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pandimensional 's review for:
Red Rising
by Pierce Brown
DID NOT FINISH: 59%
This came across as Hunger Games *for men* - trying to be overly gritty with no real substance to back it up, which made the goofiness of the worldbuilding and juvenility of the characters less forgivable than if it ditched the mature content and leant into being YA.
In the end the misogyny got to me. Every single female character in this book exists solely to advance the male lead's rise to heroism. Competent women become damsels just so he can prove his moral superiority over the men that hurt them. Mass rape is used to reinforce the villainy of the protagonist's 'road not taken' counterpart and allow him to save the day in a way that just came across as distasteful and cheap. As soon as sexual violence enters the picture, supposedly super-humanly strong and intelligent female characters become helpless victims until saved by the male protagonist - naturally the male characters are never presented as potential targets of the same kind of violence. DNF'd at that point.
In the end the misogyny got to me. Every single female character in this book exists solely to advance the male lead's rise to heroism. Competent women become damsels just so he can prove his moral superiority over the men that hurt them. Mass rape is used to reinforce the villainy of the protagonist's 'road not taken' counterpart and allow him to save the day in a way that just came across as distasteful and cheap. As soon as sexual violence enters the picture, supposedly super-humanly strong and intelligent female characters become helpless victims until saved by the male protagonist - naturally the male characters are never presented as potential targets of the same kind of violence. DNF'd at that point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Classism