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A review by ajaxb
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
A very entertaining and dark sci-fi story. Went into this expecting a space opera style story and got more of a Hunger Games competition instead, but I’m not mad at the results. Content warning on this one for sure, it gets pretty gruesome. Pierce Brown does a great job at keeping the reader engaged throughout the whole story. It was action packed and just non-stop from cover to cover.
However, I do have some big negatives with the story, primarily the characters. They’re all incredibly shallow and one-dimensional. I wasn’t really a big fan of Darrow cause he wasn’t all that interesting. He was just the best at everything, his motivations were pretty lackluster and we never really see him struggle at all. After a while, he just got kinda boring. On top of that, the females in this story are so poorly done, they seem more like accessories than anything else. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters aside from a choice few, and solely because I thought they were cool. There were also tons of plot holes all throughout the book, which took me out at times.
All of that said, I still really enjoyed the book! Everyone says that the first book is the weakest in the series, and it only gets better from here. Hope the rest of the series can build on Darrow and the rest of the cast, bringing a little more humanity and reality to them. I’m willing to stick it out and give the rest of the series a shot, I think you should too!
However, I do have some big negatives with the story, primarily the characters. They’re all incredibly shallow and one-dimensional. I wasn’t really a big fan of Darrow cause he wasn’t all that interesting. He was just the best at everything, his motivations were pretty lackluster and we never really see him struggle at all. After a while, he just got kinda boring. On top of that, the females in this story are so poorly done, they seem more like accessories than anything else. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters aside from a choice few, and solely because I thought they were cool. There were also tons of plot holes all throughout the book, which took me out at times.
All of that said, I still really enjoyed the book! Everyone says that the first book is the weakest in the series, and it only gets better from here. Hope the rest of the series can build on Darrow and the rest of the cast, bringing a little more humanity and reality to them. I’m willing to stick it out and give the rest of the series a shot, I think you should too!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Classism
Moderate: Death, Gore, Rape, Murder