Red Rising
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Red Rising (Red Rising, Book 1) by Pierce Brown
I'm very much delayed in writing a review for Red Rising, more so considering I made a blog post a long time ago about The Problem with Red Rising, but this is because it’s easier to articulate why you dislike 👎 something rather than why you like 👍 something.
To take an excerpt from that post:
There may be some debate around this, but I think many fans will agree with me when I say that Red Rising is the worst book in the series. It’s important to understand exactly what people mean when they say, “OMG, I love Red Rising!” They’re not talking about the first book that’s actually titled “Red Rising”, they’re talking about the series as a whole. This is the biggest detriment to Red Rising growing its fanbase. People get drawn in by the hype, decide to give the first book a try, come out the other side disappointed, and are simply told, “it gets better.” But it’s hard to explain just how true that is. What you just read was the series at its absolute lowest, and going into the second book, the quality skyrockets. Whenever I’m recommending Red Rising to someone, I always try to make it clear that the first book is a bit of a grind. It’s all introduction and setup; world building and character development. It’s very reserved in its exploration beyond the hierarchy and caste system, with comparisons to other battle royale themed books being very evident and offering little deviation.
HOWEVER, this lack of "more" isn't necessarily a bad thing and may be best for the series as a whole. The world-building is almost perfectly balanced with the pacing of the story. You're told what you need to know when you need to know it, rather than being handed a giant info dump. This drip-feed of information simultaneously leaves no detail neglected, while making it much easier to keep track of everything without getting lost, allowing you to take in and appreciate the depth and expansiveness of the world 🤩.
This format is applied to the characters and their development as well. They're steadily introduced throughout the course of the book and clearly distinguishable from each other. It's very rare that you need to remind yourself who a character is, they all have something about them, when they enter a scene, you know who they are. As much as you are disgusted by Sevro, you love him ❤️. As much as you despise The Jackal, you are fascinated by him 😈.
Lastly, a hard to miss standout aspect of this book is the prose. Oh, the prose! Elegant and beautiful, as if it were written by the Golds themselves, Pierce Brown is a master of monologues, build up, and making you feel the emotion you are meant to be feeling in that moment. I think it would only be appropriate if Red Rising were to ever be printed in calligraphy 🖋️.
