A review by sheilajenn
Red Rising by Pierce Brown

adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a good book, I'm pretty sure, but not really a good book for me. It was well written, the worldbuilding is good, the pace keeps up a good clip, but it's really dark and there's some pretty gruesome stuff in there.

The premise is that the highest caste, the Golds, educates their children through a bloody war game. Our hero, who is a member of the lowest caste (Red) but masquerading as a Gold, has to do well in this game to destroy the caste system.

So, basically, it's The Hunger Games meets the Iliad. The problem is that watching teenagers kill each other to survive isn't fun for me at all. I don't want to downrate the book for that, but I won't be reading the next one.

Allll the trigger warnings.

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