Totally agree with you about the female characters in the first book. I can tell you that Pierce really took notice of that and changed that dynamic in the second and third book. My favorite female character is introduced in Golden Son. You'll know when you meet her! SO HAPPY YOU LIKED IT!! It's so hard for me to not comment on a review of this book and be like *YOU MUST LOVE IT* hahaha
Which female character are people talking about? I just finished it and the only female with somewhat of a personality, that I can think of is Mustang, but she's not introduced in the second book.
Just wait until you read the second book! There's one of my all time favorite female characters in it! She's such a freaking badass. I hope you like her too! Each book is so different from the last, it definitely keeps you on your toes. Oh! And fair warning, you're probably going to want to read Golden Son and Morning Star back-to-back. UGHHH! I just wanna gush about this trilogy so much. Also, the audiobook is AMAZING! Soo, give that a listen too! It's a total different experience. Okay, I'll stop now.. LOL Glad you liked it!
Pierce Brown is incredible with character development, specifically for Darrow. It's incredible to see him evolve over time. And it's not just a one and done kind of growth. He goes through several phases of growth and it continues into Golden Son, which is the one that I'm currently reading.
Darrow is one of my favorite characters ever, mostly because of how much he changes and grows. I love his struggles and weaknesses. His narration is really broody and I loveeee it.
YESSS!! SO happy you enjoyed it. This is one of the first series I read since I started booktube and I couldn't love it more! I hope your opinion changes of the female characters as the books go on because some of them become even more badass than Darrow at times!! I'm planning on re-reading this myself if I ever catch up on my Brandon Sanderson books!!
OMG, you finally read it, Red Rising is my favorite book, its not like hunger games, its more like catch the flag game, and if you liked this book, the second Golden Son is soooo good, you get more space and twists, hipe you read it soon
This was a great synopsis. I loved the Red Rising trilogy but it's been over a year since I read it. When you were talking about the female characters, I kept thinking, "What about Mustang?" I remember her as a really great, complex, fleshed out character, but then maybe that was in the 2nd and 3rd books? You're making want to re-read them!
Yeah, she grows a lot in the next books, and then you also have Victra (who I loved) but they play a bigger part in the next ones. And I also read them last year, and feel like rereading them as well!
I'm so glad you liked it!! Also, THANK YOU for articulating the fact that it honestly isn't much like The Hunger Games--I always just roll my eyes at that comparison.
Mustang's character really takes off in the second book and my all time favorite female character shows up in the second book too. The second book really expands the world and I would highly recommend reading that one pretty soon cause its straight up sci fi at that point.
This is my absolute favourite series. I'm so so happy you enjoyed it! I get where you're coming from about the females being motivators. In the later books it seems like that's fixed from what I can remember!
I think you may like some of the growth from some of the female characters later on in the series. I do agree that there isn't ENOUGH growth, though, which makes me sad since Brown's male characters are the bomb. Sevro is bae. I really think you'll like Golden Sun way more than Red Rising!
brown does so great with his female characters, i think the first book is such a narrow perspective from darrow that it is intentionally like that in the first novel
This is the only trilogy that i have read in less than a week and i just loved it so much. In the later books get ready to have your heart ripped out, put into a blender and watch as someone pours it down the sink. Its just... god.. i just... still...
Oh man! Keep reading Sam! The evolution of Darrow's perspective toward Eo, as well as his relationship to Mustang (and some more female characters later) develops SO MUCH. I think this is similar to The Magicians where it makes more sense to read all three & then judge vs evaluating each individual book. The first is my least favorite of the series & I gave it a 4.5 Stars, haha!! Hope you love the rest! :)
I started reading this book because I saw you're reading it on goodreads 😁 I'm loving it! And like you said I hope the next books will have more strong female characters too! ✌️
I adore this series! The females do get more fleshed out as we go along, btw. Such a cool mix of science fiction, Greco-Roman culture, and brutality on this epic scale. 👍👍
The second book is phenomenal; even though I wasn't an enormous fan of the first book, Golden Son definitely made up for all the problems I had with Red Rising 👏🏻
This has been sitting on my shelf for ages, and now I'm definitely going to have to move it up on my list. So I should get to it within the next few months :P
One of my friends recommend to this to me just last week and I've had a copy of it on my shelf for a couple years now. I'm going to get to it asap, I'm just finishing up the Red Queen series...
this was the one where I was like, yeah, I'll give you the Hunger Games reference BUT IT'S SO MUCH MORE! I loved this series so much. I am a ho for a raging revenge story and this checked so many boxes for me. :)
I love this series so much. I'm so glad you are here reading. I think you will like the female characters more in the second and third novel. Mustang has much more going on later and there are others that I don't want to spoil for you. I thought I was going to hate it and I ended up marathoning the whole thing because I cared way too much about Darrow and Sevro.
I just finished reading this like 10 minutes ago and these are my feelings. I see where you’re coming from when it comes to the female characters, but I’m not completely sold. You’re definitely correct about the male characters, Sevro specifically, are much more fleshed out. With that being said, I feel like Eo was something so much bigger than you’re giving her credit for. I don’t necessarily see her so much as a motivator for Darrow, but as a symbol for the oppressed. Mustang on the other hand had to be kept as somewhat of a mystery for obvious reasons. I think she will only become more important as the series progresses.
I honestly loved the whole trilogy and I cannot wait to read the new Brown's book that's comming out later this year. I gave Red Rising to my boyfriend (well I had to wait for it to be translated into Czech as my boyfriend doesn't read in English) and he seems to enjoy it too :) Personally I loved the third book the most as it made me cry and the story wrapped up perfectly! :)
I love this series so so much, and while the female characters aren't as fleshed out in this book, they definitely get better, and the best thing is, they all grow as characters too, Darrow especially. I also love the amount of plot twists and the uniqueness of the story. You're definitely right when you say that it's totally not like the hunger games (I do see the Lord of the Flies though) and the world becomes much much bigger in the next couple books, completely eliminating hunger games from similarities)
I thought I'd be forgiving of this book because I also really liked the world building and atmosphere (sort of science fantasy epic rather than just dystopian thanks to the Greek mythology influence) but the brutalization (murder, rape) and general misuse (lack of character, random kidnapping and rescue of a damsel in distress who then thinks it's quirky to point out she's a damsel in distress and how she "hates those girls!") of female characters just pissed me off so much. Also the language in general? One of the opening pages has the sentence "[male character] bawled like a girl..." I did not like that :/ and then it just got worse. I wish I could have gotten more into the plot, because like you said the world is interesting and the story can be intriguing. I have other problems with the story and Darrow as a character (didn't like him as much as you did and I felt the other characters--even the male ones--to be a little shallow). But I just could not get over the treatment of the female characters. It disgusted me too much.
Rebeca A. Yeah the fact that none of the female characters had any agency was really upsetting since there were plenty of awesome ladies characters in there, if they would have been utilized properly.
This is one of my all time favorite series, and I think if you liked the first book this much you'll love the next two because the world expands and it becomes so much bigger. Also like you I was SO put off with the Eo thing at the beginning, because it felt so much like fridging and I was just like, ugh, really? (Especially the secret~) But actually I thought it was handled really well throughout the series, far better than I've seen in other books and stories, especially in the context of a revolution type story - but I don't want to say too much and spoil anything. I hear you on the male to female ratio of characters, but I hope you like Mustang more in the next book, I absolutely love her. She's the smartest character and so awesome. You'll also meet another great female character in the next book who is fantastic! And when it comes down to it, the four main protagonists are two men and two women. Anyway, enjoy!! I'll be looking forward to your videos for the next two books. XD
omg also I wanted to mention I HATE when this book gets compared to The Hunger Games! I don't see it at all, also Pierce said he hadn't even read HG before he wrote this.
I felt the same way about the female characters when I first read this book, which is also why I wouldn't have rated it 5 stars either. The second book is my favorite in the series because the world expands and you get to see how intelligent Mustang is and it also introduces one of my favorite female characters ever.
I loved Red Rising :) Book 2 was a bit of a miss for me but I'm glad to see you like it. I've seen a lot of people compare the plot to The Red Queen but I haven't read that one. Would you say they're similar?
3:55 ... Sometimes, maybe. But I think it kind of applies to all the characters, not just the women, because the whole story is narrated from the first person view of the protagonist. Specifically in case of his wife I would say the motivation was mostly revenge, and seeking justice, and it was similar to his father and other people of his "caste" who also died in the same unjust way. All the other female characters kind of had lives and plans of their own, at least to a similar degree that male characters had.
I'm currently on the third book but the only thing I hate about this trilogy is it can be info-dumpy most of the time especially with those "combined-words" like moodGlass, starShell, duroArmor, those kinds of words are just thrown to you like all the time without many context to help you what are their meanings, Considering I'm already on the third and final book I'm still having a hard time dealing with this problem. BUT i still like this trilogy and I'll probably read the continuation of this trilogy (Iron Gold on 2018)
This trilogy is honestly the most heart wrenching, exciting, truly gripping with many screeches of OH MY GOD throughout, series I have read in YEARS. Also, I agree this isn't YA at all, and nothing like the Hunger Games. This description annoys me a little and how it's plastered on so many books, which could potentially put people off.
Yeah, I'm lucky I didn't do too much research on the book before deciding to read it. I didn't like the hunger games, so if I'd have seen that comparison, I never would have given this book the chance it deserved. It turned out to be an awesome series.
Personally this book was not for me. The writing felt melodramatic which isn't my thing. I'm glad I stumbled across your channel, though, and I look forward to watching more reviews.
Hello! I know that this video is almost a year old, but I hope people are still watching so maybe someone could answer my question. Everyone loves this book! But im only 38 pages in and its taken me SO long to get there, I just cant seem to stay interested in what Im reading (rereading passages, zoning off, etc). I just wanted to know if anyone could tell me when the story really "takes off" because i think if i had a goal to get to i could push myself to read this because I want to join the hype!! Thanks everyone in advance :))
Gosh I started this and I dislike it so much and I'm coming back to this review and??? honestly I hate how the character was just thrown into this whole mess and he just followed along without questioning anything and? I don't know... I'll read the whole book but I have no intention on continuing the series, does it get better? I agree about female characters too :(
somehow you ran into the point and still missed it LOL because that never tends to happen. male characters are frequently not written without agency even when they are side characters. female characters often are though
Yeah you were vague I guess, and definitely not as bad as some reviews. However, from watching I learnt - how he had to grow up quickily etc. He is married and something happens to his wife, or to do with his wife > leading him to be at odds with 'society' which he eventually 'infiltrates'. Its probably hard, but I think your review focuses a tad too much on plot. czcams.com/users/InkBonesBooksvideos does good nonspoiler reviews imo. Anyway, was a bit harsh. Thx for review anyway
Totally agree with you about the female characters in the first book. I can tell you that Pierce really took notice of that and changed that dynamic in the second and third book. My favorite female character is introduced in Golden Son. You'll know when you meet her! SO HAPPY YOU LIKED IT!! It's so hard for me to not comment on a review of this book and be like *YOU MUST LOVE IT* hahaha
Everyone has been commenting and saying the next books are even better, and that the female characters really improve so that makes me happy.
Which female character are people talking about? I just finished it and the only female with somewhat of a personality, that I can think of is Mustang, but she's not introduced in the second book.
Just wait until you read the second book! There's one of my all time favorite female characters in it! She's such a freaking badass. I hope you like her too! Each book is so different from the last, it definitely keeps you on your toes. Oh! And fair warning, you're probably going to want to read Golden Son and Morning Star back-to-back. UGHHH! I just wanna gush about this trilogy so much. Also, the audiobook is AMAZING! Soo, give that a listen too! It's a total different experience. Okay, I'll stop now.. LOL Glad you liked it!
Pierce Brown is incredible with character development, specifically for Darrow. It's incredible to see him evolve over time. And it's not just a one and done kind of growth. He goes through several phases of growth and it continues into Golden Son, which is the one that I'm currently reading.
Darrow is one of my favorite characters ever, mostly because of how much he changes and grows. I love his struggles and weaknesses. His narration is really broody and I loveeee it.
I just wanted to say that everytime I see you, I think about The Darkling. You remind me of him!
Klaudia F. Wears black, sass level over 9000, takes no shit from anyone, is in love with Alina....yeah, I'm pretty sure Sam is Fem!Darkling now 😂
THANK YOU
YESSS!! SO happy you enjoyed it. This is one of the first series I read since I started booktube and I couldn't love it more! I hope your opinion changes of the female characters as the books go on because some of them become even more badass than Darrow at times!! I'm planning on re-reading this myself if I ever catch up on my Brandon Sanderson books!!
OMG, you finally read it, Red Rising is my favorite book, its not like hunger games, its more like catch the flag game, and if you liked this book, the second Golden Son is soooo good, you get more space and twists, hipe you read it soon
This was a great synopsis. I loved the Red Rising trilogy but it's been over a year since I read it. When you were talking about the female characters, I kept thinking, "What about Mustang?" I remember her as a really great, complex, fleshed out character, but then maybe that was in the 2nd and 3rd books? You're making want to re-read them!
Yeah, she grows a lot in the next books, and then you also have Victra (who I loved) but they play a bigger part in the next ones. And I also read them last year, and feel like rereading them as well!
Everyone has been saying she gets fleshed out in later books, and I cannot wait.
I'm so glad you liked it!! Also, THANK YOU for articulating the fact that it honestly isn't much like The Hunger Games--I always just roll my eyes at that comparison.
right?! It's so inaccurate!
the only reason that I don't own this yet is that the paperback was $18 where I live- I'm waiting to buy the hardback on amazon
Can't wait to read it!
This is such a good review! It's also on my TBR but I haven't felt extremely motivated to read it over some other books 😋
Mustang's character really takes off in the second book and my all time favorite female character shows up in the second book too. The second book really expands the world and I would highly recommend reading that one pretty soon cause its straight up sci fi at that point.
UberWackyAmerican that's exciting!
This is my absolute favourite series. I'm so so happy you enjoyed it! I get where you're coming from about the females being motivators. In the later books it seems like that's fixed from what I can remember!
Female characters only for motivation??
Cough, cough, Mustang
I think she was a lot more important than motivation even in Book 1
Eo literally was sacrificed herself, it just goes to show how much influence she had in Darrow! Also, Mustang was obviously smarter than Darrow
I think you may like some of the growth from some of the female characters later on in the series. I do agree that there isn't ENOUGH growth, though, which makes me sad since Brown's male characters are the bomb. Sevro is bae. I really think you'll like Golden Sun way more than Red Rising!
brown does so great with his female characters, i think the first book is such a narrow perspective from darrow that it is intentionally like that in the first novel
This is the only trilogy that i have read in less than a week and i just loved it so much. In the later books get ready to have your heart ripped out, put into a blender and watch as someone pours it down the sink. Its just... god.. i just... still...
Oh man! Keep reading Sam! The evolution of Darrow's perspective toward Eo, as well as his relationship to Mustang (and some more female characters later) develops SO MUCH. I think this is similar to The Magicians where it makes more sense to read all three & then judge vs evaluating each individual book. The first is my least favorite of the series & I gave it a 4.5 Stars, haha!! Hope you love the rest! :)
I started reading this book because I saw you're reading it on goodreads 😁 I'm loving it! And like you said I hope the next books will have more strong female characters too! ✌️
I adore this series! The females do get more fleshed out as we go along, btw. Such a cool mix of science fiction, Greco-Roman culture, and brutality on this epic scale. 👍👍
I've heard. That makes me happy :)
If they made this book series into a tv show with the same art style as Arcane on Netflix, it would be magic.
The second book is phenomenal; even though I wasn't an enormous fan of the first book, Golden Son definitely made up for all the problems I had with Red Rising 👏🏻
so many people say the series just gets better and better.
BECAUSE IT DOESSSSSSSS lol
Sevro is my favourite character in this book.
This has been sitting on my shelf for ages, and now I'm definitely going to have to move it up on my list. So I should get to it within the next few months :P
One of my friends recommend to this to me just last week and I've had a copy of it on my shelf for a couple years now. I'm going to get to it asap, I'm just finishing up the Red Queen series...
Such a good series, I was blown away :)
this was the one where I was like, yeah, I'll give you the Hunger Games reference BUT IT'S SO MUCH MORE! I loved this series so much. I am a ho for a raging revenge story and this checked so many boxes for me. :)
I love this series so much. I'm so glad you are here reading. I think you will like the female characters more in the second and third novel. Mustang has much more going on later and there are others that I don't want to spoil for you.
I thought I was going to hate it and I ended up marathoning the whole thing because I cared way too much about Darrow and Sevro.
I just finished reading this like 10 minutes ago and these are my feelings. I see where you’re coming from when it comes to the female characters, but I’m not completely sold. You’re definitely correct about the male characters, Sevro specifically, are much more fleshed out. With that being said, I feel like Eo was something so much bigger than you’re giving her credit for. I don’t necessarily see her so much as a motivator for Darrow, but as a symbol for the oppressed. Mustang on the other hand had to be kept as somewhat of a mystery for obvious reasons. I think she will only become more important as the series progresses.
I honestly loved the whole trilogy and I cannot wait to read the new Brown's book that's comming out later this year. I gave Red Rising to my boyfriend (well I had to wait for it to be translated into Czech as my boyfriend doesn't read in English) and he seems to enjoy it too :) Personally I loved the third book the most as it made me cry and the story wrapped up perfectly! :)
I loved Red Rising. I've been itching to pick up the next book!
I was so waiting for this video....I also enjoyed Red Rising...cant wait for you you read Golden Son 😁
your hair looks soooo amazing
thank you.
AAAAHHHHHHH i can't wait for your spoliery one!
I love this series so so much, and while the female characters aren't as fleshed out in this book, they definitely get better, and the best thing is, they all grow as characters too, Darrow especially. I also love the amount of plot twists and the uniqueness of the story. You're definitely right when you say that it's totally not like the hunger games (I do see the Lord of the Flies though) and the world becomes much much bigger in the next couple books, completely eliminating hunger games from similarities)
I definitely see Lord of the Flies more!
I thought I'd be forgiving of this book because I also really liked the world building and atmosphere (sort of science fantasy epic rather than just dystopian thanks to the Greek mythology influence) but the brutalization (murder, rape) and general misuse (lack of character, random kidnapping and rescue of a damsel in distress who then thinks it's quirky to point out she's a damsel in distress and how she "hates those girls!") of female characters just pissed me off so much. Also the language in general? One of the opening pages has the sentence "[male character] bawled like a girl..."
I did not like that :/ and then it just got worse.
I wish I could have gotten more into the plot, because like you said the world is interesting and the story can be intriguing. I have other problems with the story and Darrow as a character (didn't like him as much as you did and I felt the other characters--even the male ones--to be a little shallow). But I just could not get over the treatment of the female characters. It disgusted me too much.
Rebeca A. Yeah the fact that none of the female characters had any agency was really upsetting since there were plenty of awesome ladies characters in there, if they would have been utilized properly.
Rebeca A. A lot of the female characters get better characterization in the second book and a lot of the problems in red rising improve in Golden Son.
the audiobooks are great also.
good to know!
Love this trilogy. Like
God I love these books so freaking much.
This is one of my all time favorite series, and I think if you liked the first book this much you'll love the next two because the world expands and it becomes so much bigger. Also like you I was SO put off with the Eo thing at the beginning, because it felt so much like fridging and I was just like, ugh, really? (Especially the secret~) But actually I thought it was handled really well throughout the series, far better than I've seen in other books and stories, especially in the context of a revolution type story - but I don't want to say too much and spoil anything. I hear you on the male to female ratio of characters, but I hope you like Mustang more in the next book, I absolutely love her. She's the smartest character and so awesome. You'll also meet another great female character in the next book who is fantastic! And when it comes down to it, the four main protagonists are two men and two women. Anyway, enjoy!! I'll be looking forward to your videos for the next two books. XD
omg also I wanted to mention I HATE when this book gets compared to The Hunger Games! I don't see it at all, also Pierce said he hadn't even read HG before he wrote this.
I felt the same way about the female characters when I first read this book, which is also why I wouldn't have rated it 5 stars either. The second book is my favorite in the series because the world expands and you get to see how intelligent Mustang is and it also introduces one of my favorite female characters ever.
Morgan House that's so good to hear!
I loved Red Rising :) Book 2 was a bit of a miss for me but I'm glad to see you like it. I've seen a lot of people compare the plot to The Red Queen but I haven't read that one. Would you say they're similar?
No, not really. I've only read the first Red Queen book, but they didn't feel similar to me.
3:55 ... Sometimes, maybe. But I think it kind of applies to all the characters, not just the women, because the whole story is narrated from the first person view of the protagonist. Specifically in case of his wife I would say the motivation was mostly revenge, and seeking justice, and it was similar to his father and other people of his "caste" who also died in the same unjust way. All the other female characters kind of had lives and plans of their own, at least to a similar degree that male characters had.
I have been putting the book off cuz its been hyped soo much in my opinion soo im really interested ..i might read it soon during my school break
lor lacs I hope you enjoy it!
Hi I love your videos and I've been watching since 2016 in September
Bumps Trash thank you 💜
I'm currently on the third book but the only thing I hate about this trilogy is it can be info-dumpy most of the time especially with those "combined-words" like moodGlass, starShell, duroArmor, those kinds of words are just thrown to you like all the time without many context to help you what are their meanings,
Considering I'm already on the third and final book I'm still having a hard time dealing with this problem. BUT i still like this trilogy and I'll probably read the continuation of this trilogy (Iron Gold on 2018)
This trilogy is honestly the most heart wrenching, exciting, truly gripping with many screeches of OH MY GOD throughout, series I have read in YEARS. Also, I agree this isn't YA at all, and nothing like the Hunger Games. This description annoys me a little and how it's plastered on so many books, which could potentially put people off.
Yeah, I'm lucky I didn't do too much research on the book before deciding to read it. I didn't like the hunger games, so if I'd have seen that comparison, I never would have given this book the chance it deserved. It turned out to be an awesome series.
dude where is the spoiler review would love to see that! Please do read the second book. It has a lot of character development!
I'm sure your tired of hearing this question but are you doing a gush video for this ?
I was planning on doing a gush after the second or even a series gush.
it gets better and better and better...
I've heard!
Personally this book was not for me. The writing felt melodramatic which isn't my thing. I'm glad I stumbled across your channel, though, and I look forward to watching more reviews.
Hello! I know that this video is almost a year old, but I hope people are still watching so maybe someone could answer my question. Everyone loves this book! But im only 38 pages in and its taken me SO long to get there, I just cant seem to stay interested in what Im reading (rereading passages, zoning off, etc). I just wanted to know if anyone could tell me when the story really "takes off" because i think if i had a goal to get to i could push myself to read this because I want to join the hype!! Thanks everyone in advance :))
It does take off about 75-100 pages in imo
Im on chapter 22 and it's capture the flag... they're playing capture the flag
Wow it even says capture the flag later in the chapter. Ha! Scoreboard
Gosh I started this and I dislike it so much and I'm coming back to this review and??? honestly I hate how the character was just thrown into this whole mess and he just followed along without questioning anything and? I don't know... I'll read the whole book but I have no intention on continuing the series, does it get better? I agree about female characters too :(
I can't answer "does it get better" because I've enjoyed it so you do you
opinions are different of course :) thanks, I might at some point
She said adult. Isn’t it YA though?
nope it's adult
Looking for a review where you complain about a male character not having agency (specifically in novels with a female pov). Biased much?
somehow you ran into the point and still missed it LOL because that never tends to happen. male characters are frequently not written without agency even when they are side characters. female characters often are though
Do any of you guys know where I can I find good fanfiction?
Allison Harlin archive of our own is your saving grace. FanFiction has some great stuff as well if you're willing to dig for it.
ugh.. spoiler free my ass
um what review did you watch because I was sooooooo vague in this and said nothing about the plot besides what is in the synopsis soooo :))))
Yeah you were vague I guess, and definitely not as bad as some reviews. However, from watching I learnt - how he had to grow up quickily etc. He is married and something happens to his wife, or to do with his wife > leading him to be at odds with 'society' which he eventually 'infiltrates'. Its probably hard, but I think your review focuses a tad too much on plot. czcams.com/users/InkBonesBooksvideos does good nonspoiler reviews imo. Anyway, was a bit harsh. Thx for review anyway