'Red Rising' by Pierce Brown

 Red Rising, Pierce Brown (3.0)

I struggle with the review of this book. It was one of the few books on the ‘100 Best Science Fiction’ list on Goodreads that I had not read. While I did enjoy reading it, I’m hard-pressed to explain why. This book presented a constant dichotomy. I like books that surprise me – it did that, but also had some incredibly predictable parts. I like Sci-Fi books with new concepts- it had them but was also very derivative of ‘Hunger Games’ among others. I like characters that are complex, some were but many were soooo one dimensional. The story is based on a future where people are divided into colors based on their station in life (golds are at the top, reds are the menial laborers at the bottom). The protagonist, Darrow, is a red whose society is terraforming the planet, Mars, from the inside (really didn’t like the science of this) in order for the ‘top’ colors to escape earth and live. Not surprising, everything is not as it appears, and Darrow starts to figure this out. I won’t say more, as the surprises are the best part of the book. If you liked ‘Hunger Games’, you will likely enjoy this book. I should warn that it is often considered a Young Adult book, but there is a lot of violence and gore on top of very disturbing mental situations, not appropriate for most young adults.