Review of Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1) by Pierce Brown

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Received: bought
Publication date: January 16th, 2014
Genres & Themes: YA, Dystopia, Action, Science Fiction, Rivalities, Battle.

BLURB:

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars, generations of people who spend their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that, one day, people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. That Mars has been habitable – and inhabited – for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down at Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.

But the command school is a battlefield – and Darrow isn’t the only student with an agenda.

REVIEW:

This is the kind of book that truly makes you feel somehow…bad for only giving it 2 stars. It’s like it deserves more, even though I didn’t actually enjoy reading it. It’s a weird feeling but I have to face my thoughts: the story was mostly boring and I struggled to finish it.

The weirdest thing is that I LOVED the beginning and where the plot seemed to be going. We met some incredible and unique characters, at that point of the story. I wished for them to be present in it throughout the book. But they weren’t…

The only character we actually kept seeing, as the story went, was the main one. Such a shame since I wanted to know more about his uncle. And his wife…oh dear, I went re-reading the parts she were in since she’s the kind of character that brigs a wonderful atmosphere inside a story.

Again, before the ‘battle’ began, a developed world-building was presented, one that I only wanted to know more of. Then, when our fellow Darrow, the main character, went on the battlefield (which can also be called the school), I lost interest very quickly because there was only mischief, grief, pressure, fear, mystery, and savageness all mixed up together in the atmosphere.

Also, our main character changed a lot. He became…a God. He wasn’t like that at all before and I liked the fact that, for once, a male main character isn’t perfect or hasn’t the strength to ‘save the world.’ Of course, character development is not a bad thing but has to be moderated. And why was it necessary to make Darrow that perfect and respected and the kind of person that gives someone the feeling that everything is possible and that no giving up is allowed?

The writing was good but the pacing so slow, the kind of slow that makes it necessary for you to read a page per two minutes. Which equals 30 pages read per hour. Which is not enough, in my opinion. I guess it can differ from one person to another but I shared this with you so you know what awaits you with the pacing and that it’s not, as in not at all, a fast-paced story.

Also, there is a lot of betrayal in this book. Of course, I was expecting it but what I wasn’t expecting was for Darrow to be betrayed AND betray. At some point, before the main character was transformed into a God-like one, he was mean and ruthless and negative. The thing is, I felt like he had multiple personalities…

There is like 1% of romance in this book so, if that’s what you were looking for, I highly suggest for you to look elsewhere.

Obviously many people liked this book, so I can’t dare say I don’t recommend it. The first part and half of the second were amazing but the other ones were boredoms I only wished to escape from.

View all my reviews on Goodreads.