Review: Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chada

Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this.  It has all of the elements of a book that I like, dystopian setting, cool tech, believable science, and interesting characters.  

The pace was a bit slow for my liking.  Given the fact that this contains all of the elements I like in a sci-fi/YA dystopian book, there wasn't a ton of action.  There is a lot of set up to get to the action parts which takes most of the book.  There is alot of information to process, but not alot of action to accompany it and when it finally does happen it sort of happens all at once and doesn't stop.  This also has an unnecessary romance which the story didn't need.  It is a bit of an insta-love situation and barely on page to begin with, so I really don't feel it added much to the storyline.

Onto the plot...We follow a few different characters trough the book Ashiva, Riz-Ali aka Kid Synch, and Taru.  Ashiva a smuggler for the Red Hand, the rebel group in the South Asian province where the population is split in to two distinct population sets.  Those deemed genetically worthy by the AI that runs everything live in luxury while those deemed unworthy scrape by however they can.  The Red Hand works to protect the weak and the poor and is working to overthrow the government.  Riz or Riza as he is mainly known throughout the book is the son of a prestigious political figure, but he hasn't taken well to the genetic implants that the wealthy all have.  He is also a hacker and finds himself allied with the Red Hand while trying to uncover information about his late uncle.  Taru is Ashiva's adopted sister, and while she has been protected for much of her life inside the Red Hand, she wants to do more to help.  The three of them each play a vital role as a fever begins to spread in the province, and the government begins targeting the poor population.  They aren't sure who they can't trust to save the innocent, but they have to work together to find a way to stop the government from annihilating the people they care about.

I believe this is part of a series, but I thought that this installment closed nicely.  While there may be more to the story, it didn't end on a cliffhanger.  If there are more books in this series, I look forward to reading them.  

I appreciated the glossary of terms at the end of the book as it really helped me to understand some of the terms and world used by the characters throughout the book.  It was at the end of the ARC copy, but I hope it is mentioned in the table of contents or is moved the the beginning of the final version as I wish I had seen it beforehand.  

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