Then, I was visiting one of my favorite blogs, Paper Fury, and Cait there mentioned that this is one of her all-time favorite series. Huh. Cait has good taste, and I had seen the cover enough times to be interested. Not long after, I received a Bookbub email that RED RISING was on sale for $1.99, so, still never having looked at the blurb, I picked it up. $1.99? Why not?
So I was on vacation this past week in Japan, and I finished a novella I really enjoyed (more on that and my trip later). I picked up my Kindle and started searching for a new book to read. I picked a space opera book that had good reviews and couldn't get past the opening chapter dream sequence. Nope. Not for me. I picked up another book by someone I know, and for some reason, I couldn't get into the prose. It wasn't personal enough (third person POV is hard for me). So I went back to my Kindle library and saw RED RISING. Sure, I thought. I'll give it a shot. Cait has good taste.
I knew nothing going into this book and, boy, was I glad I didn't, so I'm not going to go into details here. But I was entranced by the opening chapter.
The first thing you should know about me is I am my father's son. And when they came for him, I did as he asked. I did not cry. Not when the Society televised the arrest. Not when the Golds tried him. Not when the Grays hanged him. Mother hit me for that…
On Mars there is not much gravity. So you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.
“They let the loved ones do it.” That is literally the end of the second paragraph of the first chapter, and from there this book sucked me in so hard, I dreamt of Darrow and his color-coded Society, of the trials and tribulations he would go through, his lost love. This book had so many things I'd seen done before, done better, done the best. A loved martyr. A game of murder and deceit. A revenge story so intense, you're both horrified and awed.
I never saw anything coming. I was surprised at every turn. And I've read enough books about warfare and war games to see plot twists coming a mile away. But man, no, I was surprised by so much of this book.
But most of all, I loved the writing. It was so simple. So easy. Brown tends to shy away from using contractions (something I really loathe in most writing), but it works. Sometimes he could just sum up an entire feeling with a three word sentence. Really powerful.
I don't understand why this book is shelved in Young Adult, though. It really did not feel young adult to me at all, besides Darrow, the main character, being young. He's married and lives an adult life to start, and nothing about the book is really “coming of age.” Anyway, if you think YA isn't for you, then don't even take that into account here, because I didn't see it.
A lot of people in the reviews of RED RISING do compare this to THE HUNGER GAMES but I see many vast differences, especially in the motivations of the main characters and the world in which they inhabit, so that's something to consider. With over 3000 reviews on Amazon and still over 4.5 stars, there is a reason why this book is doing so well. I finished it quickly and immediately bought the second one.
I highly recommend RED RISING to you all. You know I don't usually gush over books, and mostly just keep my recommendations to my once monthly Book Chat posts, but I had to let you know about this one.
For those who loved THE HUNGER GAMES and ENDER'S GAME. If you can't stomach violence, this is definitely NOT for you. If you want to read something that'll captivate you, pick it up today.
Purchase RED RISING on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bUkAyH
I heard so many good things about this book and for some reason I just never had the urge to pick it up. Not sure why, as it sounds good, but I just haven’t been in a mood for dystopia books for a long time now. I rarely pick dystopia books up anymore. It seems I got burned out for that genre after reading a lot of dystopia after I first discovered the Hunger Games. And then suddenly I had enough and rarely read it anymore.
I might pick this up eventually when I am in the mood for a dystopia. It does make me curious as you so rarely are this enthusiastic about a book.
On the topic of books I remember you once read one of the Mandrake Company books and I had the first book on my wishlist for a while and this week noticed the box set was only 1.12$ for me, so I grabbed the whole box set. I’ve been in a sci-fi romance mood lately, so I decided to finally buy it.
I didn’t think I was into dystopian books any longer either! In fact, if I had read the description ahead of time, I may never have read it because I thought I was done. I’m so glad I was surprised because this knocked me over. I kind of want to read it again because I read it so fast. Lol.
I did read the first Mandrake book and enjoyed it. I have the box set, I believe, which is how I read the first book so I plan to get back to the rest of them sometime soon.
It was an AMAZING book. Simply blew me away. I’m reading Golden Son now and enjoying that one too, so I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot with this series. Thanks so much for recommending it!
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