Ask a Kid: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My 12-year-old can’t stop talking about how great the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown (started in 2014) is, so I thought it would make a nice topic for an Ask a Kid column. I talked to them about the series and why they recommend it.

Why do you like this series so much?

It’s a really good sci-fi/dystopian/fantasy series. It’s full of adventure and suspense. I highly recommend this series.

What is it about?

It’s about this society where there are different rankings of people, and each of them is a color. They’ve been genetically bred to do certain things. There are the Reds, which the main character Darrow is. The different colors have different purposes in society in terms of what jobs they do and how much authority they command. The Golds rule the society. The Golds are the descendants of the original people who went to Luna and conquered the old tyrants from Earth.

What’s Darrow’s role in the book?

He’s a Red who live on Mars. And Reds think they have been brought there to dig out helium-3 gas while the planet is being terraformed, but unbeknownst to them, the planet has already been terraformed for decades on the surface. After some bad experiences in Darrow’s life, rebels help Darrow fake his death so that he can infiltrate the Golds and destroy them from the inside.

What do you like about the writing in these books?

It’s kind of an older type of writing. It makes it a little harder to understand, but it’s fine once you get used to it. And the descriptions are very well written.

What kind of readers would like Red Rising?

Anyone who likes sci-fi and dystopian should read it. It’s so good. It’s not that funny, but it’s very good. People who liked Divergent would like this series. If you like a story about someone who keeps rising up but keeps falling back down, you’ll like this.

Content warnings:

Gore, rape, whipping, suicide, death, other violence