Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown

"The Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones but packed with so much emotion, struggle, intricately rich characters and sharply carved twists/turns that it keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very last page."

5 STARS

Pros: The author is phenomenally good at making you feel the struggle of Darrow and his dual roles/The Jackal is a truly terrifying character. 

Cons: There are a LOT of characters to keep track of and though the most important do stand out, sometimes people can get lost in the shuffle. 

Full Review: 

Darrow is a Red, born on a colony in Lykos, his life's purpose to mine and gather Helium 3, which he is led to believe, will help the others terraform Mars when they arrive. This is all he knows. This is his life. He works, he loves his wife Eo and they celebrate simple things like songs, dancing and family. But his world all comes crashing down when he and Eo find a secret garden and are sentenced to be flogged as punishment. 

Darrow takes the punishment as does Eo, but as she is flogged, she begins to sing. And there are two things that are punishable by death on Mars. The Reaping Dance, which Darrow's father did when Darrow was a child, and the song that Eo sings. She is hanged for this crime, the punishment doled out by the Arch Governor of Mars, Nero Au Augustus, a cold, emotionless man, but most important of all, a Peerless Scarred Gold. 

Golds are the rulers, the leaders, the politicians and warriors. And the Peerless Scarred are a unique breed. The scars on their cheeks remind everyone that they have survived the Institute, a place where only Golds may go and only the strong survive. After Eo's death, Darrow vows to see Nero Au Augustus dead and in order to do this, he must become a Gold. 

The story is intricate, well balanced and so extremely complex and emotional that every single twist and turn is like a punch to the stomach. You think you know what's going to happen but the Author throws something completely out of left field and you're left speechless. There are scenes like the Passage, where two people are put into a room and only one will survive. And also characters as brutal, inhuman and ruthless as the Jackal, a fellow student in the Institute with Darrow. 

Not only must Darrow fight to keep Eo's dream of their world, their people being free from the chains that bind them, held in the hands of the Golds;he must also fight to not lose himself. He may look like a Gold, talk like a Gold, act like a Gold, but in the end, he is always at war with himself. He is always fighting to remember Eo and what she died for. And it is a struggle that the reader shares because as the story progresses we find that not all Golds are monsters. Some of them are kind and gentle, like Roque, while others are smart, quick-witted and passionate like Mustang (Virginia.) 

It is so hard to know who to trust and who to care for and like Darrow, the reader is constantly wondering when will the other shoe drop? Who will end up betraying him? How can he possibly continue living the way he is without being found out? 

It is an incredible story and an engrossing read. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone but especially to fans of Collins', The Hunger Games, Martins' Game of Thrones and anyone with an interest in Greek/Roman Mythology. This is my second time reading this book and though I already knew what was going to happen, it still had me hooked on every page.