I've never participated in a book club before, but I have decided it's about time I did. Hence, I joined the Monster Goddess Book Club run by Tash at The Bookie Monsters and The Book Goddess. January's book was Red Rising by Pierce Brown (yes, I know I am super late in posting my review, but better late than never, right?).

Summary of Red Rising

In a color-coded society on Mars, Darrow is a Red doomed to be the lowest of the low for the rest of his life. At sixteen, he works all day believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. One day Darrow learns the shocking truth: humanity reached the surface generations ago, and Darrow and the other Reds are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Desperate for revenge, Darrow plans to bring down the elite Golds by pretending to be one of them. He infiltrates the Institute where the next generation of humanity's rulers fight for dominance.

Review

Characters, in my opinion, can make or break a story. If the reader doesn't care about the main character, they won't want to finish the story. If I wasn't reading Red Rising for a book club, I would've stopped reading a quarter of the way through the book because I didn't like or care about what happened to the main character Darrow. I was much more interested in secondary characters. I'm glad I stuck with the story because the writing is engaging, the world building is great, and the plot is face paced. All told, author Pierce Brown has everything needed for a bestseller.

In fact, Red Rising reminded me of The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Percy Jackson series, and the Game of Thrones series. Children are pitted against each other in deadly combat, there are Houses based off of the Roman Gods (which were pretty much the same as the Greek gods), and alliances and betrayals are used to struggle for dominance. In The Hunger Games, Katniss is disgusted at the extravagance and waste of the Capitol is the same way Darrow is sickened when he sees the surface of Mars and the decadent life of the Golds. He even gets a makeover like Katniss (though Darrow's makeover is way more intense).

As I mentioned before, I liked secondary characters more than I liked Darrow. I would've much preferred if the story followed Eo or Mustang. Much like when I read A Song of Fire and Ice, I found myself wishing I could skip over the parts that didn't include my favorite characters. Eo is a bright, optimistic girl, but Pierce blows past her before the reader truly gets to know her. Mustang is smart, loyal, and a conscientious leader. I cared about what happened to Mustang. Give me a book with Mustang as the main character, and I will happily gobble it up.

Will I read the second book in the series? Maybe. I have a lot of books on my TBR list.