Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

25 March, 2014 Reviews 30 comments

This is the first review I’ve ever written where I’m leaving a book unrated. I both loved and hated this book equally. There were parts that really frustrated me, bored me, excited me, and completely hooked me. I’m not even sure what Red Rising is really classified as. One half of the book feels very Dystopian/sci-fi while the other half reads like an entirely different genre, perhaps High Fantasy. If I were to even attempt to describe what this book is I’d say image Gladiator and Lord of the Flies having an illicit love affair on an acid trip. Their baby would be Red Rising. How do I fit a book like that on a 1-5 star rating scale?

Darrow is a Helldriver on Mars, drilling in mines with the belief that one day his people will live on the surface once the planet is ready. He and his people live under strict rules. While Darrow is more than happy to keep his head down and do his job, his wife Eo, has a different dream. She considers her people slaves to the Gold, the ruling class, and wants to take action to free them from their chains. Through a course of unfortunate events, Darrow finds himself on the surface disguised as a Gold, and with the help of other rebels, enrolls in the Academy with an ending goal to rise in the ranks of the Gold’s society. The only problem is that the school is literally a war among the students.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the interesting premise and the glowing early reviews from my friends on Goodreads. I was a little surprised to not have heard of this book, but was eager to find out what the fuss was about. The only thing that worried me was that a few of my more critical friends had either DNF’d or gave it a lower rating. As I started reading I could immediately see why so many gave up. Red Rising‘s beginning is very slow and often times a little dull. I did struggle through the first 100 pages and almost gave up myself a few times. Darrow isn’t the most interesting guy to read about in the beginning and I didn’t really connect well with him at first.

HOWEVER

When Darrow goes through his transformation and enrolls in the school SHIT GOT REAL really fast. I don’t know what I was expecting when he got the academy. Desks, chairs, tests, teen drama on a grander scale, probably. What I didn’t expect was for Darrow’s first test to include killing a boy with his bare hands, placed in a House Mars with other killer teens with the expectation to conquer the other Houses through warfare. I mean, WHAT. That’s the part where I had to go back and re-read the blurb, because WHAT WAS I READING? (Let me just say I can see this all playing out marvelously on the big screen. No wonder they optioned it for a movie.)

So naturally I abandoned Real Life and become hopelessly addicted to the story. Darrow, a boy filled with rage due to the injustice placed on him as a Red, is placed in House Mars with a bunch of other hotheads and psychopaths. Due to their nature, it’s hard for them to agree on anything and the House quickly becomes divided with the stronger tribe being controlled by Titus. The House struggles to find food and water, some resorting to eating animals raw. Tensions continue to rise between the Housemates until it ultimately results in a few brutal deaths.

The Houses continue to battle between each other in a battlefield that resembles many High Fantasy stories, complete with castles and Grecian allusions, while their teachers watch on. For Darrow, winning this “game” means more than just getting a better career option in the Gold’s society like the other students. It means being in a position of power to help the rebels free the Reds from slavery. Over the course of months, battles are lost/won, enemies are made and alliances formed. Darrow begins to see that it’s not just Reds who are trapped within their color.

What I loved most about Red Rising was the action and premise. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that had such a jarring genre mesh up that actually works to the point where it feels like you’ve read two different books at once. The strategy of the battles and ambushes were well thought out, the characters were well-developed and the world building very rich, reminding me of The Bone Season. There are a lot of slang words that initially turned me off because there’s so much and each color (think: caste system) has their own. The terms blooddamn, glorydamn, and goodman were the three that seemed to annoy me the most, but by the end, I felt I really had a good grasp on it all.

I also enjoyed Darrow as a character and his development from a person who was willing to stay under the Golds’ boot to someone who was willing to poke the lion. I’m not sure at what point I started rooting for this guy, but by the end where Darrow is going HAM on everyone, I was completely entertained and couldn’t turn pages fast enough. He reminded me of Huntsalone from The Seven Realms series in that way due to how tactical he had become. I also have to agree with the other reviewers that say Darrow is a Gary Stu, Mary Sue’s more perfect and cuter brother. Ha. It’s so true. He’s one of those The One characters where it can only be him that brings the society to his knees. No other Red has gotten as far as him, who is as smart as him, has been this awesome. He does have his moments where he does fail and almost die, but for the most part he’s The One. I personally didn’t really care because I was having too much fun by the end, so there’s that.

If there is one thing that really bothered me it would be the way rape was handled in the story. I understand that in times of war this happens and I wasn’t bothered that it was included, but it was the way it was used to develop certain characters that did not sit well with me. This is one of the reasons why I’m just unsure what to rate Red Rising. The rape really bothered me to the point where I saw red, mainly because it was so unnecessary. But, at the same time, I did really enjoy the novel. I’ll go into that deeper in my spoiler tag.

[spoiler]Titus’ character was one that I felt lacked. His entire back story involves a tragedy where his wife was raped by Golds. So in an effort to gain revenge, he decides it’s only fair to rape Gold women from other Houses who were captured during different battles. This is not a great way to use rape in a story. Titus’ character is demonized and therefore viewed as unredeemable by the reader because he’s done The Ultimate Bad Thing by raping women. This later justifies his death and makes Darrow look like a savior.

Then, while Darrow and a female character are camping out in a cave, boys enter and sexually assault her while Darrow is away. He comes back to see her in her underwear tied up. He punishes these boys by hunting them down and killing them. Again, he is the awesome savior of women.

Later, another situation of almost rape comes up when Darrow is in charge and he’s left with the responsibility of punishing the criminal. Rape in that situation was used as the catalyst to make Darrow out to be The Ultimate Hero for stopping rape. Why is it that most of the Bad Guys are sexually assaulting women just for Darrow to come swooping in to the rescue? Using rape to condemn certain characters and raise others up is tasteless, in my opinion, and is a complete turn off. The sad thing is that Red Rising didn’t need any of it to show the brutality of the Academy’s warring Houses. There was enough killing to go around to prove that point. Having your female characters sexually assaulted just because they have vaginas and because rape must be the worst thing to happen to a woman is not the way to go.[/spoiler]

The ending was nothing short of entertaining. Lots of planning, revenge, battles and death. Just how I like my action. There really isn’t a cliffhanger, thank goodness, but I REALLY want to know what happens next. I’m wondering if Golden Son will have as much action given where Darrow is headed next, but Pierce Brown has convinced me that I need to stick around to find out what happens next. I would recommend this to mature YA readers as this is considered Adult with crossover appeal to the YA audience. If it feels like you’re stuck on those first 100 pages, take heart, the second half will blow your socks off, sucker punch you in the kidneys and feed your innards to the dogs. But you’ll like it.

30 Responses to “Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown”

  1. Tammy @ Books Bones & Buffy

    I loved this and had no trouble giving it a five star rating. But now that you’ve brought it up, I totally see your point about the rape scenes. For some reason when I was reading it, they didn’t bother me. I think they just blended in to the world that Brown created. But now I’m more bothered! Nonetheless I still loved it and can’t wait to read GOLDEN SON.

  2. Stephanie @ Inspiring Insomnia

    I had the opposite experience with this book. I liked the beginning, and I HATED everything else. The beginning was built up as though Darrow was going to be operating as a super-secret covert spy, with the constant threat of being discovered, and I loved that. But then he gets to the academy, and he’s instantly a Gold, right down to mastering the speech mannerisms. It seemed like the entire beginning of the book became irrelevant. I just didn’t get it.

    • Steph Sinclair

      Ah, I see what you mean. I think the part where he’s going through the transformation could have used a bit more tweaking in the pacing department. Supposedly he was preparing for the Institute for months before he enrolled.

  3. Kat Kennedy

    This is a good review, Steph. Though OBVIOUSLY you just didn’t rate it cause, you know, you’re a lazy reviewer or something. ADMIT IT!

  4. Lina G

    Hahahaaa Gladiator and Lord of the Flies’ illicit baby. This is too funny and made me curious!

  5. The Bookish Manicurist

    Innnnnteresting! I only heard of this the other day. I don’t mind a book that can make you feel a whole range of things, but it is hard when you can’t work out if you liked it or not. I’ll still probably give it a go 😉

    • Steph Sinclair

      I guess me wanting to read the second book is as good as any indication that I really enjoyed it despite my reservations. At least I didn’t completely hate it!

  6. Kristen@My Friends Are Fiction

    This one sort of confused me too. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt when I finished. I knew I was interested, I wanted to talk to everyone that had read it and compare notes, and I knew that I’d not soon forget it. Great review!

    • Steph Sinclair

      Yup, it does tend to leave an impression on your mind. I was thinking of the book well after I finished and really felt like I NEEDED book 2 right then and there.

  7. Rebecca @ The Library Canary

    I really liked this book! The world-building was so incredible and I really found myself rooting for Darrow. I see your point about the rape issue and I never really thought about it that way, but I do agree that it wasn’t really necessary. I was surprised at how brutal this book was, but I really loved it. All the political drama and intrigue. I can’t wait for more of that aspect in the next book.

    • Steph Sinclair

      Agreed on the world building. It was very rich and very interesting. The brutality surprised me too, but mostly because for some reason I thought it was YA. I didn’t realize at first it was more crossover than anything.

  9. Terry

    I completely agree with you on the review. I did hate it in the beginning then when it actually started to sort of make sense I liked it. What I didn’t except was the violence and what Darrow had to go through to be a Gold…wth? But I must know what happens and will be picking up book 2. Best review of the book.

    • Steph Sinclair

      It completely took me by surprised and the surgeries he had to endure! O_o WOW! The second half made me completely forget about my lackluster feelings about the first half. heh.

      Weren’t you surprised that Darrow didn’t seem to have any punishments for certain events in the Institute? I wonder if any of those actions will come back to bite him in book 2.

  10. Natalie M.

    Other than The Winner’s Curse, this has been one of the most hyped about books this year. Have to read it to judge for myself.
    And great review!

  11. Cathy Keaton

    Rape is used WAY too much in every medium I can think of right now. It’s like some kind of trend and it’s very disturbing. And, typically, the writers of these stories are male. Go figure.

  12. Cait @ Notebook Sisters

    I absolutely adored this book! It’s weird, but I totally couldn’t get into the jargon of The Bone Season, but I had nooo problems with anything in Red Rising. I mean, I’m a little bit tired of the Roman names. (Move on YA, already.) But, GAH, it was amazing and mind blowing and I want the sequel right now. But this: “Gladiator and Lord of the Flies having an illicit love affair on an acid trip.” HECK YEAH. That is very hard to rate.

    • Steph Sinclair

      The Bone Season had a lot more slang than Red Rising. It took me a while to get a hang of that, and even by the end I occasionally had to glance as the glossary. I’m really hoping the second book follows in a similar trend as the second half of RR did. I really don’t want another slow beginning book.

  14. Christina (A Reader of Fictions)

    I’m glad this turned around for you, but I’m mostly in awe of how well this worked for other people. This and Half Bad were just written in the opposite of Christina language. I wish I could have loved them both. *sighs*

    Also, I’m now scared of Seven Realms. >.>

    But I guess there’s always audio.

  18. Aidan Sharak

    I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Hunger Games or The Ender Games.