Review of Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Published January 28th 2014 by Del Rey (Random House)

Reviewed by Anastacia Zittel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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Darrow is a Helldiver, one of thousands of men and women who live beneath the surface of Mars. For generations they have lived underground, mining elements that will allow the planet to be terra-formed. Darrow was proud to be a part of such work, until he realized that everything he knew was a lie. Transformed into the upper class with the help of rebels he barely knows, Darrow becomes another person, joining their command school and doing what he has to do, in order to take down the government and start his own revolution.

My review:

I have such mixed feelings about this book.

I love the mix/blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and dystopia. I love the world and character building. But the character I fell in love with right away dies, leaving me wishing things were different, each and every page.

Darrow, the main character, is such a great mix of good and bad, hard and soft, you can’t help rooting for him even as horror, carnage, pain, suffering, friendship, etc. all surround him.

I loved the first 20% or so of the book, which I read in about an instant because I was so engrossed in it.

That was all the good stuff – now the reason for the mixed feelings.

I just couldn’t get into the book after that first 20% or so. I loved, loved, loved the setting and the characters and the events that all happened in that first part of the book, and the rest of it – eh. Not so much. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about everything that happened to Darrow for the rest of the book.

There’s sections where the action happens fast and furious and I think to myself that I’m finally really enjoying the book again, and then the pace changes and I was, just, quite simply, bored.

The ending however, is simply fabulous. Even though half the book I really didn’t enjoy, the ending had a couple of twists and it makes me want to read the rest of the series.

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book received from netgalley in exchange for my honest review

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