresh and feels unheard off even in the vast sea of YA dystopian sci-fi that exists. 

Our main character Darrow is an interesting one. The journey he goes on is long and never ending. He’s a smart boy who is always struggling to stay ahead and often is falling one step behind but when he wins he doesn’t it magnificently. It’s the struggle that makes him interesting. Like most characters he is not perfect at the beginning and he is not perfect at the end. He is overwhelmingly human (😉). 

But, don’t read this book just for Darrow. Every character from Cassius to Servo (he’s my favourite) have their own brilliant moments. The writing is genuinely hilariously witty even in the most tense moments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Torture, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Death, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Medical content, Classism, War, Animal death, Colonisation, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

lemonwrlds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Child death, Confinement, Blood, Excrement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Violence, War, Ableism, Child abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Torture, Murder, Self harm, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

cowboylikestoread43's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Blood, Gore, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

joyandfaye's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Torture, Gore, Death, Rape, and War

Moderate: Cannibalism

joshoonet's review

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

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

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, and Cannibalism

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.

benwhiting's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual violence, Classism, Racism, Excrement, and Cannibalism

hesitantlitmas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Classism, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Blood

bibliorama'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Now that was fun!

Enjoyment - 5
I put this off for so long -- I'm talking years -- because I was intimidated by it being in the Sci Fi genre. That is a genre I'm not entirely interested in and the few books I have read in that area were a little heavy with the lingo. However, this felt like the perfect mix between having Sci Fi elements that felt Fantasy esq. I had a fun time with the progression of this story and the book is really high on Darrow like he's the best, but that was part of the fun for me. He does some rad stuff along with Sevro and Virginia. I would ride or die for Sevro and Virginia. This book feels like the high of reaching the mountain top only for you to get to the second book to then realize this is only the first, tinier peak in a larger mountain range. This was a fun ride. 

Start - 4
My least favorite part of the book. The beginning is fine though the writing was a little grating at times, this went away as the book went on. I didn't like how Darrow's wife was fridged. For being the character that Darrow's entire arc hinges upon, she wasn't very fleshed out and was more superficial. Maybe in the third book Darrow will see how little he actually new about her, because he didn't seem to know much. Or at least, not a lot of info was given to us about who she actually was. This section only gets a 4 instead of a 3 for the the Charlie Chaplin "machine minds and machine hearts" reference. It fits the theme.

Characters - 5
Virginia and Sevro *chef's kiss* and Darrow was cool to. I didn't mind that he was a Gary Stu, it meant we got scenes that were very satisfying to watch go down. Overall, the characters feel very theatrical in how they act, like the whole Gold society is a play. 

Atmosphere - 4
I can't say the physical world overall is one I completely can visual without adding my own imagination to it because we didn't see much of it. The competition part I felt was described well, but it definitely invokes more of a typical Fantasy setting rather than a Sci Fi one. The political and societal atmosphere is laid out in a clear way and impacted all the characters realistically.
 
Plot - 5
Hmm, was this really a plot? I'm not sure. All I know is it was fun to be swept away by the actions of these characters and their little war games. Strange for that to be fun because the reality of those theories and actions is dark, but the characters had goals and acted towards reaching them and that gave the book movement. 

Ending - 5
Satisfying and what I wanted to see go down. Rooted for Darrow the whole time and

dammit I fell for the trap of being suspicious of Virginia.

Style - 4
The writing was serviceable and I didn't have any issues with the made up slang parts. The beginning writing with the Reds felt a bit off and stilted, so not my favorite. This seems like a good YA/Adult crossover book. It uses some pretty common YA tropes, but adds in some Adult ones as well. 

Overall - 4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Gore, Slavery, Excrement, Classism, War, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Sexual violence

writingcaia's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Reread:
You can read the original review below, but now let me just say, bloodydamn I’m crying. 
I freaking love this book so much! 
Somehow, maybe because I knew what was coming I enjoyed it even more this time, it truly showed me the mastery of the author in all the details and foreshadowing, there’s such complexity to the characters and plot, it’s truly astounding to me.
It was an emotional rollercoaster, especially those last 50 pages. Geez, my heart was hammering in my chest for all of it.
It’s good to remind myself why this series is on my top 5!

Original review:
I wasn’t enthralled to begin with, maybe due the sci-fi world (which is not usually my thing) or the slight dragging of the introspective nature of the main character and world build, but wow did I change my mind. What a bloodydam good book! 
Great characters, amazing world build, with incredible fluidity between the violence and the unbelievable action scenes with the more introspective narratives. Darrow is definitely my favourite character and I’m so thrilled to embark on this life changing journey with him. 
I can’t wait to start Golden Son.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Torture, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Death, and Gore

Minor: Rape and Cannibalism