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A review by katrinarose
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I had such high hopes for this book but it let me down. I almost DNF’ed it several times because I just was not excited to read it. The writing style was extremely cringey and dramatic with aggressively 2014 dystopian YA vibes (I know it’s a product of its time but I still hold it to my normal standards) that made me roll my eyes constantly. I read several parts out loud just to laugh at them. Also, the first person present tense is just not my favorite perspective to read from, and it didn’t do the story any favors.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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