Book Review: Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”

OVERALL RATING: 9.2/10

            STORY: 9.1/10

            CHARACTERS: 8.9/10

            THE FEELS: 8.9/10

            ENTERTAINMENT: 9.2/ 10

PLOT: 9.6/10

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.

Review:

A lot of things happened in this book. Politics, action, family bonds and a thousands of tactical schemes engraved the pages of this book. I found the read all over the place but in general I still did enjoy reading this book.

The characters were average. I love Sevro and his the only one I really admire, the rest was just acceptable and plain. The main character was flawless that i found him unrealistic (well it is fiction, but it was overdone). The main character was like a God and I don't like books who made the main characters completely absent of flaws--in personalities and skills. Overall, there were a lot of memorable characters and I think that is an accomplishment for the author.

The plot was all over the place. I just really admire how ambitious the author was when he was writing this book. This book reminds me so much of Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins-- and I dislike that. I don't want to compare this to the Hunger Games but it is really hard and they really both share a lot of elements. I found the plots of this book an upgrade of what Hunger Games served years ago, so for me this book lack a good foundation of the thing called originality. On the other side of the map, the book really entertained me and rocked my imagination. This sci-fi piece really placed me at the edge of my sit.

The writing style shattered my brain. It was really bad for me. I really disliked it. It was a new journey for me as a reader to read a writing style like this. I was really in pain the entire time as I progress page after page. I just really found it very difficult to fathom the types of places, names and other terms the author decided to deliver. It was really hard in my part to ingest those words and it really affected my mood or attitude. The writing style really put a heavy weight on me which resulted to me, finishing the book for almost three weeks. 

Overall, this book is full of action and plot twists. I was really entertained and will recommend this. Even the writing style was bad but it was covered up by the greatness of the plot, characters and other elements. I am looking forward to read the rest of the series.

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