book review: "red rising" trilogy
i’ve been waiting for so long for the final book of this trilogy to publish and get to my doorstep. ok, so it was only a year, but still.
i reviewed the first book of this series, “red rising”, back when i finished that. i was enamored. i was not as enamored by the second book when i first read it, but now i reread them in preparation for the final book, i liked it a bit more. anyway. let’s talk about these books.
it’s hard coming into these books right after a very frilly, very thorough writer*; pierce brown’s style in these books is very frank, honest, and gritty, and comes in the first person of our hero, darrow. but as you get in a little deeper, you understand that this man can write action, and the compact sentences help create a world of class war.
we’re in a world(s) where the elite have their heels on the tiers of lower classes and have the technology and bodies to back it up. our hero, helped out by a cast of characters along the way, rises from the very bottom to the very top to make mayhem and tear down the classes.
like i wrote in my first review, brown’s influenced by many writers, and you can tell as you read through the plotline, but it’s so mashed up and in such an exciting package, you push that aside.
plus, how can you go wrong when the hero’s nickname is “the reaper.”
the last 100 pages or so of “red rising” is still my favorite section of the books. it’s raw, animalistic, and really when darrow sees what he needs to do and how he needs to act. he understands that to make this work, he needs to rely on and trust his friends and make real relationships. while that’s my favorite, the end of the third book was really close; i was grinning like a fool as i read the end of “morning star.” without giving too much away, let’s say i felt what i felt at the end of HP7.
wholehearted five stars to this trilogy. the last book is what i wanted “mockingjay” to be. it’s on par with HP. it’s the end of every star trek film on steroids. if they decide to make a movie, i will be very terrified and very excited at the same time.
* the typos. my god, the typos. and ORIENTATE is NOT a word. i had to wonder where on earth the copy editors were. i’ll forgive him though; he did use farther correctly every single time. also, just a note: these are adult books, not YA. mr. brown himself has said that these are adult books. i think a lot of teens read them, but a lot of teems read other adult books as well.
