Book Review | Red Rising
Introduction
This is a book I’ve been eager to read less because of this specific book and more because I’ve heard that the trilogy as a whole is outstanding. In fact, most of the people whose reviews I trust seemed to indicate that Red Rising itself was just mediocre. I tried not to let their opinions sway me, but I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for within the first few pages of the book. I started reading this shortly after the high I had from The Fires of Vengeance and it took me a couple of days to finish, so it was a fairly quick read. What did I think of it, though?
This review, like all of mine, will be devoid of spoilers for Red Rising. If you’d like to check out a video version of this review, you can do so here:
Summary
Red Rising is a book that gets a lot of comparison to Hunger Games, but I personally don’t believe that’s fair. It’s a little closer to Ender’s Game, though I still think it stands out as quite unique from both of these. Just because something features a battle royale does not mean that it’s a Hunger Games knock-off. Red Rising brings a lot of unique concepts to the table, including the battle royale featured in the first book. I believe Red Rising does more than enough to set itself apart from other battle royales. In an oversaturated market, this book should stand out.
In this first book of the trilogy, we follow the main character, Darrow--I’ve heard it pronounced Dahr-Oh and Dare-Oh, with the latter being the pronunciation in the audiobook I listened to while I read, so I’m pronouncing it that way--as he fights his way through the Institute, which is an all-out war between different houses in the society. It is meant to identify the best of the best and hone their skills, and it definitely seems to identify the best (and the worst) successfully.
Darrow is initially born as one of the lowest people in this society, but a group that resists this society’s caste system gives him the opportunity to ascend beyond his lowborn status so that he can make a difference in the future. In order to be in a position to make a difference, he must first make it through the challenges presented by the Institute.
The Review
Presentation
I have the standard editions of the Red Rising trilogy, and I think that their overall cover design is pretty great. They look nice on the shelf and they’re really cohesive as a collection. Red Rising’s art is probably my favorite of the trilogy, I love the wing design. I’ve also seen some alternative covers out there that are really gorgeous.
The interior of the book was nice, it was easy to read, and it was broken into cohesive parts. The interior map was a nice touch, too. I think that an outline of how the class system works--specifically a hierarchy of colors--would have been a great addition. Overall, the presentation for this book was perfectly fine. I’ll give it four out of five stars.
As I’ve stated in all my previous reviews, presentation for books does not contribute to the final star rating. It only affects visual media like movies and games. I still rate the presentation for the book, but it has no bearing on the final score.
The Plot
Red Rising has a pretty standard, if mediocre, plot. I believe that the broader plot is more interesting and appealing, but the plot of this specific entry in the trilogy is honestly rather bland and predictable. Decisions and characters all exist solely to propel the plot forward and to have some manner of relationship with our protagonist. We follow Darrow as he ascends through the society and fights through the Institute to take his place among the higher colors who have long oppressed him and his color.
The entire plot kicks off with a Disposable Woman trope, one of my personal least favorite tropes out there, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. The pages are riddled with tropes and are quite predictable. There are some fun and meaningful moments in this book, but overall the plot always went exactly where I expected it to go, even with the way that it ended. This isn’t because there was great foreshadowing, either--it’s just because the direction was clear from chapter one and onward.
I’m handing the plot for Red Rising two stars. It wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t great, it was just a little below average. Everything was predictable and the story was quite plot-driven, which is unfortunate because the plot just wasn’t great. I still have high hopes for the overall plot of the trilogy, but this first entry was pretty weak, in this regard.
The World
I’m actually really excited about Red Rising’s world. The caste system that sustains the world’s society is fascinating and I love the history of the world that we’ve been given, thus far. The world is likely my favorite thing about this first entry in the trilogy. We have a caste system based on colors that were established through eugenics many years prior to the events in Red Rising.
I’m giving the world of Red Rising four stars--I’m eager to see more of the world and learn more about its history. We were confined mostly to the Institute for Red Rising, so there wasn’t much exploration of this world in this book. I look forward to seeing more of the world and learning about the history that established this society in the coming books.
The World-Building
While I loved the world, I did not love the world-building in the book. Red Rising’s world-building is pretty much the equivalent of someone walking down the street and seeing a completely relevant newscast on the TV in a store window. We get exposition dump after exposition dump throughout this book, especially in the first third or so. This does end after a while, thankfully, but the world-building overall was done pretty poorly in this book.
I’ll give the World-Building two stars. I’d give it one star, but there were times when the world-building was done well and more subtlety than a face on a television display announcing things to the reader--I mean, the characters.
The Characters
We got minimal personality from the characters in Red Rising and, when we did get a personality, that personality was rather one-dimensional. Each character had one or two personality traits to help them stand out, but from there they all became pretty one-note. The story was mainly focused--as would be expected--on our protagonist and his personality… which were also not that great.
The protagonist did have a bit more depth than the other characters, but I still didn’t find him all that interesting to follow. Despite being inside his head, I still just didn’t get him. Not because he was a complicated puzzle to solve, but because he simply didn’t make a great deal of sense. I understood his motivations, but his progression and development seemed inconsistent and often unearned.
The characters were not without some personality and uniqueness. I was able to distinguish them from one another, which is important. For this reason, Red Rising’s characters are getting two stars instead of one.
The Writing
The writing was pretty average, which would mean that I’d give it three stars. However, there are some moments that repeat themselves to the point of making me roll my eyes which will be docking the writing an additional star.
We have some assaults that take place multiple times in the book. It was only ever shown once that I recall. After the first time, I thought--or hoped--that was it, but then it happened again and again. This also made a moment in which the main character was developing feelings for someone who had just been a victim of assault feel really creepy. I actually made a disgusted face when I got to a part when he’s sitting there essentially objectifying her after he just saw her get groped. It was bad.
Then we have the main character--someone who is supposed to be this intelligent and tactical individual--falling for the exact same trap twice within just a few pages. When it happened the first time, I knew it was a trap and then the main character realized it was a trap. Then, Darrow falls for literally the same exact ploy just a few pages later! It was unbelievable. There are so many other ways that these situations could have been approached and instead we just copy and pasted the same outline for the scenes.
I will compliment Pierce Brown’s approach to battles. He doesn’t write his one-on-one battles all that well in this book, particularly compared to the one-on-one battles written by Evan Winter, whom I read most recently. His broader battles, however--when we have two warring forces going against one another--are exceptional. I really enjoyed those; I always had a solid sense of placement, strategy, and stakes. Absolutely excellent and I look forward to seeing some massive battles beyond the Institute in the coming books (fingers crossed, anyway).
Two stars for the writing. Tempting to give it one star, but if the writing for a book is one star, I probably won’t be able to finish it. The prose wasn’t unbearable or even all that bad, but the overall writing was just not that great. So, two stars.
The Pacing
The pacing of Red Rising is all over the place. We, thankfully, get into the real core of the story pretty quickly. We don’t spend too much time in the early stages of the book before the Institute. However, the pacing really starts falling apart when it comes to the characters, especially Darrow. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that Darrow is the pacing.
Not only does Darrow have some incredible plot armor, but he also just has the entire story waiting around for him. Every character and every plot point waits around like an NPC in the original Legend of Zelda, awaiting the moment when the main character is ready for their prescheduled interaction.
This feels especially clunky in a battle royale, where everyone should be going for everyone or even working actively against Darrow given the absolute destruction he’s causing. The houses warring against Darrow should have been uniting against him if it was so important that he not succeed. We were told over and over again that Darrow wasn’t meant to win, yet no truly significant efforts were ever made to truly stop him. Those who stood against him felt pretty weak--not because Darrow was powerful, but because his opposition needed to be weak and a little stupid in order for Darrow to succeed.
To summarize this, the pacing always seemed to follow Darrow himself. When he needed things to slow down, they just kind of… slowed down. When he was ready for them to speed up, they would speed up. The pacing was always exactly what the story needed and I was threaded along well, but it didn’t actually make sense in the grand scheme of things. There should never have been an opportunity for Darrow to slow down during his time in the Institute. Never.
I’m giving the pacing three stars overall. While I found the pacing to be unrealistic, it did carry me through the book, which is enough to declare the pacing as average
Overall
In the end, Red Rising gets two stars from me. I’m eager for the books that follow and am actually already reading Golden Son at the time of this writing, which will be my next review. I already feel like the second book is a big improvement on this first one, so I am beginning to understand why the trilogy as a whole is so beloved by its fans. This review is about the first book, though, and that one was just not great, in my opinion.
I know that this below-average rating of two stars might be somewhat divisive, but I also know that many others have stated that the first book is the weakest in the trilogy. I can definitely believe that because for a trilogy to be so popular and beloved, I have to think that it gets better than this.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my review for the first book in the Red Rising trilogy! I hope that you enjoyed it and got something out of it. I’m working through the rest of the trilogy right now and will start on Iron Gold shortly thereafter, provided I enjoy the original trilogy, of course. Given how Golden Son is going already, I think it’s safe to say I’m going to give it a better rating than I gave to Red Rising, here.
What do you think of my review? Do you have any counter thoughts? Or, if you haven’t read it, are you intending to? I’d love to get feedback on my review from a fan of this book, so if you did enjoy it, let me know what you think about my own opinions!
Thank you again for checking this out. I appreciate your time! If you’d like to support me, the best way to do so would be to subscribe to my YouTube channel where you can find video versions of the content I put on my website. You can also follow me on social media; I’m @tlbainter on most social media platforms, and I’ll link all of those down below. Instagram is where I’m most active.
My next book review is going to be for the sequel to Red Rising, Golden Son, so stay tuned for that next week! Until next time, bye!