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sassmistress 's review for:
Red Rising
by Pierce Brown
DID NOT FINISH: 15%
The book starts off uncomfortably violent and crass. It got better, but there is a pervasive and concerning view of women and girls that doesn't really let up. MC is like, this young rage-machine that I'm guessing matures eventually, but I don't have much sympathy for "I'm just so *mad*, I can't help being stupid" characters.
Then we get to a whole new setting and the writing gets cheesy and honestly, cringey at times. And now we're starting to really ramp up the objectification and cringey male gaze. And I read old-school sci-fi; so I'm normally not super picky about it.
Gotta call it. I see people saying it gets worse in this book and maybe improves in later books, and I'm not willing to wait that long.
Then we get to a whole new setting and the writing gets cheesy and honestly, cringey at times. And now we're starting to really ramp up the objectification and cringey male gaze. And I read old-school sci-fi; so I'm normally not super picky about it.
Gotta call it. I see people saying it gets worse in this book and maybe improves in later books, and I'm not willing to wait that long.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders
Repeated references to hangings, asphyxiation, and other deaths where people died "dancing" or "twitching". Some on page, some off. Skeletons from hanging executions are left suspended for weeks.
Implication of unsanitary urination in spacesuit. Several references to "stink" and "p-ss".
Frequent use of "bloodyd-n"
Creepy alien snakes burrow into your stomach and lay eggs. Not on-page (yet).
MC is 16 and married to another 16yo. They flirt, he slides his hand up her skirt, and they "make love in a bed of grass beneath a roof of stars".
Also, EW why is the old guy making a joke about having said wife when she becomes a widow? "Old and fat I be, but my drill still digs a dent." Comments from multiple people about what a looker his wife is feel kinda gross.
MC's wife Eo is pretty one-dimensional, angel figure who wants MC to rebel, but he won't, so she chooses to sing a song that earns her the death penalty and become a martyr to force him into it. So it's this weird worshipped-but-ultimately-only-there-to-grow-the-male-character situation. Another character even says later that "she's served her purpose". Ick.
Several references to "burners", equivalent of either cigars or cigarettes.
I stopped when the rapidfire references to prostitution got rolling:
"Pinks pleasure and serve in highColor homes."
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An advertisement for a blister cream appears on the ground in front of me. A woman of strangely slender proportions slinks out of a red lace robe. Suitably naked, she then applies the cream to a place on her body where no woman has ever before gotten a blister. I blush and look away in disgust because I've only ever seen one woman naked. "You'll want to forget your modesty," Harmony advises. "It'll mark you worse than your Color." "It is disgusting," I say. "It's advertising, darling," Harmony purrs condescendingly. She shares a chuckle with Dancer.
------------------
"Brothels lined with Pink ribbon make me blush, as do the women and men in the windows. Each has a flashing price tag playfully hanging from a thread; it's a moving number that suits demand. A lusty girl calls to me..."
Cringey male gaze:
It shows me fashion. Ludicrous and seductive. There are biomodifications and flesh implants- women with skin so smooth and polished, breasts so round, hair so glossed that they appear a different species from Eo and all the women I've ever known. The men are freakishly muscular and tall. Their arms and chests bulge with artificial strength, and they flaunt their muscle like girls showing off new toys.
Implication of unsanitary urination in spacesuit. Several references to "stink" and "p-ss".
Frequent use of "bloodyd-n"
Creepy alien snakes burrow into your stomach and lay eggs. Not on-page (yet).
MC is 16 and married to another 16yo. They flirt, he slides his hand up her skirt, and they "make love in a bed of grass beneath a roof of stars".
Also, EW why is the old guy making a joke about having said wife when she becomes a widow? "Old and fat I be, but my drill still digs a dent." Comments from multiple people about what a looker his wife is feel kinda gross.
MC's wife Eo is pretty one-dimensional, angel figure who wants MC to rebel, but he won't, so she chooses to sing a song that earns her the death penalty and become a martyr to force him into it. So it's this weird worshipped-but-ultimately-only-there-to-grow-the-male-character situation. Another character even says later that "she's served her purpose". Ick.
Several references to "burners", equivalent of either cigars or cigarettes.
I stopped when the rapidfire references to prostitution got rolling:
"Pinks pleasure and serve in highColor homes."
------------------
An advertisement for a blister cream appears on the ground in front of me. A woman of strangely slender proportions slinks out of a red lace robe. Suitably naked, she then applies the cream to a place on her body where no woman has ever before gotten a blister. I blush and look away in disgust because I've only ever seen one woman naked. "You'll want to forget your modesty," Harmony advises. "It'll mark you worse than your Color." "It is disgusting," I say. "It's advertising, darling," Harmony purrs condescendingly. She shares a chuckle with Dancer.
------------------
"Brothels lined with Pink ribbon make me blush, as do the women and men in the windows. Each has a flashing price tag playfully hanging from a thread; it's a moving number that suits demand. A lusty girl calls to me..."
Cringey male gaze:
It shows me fashion. Ludicrous and seductive. There are biomodifications and flesh implants- women with skin so smooth and polished, breasts so round, hair so glossed that they appear a different species from Eo and all the women I've ever known. The men are freakishly muscular and tall. Their arms and chests bulge with artificial strength, and they flaunt their muscle like girls showing off new toys.