REVIEW: Red Rising (#1) - Pierce Brown

Red Rising (#1) - Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising Saga
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Paperback
Pages: 382 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Blurb

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Thoughts

I will admit when I started this book I found it really slow going and I found it hard to get into, but I am so glad I persevered with it because OMG does it ramp up from the middle onwards. Pierce Brown just throws the punches and the cliffhangers like they are going out of fashion, which makes you addicted to the story as you just need to know what happens next.

I found the story between Darrow and Eo to be such a sweet yet sad story, I could see where Eo was coming from, that she wanted something more for her children, and not the life they were currently leading.

You do feel sorry for Darrow, he loses his wife, and when he releases her, he is sentenced to death as well, you really want him to be saved somehow. When he is saved you find out the truth behind Mars and you really are rooting for Darrow.

I loved the war game aspect of the story between the different houses of the school, and it seemed that every chapter you were finding out something new about someone or about the game.

I really came to like Darrow and Mustang as characters, they seemed to bounce of each other, and when he found out the truth about Mustang and who her relation was in the game. You did end up thinking the same thing as Darrow.

Overall a really great book, yes it was slow at the beginning but the rest of the story made up for that, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.