Author: Pierce Brown
Rating: 2/5
Darrow is a Red i.e., the lowest caste in the Society. After a tragic death, he is plucked by a renegade group for a mission to overturn the unjust system.
Spoilers ahead.
Detailed Summary
Mars is ruled by the Society where Reds are the lowest caste and Golds the highest. Reds have to mine helium-3 under the planet’s surface. 16-year-old Darrow is a Helldiver, a miner. Eo, his wife, urges him to be rebellious. Darrow’s father hanged for being a rebel so Darrow is quite reluctant. The two are caught encroaching on land and are sentenced to lashes. Eo is hanged on ArchGovernor Nero au Augustus’ order when she sings a forbidden song. Darrow buries Eo’s body which is banned so he’s hanged too. He wakes in a grave where the Sons of Ares have gathered. He’s taken to Dancer, their leader, who tells Darrow his mission. Darrow is taken to Mickey, a Violet, who is a carver and artist. Mickey turns him into a Gold. His brain is altered, he’s given new everything and trains in fighting. He passes the academy’s test with top marks and is accepted into the academy. There, students are divided into 12 houses (based on Roman Gods) and Darrow goes to House Mars. The first task is the Passage where Golds at the top of the class are paired with the lowest scoring. They have to kill and only the winner gets through. Darrow fights Julian, his new friend Cassius’ twin brother, and wins. Next, they’re taken to a remote location where each House has a castle and have to defend and conquer land. They can capture slaves from other Houses and mark the Golds with their standard. House Mars immediately has sub-clans–one led by Cassius and Darrow, one led by Titus (a ruthless Gold) and Sevro, this midget of a boy, is doing his own thing wearing a wolf pelt. Darrow and Cassius take down Titus and Darrow realises Titus was originally a Red (based on his “bloodydamn”). Darrow should have gotten Primus of House Mars but he doesn’t. Each house has a Proctor who stays on Olympus and acts as a sponsor.
Darrow lets Cassius kill Titus because Cassius thinks Titus killed Julian. They proceed to raid House Minerva with House Diana’s help but Mustang escapes. The Jackal, a fearsome house leader, sends Cassius footage of Darrow killing Julian which Sevro tries to steal for Darrow but fails. Cassius challenges Darrow and stabs him and leaves him to die. Darrow is found by Mustang who nurses him back to help. Fitchner, House Mars’ Proctor (and Sevro’s father–which Darrow discovers later), reveals the Jackal is the son of ArchGovernor Augustus and the contest has been rigged in his favour. Darrow gathers an army of Deserters (students who were Slaves but ran away). The new army has no slaves, instead everyone works together. They conquer other houses and their army grows. Darrow is nicknamed Reaper. Sevro finds Darrow and joins him too. His group is called the Howlers. Darrow’s army conquers House Apollo’s castle even though Apollo tries to thwart them. Darrow meets the Jackal outside House Jupiter’s castle. Darrow stabs the Jackal’s hand and tells him he can leave if he cuts his hand loose. The Jackal does so and flees. Mustang (real name Virginia) is kidnapped by Apollo so Darrow kills Apollo and use GravBoots to fly to Olympus. They defeat the Proctors and rescue Mustang. Darrow kisses her and sends her and half his army to face the Jackal. Fitchner tells him Mustang is the Jackal’s twin sister and will betray him.
Darrow and the remainder of his army rush to the House Mars castle and conquer it. Cassius gives up the Primus badge but swears an oath to kill Darrow if they’re face to face again. Darrow prepares for Mustang and the Jackal to attack but Mustang brings her brother and his men enslaved. Darrow has won. The Drafters and ArchGovernor show up and name Darrow the winner. He gets the first pick of the apprenticeships. ArchGovernor offers him a position in exchange for silence on the cheating. Darrow reluctantly accepts so that he can get justice for Eo and the Reds.
Review
Bloodydamn, I don’t know how to feel about this book. It read like Ender’s Game meets Hunger Games with lots of random made-up words thrown around.
Red Rising is a critique of political structure and oppression. Darrow lives in a world where everyone has a designated Colour, essentially a caste system, is expected to perform very specific duties and is often kept in the dark about the truth around them. The Reds are an extreme example of this, only having lived near the mines and never knowing of the civilisation the Golds have built above and around them. No one is allowed to ascend past their Colour so a Red can’t become a Gold (unless you get picked by the Sons of Ares and every fibre of your being is remodelled). There is no meritocracy, there is no democracy, there is only tyranny built on a foundation of lies and threats of destruction. Darrow’s strategy to win the game is in opposition to this. He believes in empowering everyone in his army, in making them believe in one common goal and be truly loyal to him. For instance, when Tactus rapes one of the slaves, Darrow punishes him with lashes then hands the whip to Tactus and instructs him to whip him back because punishments will be shared by the leader. My knowledge of politics is rudimentary at best (and that’s me being very generous) so I may be wrong but I think this book was pushing for communism? Given the colour Red and how Darrow’s weapon is kind of like the curved sickle, it’s kind of hard to not draw that connection. Or maybe I’m reading too much into this and this book is just about standing up for what you believe in and rebelling against authority.
I suppose my biggest problem with this book was how perfect Darrow was. Near the start, he comments on how he’s very attractive for a Red and a talented Helldiver. That immediately put me off because while confidence is definitely a quality trait to possess, arrogance isn’t so. That’s why I enjoyed reading about his transformation because, in that way, his perfection was somewhat justified. STILL, I was just so…argh, frustrated–is that the right word?–that he constantly got everything right. Enough to win the game! I didn’t find him very compelling as a character. I wanted to see more of his flaws. Given that this book was written in the first-person present tense, I guess that’s a little difficult to do. It’s hard to see our own flaws.
My absolute favourite character was Sevro. I loved how he didn’t mind being different and held his own despite appearing to be a “weakling.” I also admired his loyalty and ability to keep his mouth shut about stuff (like how he deleted the footage of Darrow saying “bloodydamn” instead of “gorydamn”). He stole every scene he was in and I suppose he’s a big part of why I’m going to give the second book a try. That was a very tough decision to make–to read or not to read the rest of this series. The number of times I’ve cancelled my reservation on the library’s website! Absolutely astounding! However, several reviews have mentioned that the second book is MILES better than the first so I’m going to give it a shot. But if I don’t like it, I’m not going to read the others.
The world building was alright. Definitely intriguing but I felt lost a lot of the time and admittedly skimmed some bits because the writing style didn’t particularly draw my attention. I didn’t feel emotionally connected to any of the characters (maybe Sevros a tiny bit) and didn’t even cry when Pax died! I ALWAYS cry when characters die! Like, it’s probably easier for writers to make me tear up during a character’s death than to not. I didn’t like the romance between Mustang and Darrow even though I saw it coming miles away. Also, oh my god, the number of times Darrow talked about how dextrous his hands were–I wanted to scream. We GET it, Darrow!
Anyway, like I said, I’ll read the second book once the library gets it to me which could take god knows how long given that I’ve cancelled and re-reserved this book so many times.
Earnestly Eccentric 