Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Red Rising

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

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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kazli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

i need darrow and virginia in a way that's concerning to feminism.
people weren't lying when they said this is like game of thrones in space.

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n0elle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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jayhall's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

What a read! An incredible sci-fi adventure, and the beginning of what I hope will be a satisfying trilogy! Set in the distant future when humanity has colonised the solar system and separated itself into a rigid and insurmountable caste system, a protagonist rises from the lowest pits of despair to spark hope, only to fall continuously as he relentlessly climbs - hoping for change as much as revenge.

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sammykay25's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

So I really like where this is going and I like the writing a lot. I think the world is very interesting and I can tell the series is really going to pick up. I just really didn't love the war game plot line. It didn't really capture me and just wasn't for me. I'm still excited to continue though.

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rubyroses's review against another edition

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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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