Lynnie 
fantasy, young adult
Darrow is a Red, the lowest caste in society, working alongside his family for the betterment of society and the future promise for his ancestors. When he learns that society has already reached their goals and he, along with the other reds, are merely uninformed slaves to a self-indulgent society, he transforms himself in order to become what he hates most.
I refrained from reading Pierce Brown's Red Rising for quite a long time because the book description sounded too much like Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen novels and I thought, "well I've read that story haven't I?" To be fair there are some similarities, main characters named Barrow vs Darrow, a class/caste system where Reds are the lowest and Golds (Red Rising) or Silvers (Red Queen) are the top tier and, of course, a Red masquerading in order to fit into the Gold or Silver society and take them down.
And yet, the stories are fundamentally and significantly different; those similarities are really just superficial. Red Queen is more focused on relationships while Red Rising is all about the battle. Watching Darrow's transformation from Red Helldiver to elite Gold student is fascinating, and often heartbreaking. His journey through The Institute was brutal and full of non-stop action. Even when I could predict what would happen, I still wanted to read it.
That said, I just realized there are five books in this series and I do not love that news. I'm not ready to jump into the next book and wade through the strategy, backstabbing, and machinations of the Golds as we learn more about them, but perhaps I'll get there soon.
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