Book Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

I have one word to describe this book: "bro"

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is set in the future where humans have colonized Mars (and other planets) and there are caste systems based on color that determine your standing in the world. We follow Darrow, who was born a Red, the lowest caste, and raised to believe that the mining his community conducts of a particular raw material will help the empire make Mars habitable for humans. However, after a traumatic event, he is convinced by the rebellion faction to transform himself physically into a Gold, the highest caste group. He is shown that Mars is in fact habitable and thriving, while his Red community is suffering and dying young at the hands of the Golds. He is admitted into the Golds' academy and partakes in their war training and will hopefully become a high-ranking Gold to help the rebellion bring down the empire.

Break the chains, my love

This is a pretty standard dystopian plotline, and this book gets a lot of comparison to the Hunger Games series. I can see it in the wargames plot, and the evil empire concept, and the fact that Darrow is the chosen one who will save them all. However, I had a few issues with this book that brought it down to 3 stars. Let's be honest, Hunger Games set a very high standard for young/new adult dystopian books.

Life is the most effective school ever created. Once upon a time they made children bow their heads and read books.

First is the writing style. This was an incredibly fast-paced book; too fast at some points. I felt that I could not fully grasp what was happening because four months would go by in a single sentence. I believe the book spans over two years, but it is hard to tell. Nothing ever felt fully fleshed out and it just felt like it was a very rushed project on the author's part. The plot was easy to follow since it was a standard base that many authors have used before, but the writing just made it feel a lot more confusing than it needed to be.

Secondly, and because of the fast-paced issue, I had an issue with the characters. We never fully got to know really any of the characters in this book, not even the main character. We knew where he came from and his motivations but really that's it. We barely got to know any of the side characters, even though they were incredibly important for the plot of the book.

Sooner or later, they had to know I would snap and come to cut them down. Or perhaps they think I'm still a child. The fools.

Finally, my main issue is the fact that is a very bro book. It is very clearly written by a man, from a man's point of view, and for men. If the characters were not fully explored in this book, don't even get me started on the female characters. Of the twenty or so primary characters in this book, maybe three of them were women. It felt that the female characters were there to simply drive Darrow's plot forward. His wife's story is a prime example of that. They were never fully developed, or, frankly, respected in any way. There is one strong female character and she ends up being (spoiler) a love interest. There was violence against women, the author passed up opportunities to make women in the rebellion more powerful, and the other female Golds in the wargames were just there to make Darrow look like the greatest military leader society has ever seen (even though he is sixteen years old and never seen the light of day). At least Hunger Games and Divergent and all the other dystopian books of my day were written by women and had strong female characters as the chosen ones. That is the standard they set that this book failed to reach.

Despite all that, I can see why this book has had a resurgence in its popularity. It was a quick read, with a recognizable plot, and Darrow and his crew were, admittedly, a fun crew to read about. At the end of the day, it simply wasn't for me. One day I will learn my lesson and not set hyped books up to such a high standard.