Red Rising

Hunger Games in Space with even more bloodshed
Coming from a long stretch of reading just fantasy, I had trouble at the beginning of getting in the story. Once in the flow, I was shocked at the described violence and abyss of humanity. A society divided not by blood or skin colour but by birth caste. Throw in some well established slavery, injustice by the ruling parties and terrible death, you have yourself the beginning of a revolution at hand. But to understand the enemy and to get close, you have to become the enemy? The “school” to become the highest Golds does teach survival and victory by all brutal means necessary. It reminds of an even more bloody version of the Hunger Games, complete with allies and “allies”, weapons, butchering, betrayal, determination and cheating. Our MMC feels holier-than-thou and everything roots back in an event I in the end call hypocrisies. Overall however, I did get sucked in his portrayal and depiction of human error and psychological missteps (way too tame an expression) and am intrigued in seeing this self-deceiving mess further in his story. Obviously I root for the caste society to crumble and I will gladly read how it burns.