Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I think I'm going to be in the minority and say that I really was not a fan of this book. It seems like this is a five star read for most people, but it just wasn't for me. Maybe I'm just not a sci-fi person. I think a big part was the language. I know, it's an adult book, Pierce Brown can use whatever language he so chooses, but it was a lot. For me, it took away from the actual story and just made me cringe.

I had heard it referred to as Hunger Games in space, and the book mentions capture the flag. Mix those together, and that's kind of what it is. The Hunger Games version of capture the flag...in space.

The premise is interesting, it just missed the mark for me. Darrow wasn't a character I really saw myself rooting for. I was never worried about what would happen to him, because he was written to be perfection personified basically. How can anything happen to someone like that? Even when bad things happened, it seemed more like a throw away to say, "See, he has hardships, too." Honestly, I found none of the characters really endearing. Is this just what a sci-fi novel is like? Do I just need to read more of the genre to realize how good this book is?

Content Warnings: Language, Murder

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