Pierce Brown

Ok, so yes, this is another YA dystopian novel, and yes it shares a lot of common features w/ Hunger Games, Divergent, and Lord of the Flies (among others, I understand), and yet, it is GOOD.

Darrow is a Red -- he's born to serve the other colors with his strength, speed, and perseverance. His ancestors have been sent to Mars to get it ready for terraforming, such that the others can eventually join them and live on the planet.

Only... that's already happened. They just "forgot" to tell the Reds, down below the surface. So they slave away (quite literally), generation after generation.

Until some Reds grow tired of serving the other colors of the human race. Darrow's young wife is one such Red -- she dreams of a time when Reds will be free and equal. And she is taken from Darrow in the most complete of ways for her dreams.

Darrow is allowed a chance to seek his revenge and to perhaps someday see Eo (his wife)'s dreams realized. He is placed in the belly of the beast and we shall see how he can survive.

I ... that's really just the beginning. I don't want to say much more because I think the discovery is much of the charm. (Or you can also just read other reviews if you want more ;))

What's good: Ya know, despite it being just another teen dystopia, it's really good! It's somehow really interesting. Brown has created many sympathetic characters, Reds, Purples, Pinks, and Golds alike. Although the story is written from Darrow's first person perspective, you feel like you really get a sense of what others are feeling and thinking. And that too -- it's written in first person, which is initially jarring and off-putting and ... well, odd, given Darrow's personality. But it actually makes sense for this story. And I think, ultimately, it's how the story needed to be presented. Although Darrow often comes off as an arrogant, thoughtless, typical teen ... you also see growth and understanding and shame - all from his own perspective.

What's not as good. So... yeah, all the comparisons to other YA dystopia are pretty strong. It's Lord of the Flies in that teens are left to their own devices and, as such, there are terrible consequences. It's Hunger Games in that the battles that are being fought are not, necessarily, for others' amusements, but .. well, they are. And it's not actually war .. just kind of play-war. And it's Divergent in the way the teens' rankings are continual and posted and ... brutal and seemingly immoral. (and I know, that's not really clear, but again, I don't want to give anything away :)) So right, it's not terribly original. There's some originality there and it's written well enough, but the story is not really new. And then there are times where the story feels repetitive and redundant ... where maybe it could have repeated the patterns a little less and moved a little more quickly.

But all in all, a quite enjoyable read, and I am definitely looking forward to the 2nd in this trilogy.

I also think it's important to note that there should be mild trigger warnings -- no graphic descriptions, but rape comes up a fair amount in this book, even just the existence of it. No real scenes, no descriptions, just ... it comes up a bit. So mild trigger warnings for the particularly sensitive.

Overall, FOUR of five stars.… (mer)

This has been out for a while, but it didn’t really get on my radar until Justin McElroy recommended it on The Besties. At first, I was dubious because I thought “eugh, another dystopian novel where people are separated into castes? And by color this time? Sounds so heavy-handed. Like I read this already in Shades of Grey. Or every other YA novel in the past ten years where teen girls get sorted by some arbitrary trait and enter a love triangle.”

That happens, but it’s way better than you think. It’s like Hunger Games, Uglies, Harry Potter, and Leviathan Wakes all mixed together and the result is synergistic. I hate to compare this book to those, but we all stand on the shoulders of giants. It’s like the adult version of all those books. Mostly it’s about class conflict, but plot-wise it’s mostly about war. Brutal war. Taking the wargames of Hunger Games and Ender’s Game up to eleven.

This book knocked my socks off. I haven’t gotten lost in a story like this for a long time. Especially since I’m a writer and I examine everything with a critical eye, always through the lens of getting published, seeking out what makes books special. But somehow this book was able to disarm me. It’s just the sort of book I’ve always been looking for. I think males are going to get more out of it than females. Not that the female part is underrepresented, but because most of the book focuses on typically masculine things such as “women as motivating factor”, violence, war, tactics, brave hero that can’t seem to be able to do wrong, and so on. But if you’re into that, no matter what gender, then this is your book.… (mer)