TBB ▲: REVIEW: RED RISING BY PIERCE BROWN.

Title: Red Rising
Author: Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising Trilogy #1
Edition: Paperback
Publication: January 28, 2014 by Del Rey (Random House)
Pages: 382
Source: Bought from Fullybooked
Genre: Sci-fi

Synopsis:

The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

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Red Rising had me pulling my hair out of sheer pain and thrill. However at the beginning, I was skeptical about it because I felt so disconnected to everything in it. I couldn't feel any connection and as I go deeper in to it, I feel lost. The similarity of it with Hunger Games took the best of me and how I had my brows raising because of the undeniably familiar parts of it with Divergent. Even though I've read blurbs saying that Red Rising is a book that will be loved by the fans of the said titles, it didn't prepare me well enough. As a reader, I am not fond of striking similarities because I wanted each book different from each other. If I wanted to read same-plotted books, I would just go ahead and re-read, right? Red Rising lead me on, I thought.

But my love for Pierce Brown is so strong that I held on. I read Red Rising slowly so I could have myself immersed in it. I took my time and BOOM!! There goes my lame self for doubting this story. I was so wrong for questioning why I was even reading it. IT WAS PHENOMENAL. It picked the pace up around 60% in to the book and BAAAM! The awesomeness targeted me like a shot gun. From the intriguing world-building in Mars to a very dystopian setting in their color coded caste system, I became engrossed that I couldn't put it down. I loved, specifically, the language Pierce Brown used in Red Rising. It was something I've never encountered before. It was actually lyrical if I may say so. Plus, even though there are a ton of houses and characters, Pierce Brown was able to give unique voices to each of the characters. I may have not liked EO but I totally adored Pax (*cries*) and Tactus. The Reaper is too good to be true for my taste but Sevro and Roque complimented his strong character. Darrow is too strong and there is no doubt that he will succeed, I sometimes hate him, but his humility pinched my heart and that made him one of the most effective fictional leaders ever written. Though he has so much power, he was not afraid to admit that he's weak and afraid. His wit was fascinating.

Red Rising is absolutely heart-racing, hair-raising and mind-blowing take on a very cruel sci-fi world. It speaks a language so uniquely and tells a story so admirably. Holding distinct characters as its strength, it doesn't stop there. Love, revenge, and freedom are cooking in such impeccable way that tasting Red Rising would have you begging for more.