Red Rising (Red Rising #1) by Pierce Brown

Goodreads

Publication Date: January 28th, 2014

Pages: 382 Genres: Scifi, Dystopian (YA, but questionable)

This is a futuristic society, where people are colour coded. Our protagonist, Darrow is a red, the lowest caste. They live on Mars, and he is working believing that he is making the surface of Mars liveable for future generations. He finds out he's been lied to, and there is actually parks and cities and he is basically a slave. Darrow gives up everything to infiltrate the elite and try to take it down.

I think the writing was okay (little too much telling) and the story has an interesting premise if it's the first you've read of this type. People have claimed that it takes a long time to get going, but I didn't have an issue with it. I've read a lot of fantasy novels that take a long time to get going, plus this is a first novel in a series.

My issue is I've already read multiple books with the same premise. Red Queen (the first I read, it was mediocre but I still finished it all, silver blood and red bloods), Frostblood (my favourite, everyone was either Firebloods or Frostbloods and the fire bloods were killed off), Glided Cage (the one blood had to be slaves for a certain number of years). This one had gold, pink, yellow, etc all showing where you live and your careers. I think this may be the best done, but since I read it after reading several others before it doesn't feel like new territory to me. I do like the idea of rebelling though and taking down the old ways.

Darrow is a Marty Sue, to the T. He's faultless and gets everything right and is the best of the best. They legit tell him because he got bit by a snake as a kid, his heart is stronger and is a pinnacle of the new regime. I can see why he's picked as a face of a revolution or you know the Bachelor. A cardboard cutout that you can attach any attributes that you want to the main character. I hate it on The Bachelor and I especially hate it as the protagonist. At least on the Bachelor there is a group of crazy girls with lots of personality, but in this book with Darrow being the main character you can't get behind him. I don't care what happens to him.

The plot is something that should be intriguing. But I don't really care where it goes... I don't think it was bad but I just felt meh, nothing new to this. This may be because I've read several similar ones though.

2.5/5.

I think it had a lot of potential, it just didn't do much for me. Darrow and seeing the same basic premise redone didn't thrill me. Maybe read it, if you haven't read one of the other YA novels with the same premise.

Cheers,

Jen