Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Dystopian Fiction is all the rage right now.  From Ender to Katniss Everdeen to Tris Pryor, these characters have made themselves into household names.  Now its time to add another name to that list, Darrow Goodman.  Or should I say, Darrow the Red Helldiver of Mars?  

Our story starts in the distant future where humans want to colonize the planet Mars. But the society on Earth and Mars is much different than it is today.  People are divided into castes based on color.  Reds are the dregs of society, they are in charge of mining Mars for Helium 3 which will allow higher colors to terraform Mars.  Its ghoulish, backbreaking and dangerous work.  Darrow is a Red Helldiver, one who is responsible for working the dangerous drills deep in the mines of Mars.

That is until he discovers that not only is Mars completely terraformed, but higher colors have been living off the Reds' life and death in the mines for centuries.  He becomes involved with the group "The Sons of Ares" in order to create an uprising to free the lesser colors.  To do this he must infiltrate the upper echelon of the society, the Golds.  Golds are everything a Red is not, powerful, vain, and utterly ruthless.  To join their ranks, he must look, act and play the part of a Gold to gain entrance to the elite Institute.  Once inside The Institute, can Darrow convincingly rise to the top of the ranks or will he lose himself in the process?  

This read was un-put-downable, full of action and a social commentary which rings true even today.

Recommended by Monica Shine
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