Like Red Rising, I loved this book. I get very attached to well written characters and there are plenty of them here. The first of the series cut me and then the process of healing, having the wound reopened, healing, reopening and on an on ad nauseam began. It's the kind of hurt that grows on you though.

Here's the "spoiler": as much as I really really enjoyed this book, the end sort of cemented my issues of naïveté within the characters. I so want good to win, but sometimes these characters seem dumb as stumps. Like, they deserve these horrible things that happen to them. I understand that this is the flow of this type of story. I suspect that there will be much more personal tragedy before Darrow accomplishes his mission. I just wonder what the final cost will be. I might be irritated by this ending, but...I'll be starting the final book this evening. SMH.