Red Rising is bloodydamn brilliant!

***Disclaimer- be prepared for the overuse of exclamation points!!***

I confess I’ve been absent for the last few days for the best reason a book blogger could ever be- I COULDN’T STOP READING!!! And what is the cause of this sudden burst of book-lovin’? Red Rising! I am *completely* addicted to this series (I started the first one on Monday and am now 2/3 of the way through the second one!)

A lot of people have said the first part was slow because it spent a huge amount of it world-building, but I’m going to be contrary and say I liked that too. Honestly, it was built on such deep, well thought out and accurate research that not only was my inner history nerd satisfied, but I was also completely in love with it. (I’m gonna try and not be too much of a classics geek right now- but seriously- Pierce Brown knows his stuff!) It was while I was reading and enjoying the part everyone warned me about that I thought “wow, if this is good then I am really in for something special”. And I was right.

Because then it got so much better. When the whole “capture the flag” sequence came up, my first thought was “oh not this whole shebang again, now it’s about to get generic”. But it didn’t! It took me by surprise and blew me away.

It was so gripping that I *literally* got on three wrong trains because of it (and I only have to get one train home from work- so it was a real achievement) Reading it actually gave me an adrenaline rush. After I finished I didn’t even feel like a person anymore- I was just stitched together squeals of delight!

But what made this plot more than just a crazy train ride was the sheer brilliance of the characters. Each one of them is complex, exquisite and delightfully drawn. Darrow in particularly has something so few protagonists possess- intelligence. And this is proved not just by Brown saying “he is really good at stuff”, like so many writers do, but by actually *proving* it. Not only do we get to see him solving problems, but we also get to see him evolve and learn as the story goes along. That on its own is worth picking this up for.

I could easily go on for pages about the beauty and quotability of the language. Or I could go on about the genius of the intrigue. Or I could talk about the divine moment at the end when everything came together. But these are things I think you will have to read the book to discover for yourselves….

All that remains to be said for now is *GO AWAY AND READ IT*. Read it because it will make you happy- and when it doesn’t make you happy it will have you tearing your hair out and crying and making you feel all the things a good book should!

Rating 5/5 bananas

So stop what you are doing right now and go and read this bloodydamn book! What are you waiting for? Why are you still reading this? Go and read it now!!

***Read the Review of Golden Son Here***

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