Tellulah Darling

A funny thing happened a couple of chapters into Red Rising. See, it didn’t go in a direction I expected based on the synopsis, and just like that, I was hooked. (Gee, an author who is cleverer than the reader, go figure.)

Red Rising is phenomenal. Sure, it’s drawing on similar dystopian tropes as The Hunger Games and Divergent, but Brown has created a unique Martian society with its color-based class system and specific lingo. And while technically, the characters are YA, it’s not billed as YA, as is the case with Game of Thrones with its teen main cast, so those of you not into that genre, you’re safe. 

Being book 1 in a series about an uprising, obviously our MC, Darrow, is going to have to infiltrate the upper class and prove himself in his first test. Nothing ground breaking about the structure, but the fun and freshness of this compelling story is all in how Brown handles it. It’s a great task with epic amounts of struggle, adventure, and betrayal.

I can’t wait to get to see more of this world and more of Darrow and his band, all of whom are sneakily clever. And since the author did such a great job building relationships, it’s going to be both highly enjoyable and heartbreaking watching them being torn apart when Darrow must take their ruling class down.

This was an edge-of-my-seat read, and now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to dive in to book 2.