Red Rising

Red rising has a lot in common with the first book in two other recently published YA trilogies: The Hunger Games and Divergent. It is as good as, or better than, they are. It is the story of an exceptionally talented young adult in an oppressive dystopia. The Red caste, the lowest of the castes, are manual laborers. The Golds rule the Society. At first we see the Golds as cruel patricians, but the story reveals them as brutal barbarians, decadent and corrupt.

Darrow is a 16 year old hell-diver, a mine worker, a Red. His father and his young wife are executed by the Golds for small acts of defiance. Burning with hatred for the Golds, Darrow masquerades as a Gold in a scheme to destroy the power of the Golds from the inside, and prevails in trials and contests of war. In the brutal war games he proves himself as an Alexander the Great, and is adopted by one of the great houses. Thus the stage is set for the sequel.

An engaging page turner; can't put it down.