Sadly I need to DNF this book, I found the premises interesting at first, and the cover looked fantastic, which was one of the first things that got me to request it. Sadly I found the plot hard to follow and I would have like for the setting to be better explored.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I had a hard time making it through this book. It has some interesting ideas but it kind of got lost in the mix. I would be curious to see if a reread helps with this.

Originally didn’t give feedback because I DNF, but it’s hurting my feedback ratio, so I will say it sounded interesting but wasn’t for me. I also never rate books I DNF but this makes me.

Impressive world-building after a bit of an initial data dump. This got better and better as the book progressed, and I am definitely looking forward to the sequel. This will be easy to put in the hands of 8th grade + students with an interest in more diverse science fiction.

I loved the complex world and characters. They all have their issues which makes them even more relatable and raw. Sometimes it felt like the plot was too slow. Yet at the same time the love story felt a but rushed though and I felt like there was no real development to the relationship.

Unfortunately this was an early DNF for me. I just couldn't get with the writing style. I am also not generally a scifi fam so take that what you will.

I loved this book. The premise attracted me to this book and I was not left disappointed. The sci-fi elements in this book were great and the book itself was well-written. It was thought-provoking and dealt with some social issues at times which I liked. Our main character was also disabled which I don't see a lot, but I thought was nice and really liked.
I would love to read it again and recommend it.

A roller coaster ride and a fascinating, engrossing read! The setting was fantastic and it's thought-provoking in addition to being fast-paced.

I tried to start reading this one, but couldn't get into it. Everything was just a bit too far fetched, and the story was really slow. I'm sure others will like this, but it just wasn't my thing.

this was a really fun read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed going on this journey. It had what I was looking for in a scifi novel.

I have to say I'm really disappointed. I have a rule for myself, if I'm not in to a book after 50-75 pages I don't finish it and I didn't finish this book. I was excited to read a book by a south Asian author with a plot that sounded exciting. While this book had an interested jumping off point and attempted to toss the reader into the plot. I found myself confused and frustrated. I'm hoping for the best next time.

An engaging and entertaining sci-fi adventure, Rise of the Red Hand was a captivating read. I loved the characters, and found the main characters a compelling protagonist. I thought the blend between social issues and the plot was effective and it really resonated. Though at times I was caught up by the world-building or pacing, I really enjoyed the book overall and can’t wait to see what comes next from this author.

A really interesting speculative work—I'm curious to see what Chadha does next and how their writing grows.

There's a plenty of reasons to love this story but I didn't like the style of writing (too much information) and the story fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Very interesting take and quite enjoyable. Have been recommending to many fantasy/ science fiction readers but it isn't one that I loved.

Im sad because I wanted to love this so badly. To start off on a positive note, I enjoyed the positivity surrounding amputees and people with disabilities in this book. It's something that isn't often seen in fantasy, and I really loved how the main character was proud of her scars and did not let them lower her confidence. I also loved seeing glimpses of south asian food and language throughout the story.
Unfortunately, the writing style in this book was really not for me. It kept pulling me out of the story and I could not get invested in the characters and their issues. Also, the world building alternated between being confusing and super clunky/redundant. Finally, while I don't mind a slow story, but the first half of the book was just so insanely dull and literally put me to sleep multiple times. The first chapter was action packed, but after that it was pure set-up and the main characters didn't even meet until halfway through the book. I tried to push through multiple times but I ended up DNF'ing at 56%. I still think there's an audience who would enjoy this though; perhaps those who are on the younger side of the YA audience.

DNF at 12%

I just couldn't make myself read it. I was honestly bored to death because there was so much information and world building being dumped on me and yet I had no reason to care for the mc or any character really. I felt detached, not pulled into the story.

Trust me, nobody is more disappointed than myself that I didn't like this book 😩

This book was so flitting good. I really enjoyed the characters (especially Ashiva) and I thought the plot was really well done. The world-building was so intriguing and although I do think there could have been a little more explanation of the tech, I didn't feel like I was missing anything that would hinder my reading experience. In all honesty, the only reason this wasn't a 5 star for me was the romance, I didn't feel any of the chemistry, and I think the story would have been better without it, it didn't even really affect the plot at all.

Ashiva and Riz-Ali live two very different lives in the South Asian Province; Ashiva is a smuggler from the slums while Riz-Ali is a hacker from the central city where everything is provided. In a world that has been ravaged by climate disasters and only a few privileged people are able to live in an environmentally controlled city, rebellion by the Red Hand is the only way to help everyone survive a startling government conspiracy. I thoroughly enjoyed the world building the happened in Rise of the Red Hand, establishing a world where the climate is destroyed and world governments have had to adapt to help humanity survive, but the character development and plot progression was rough. The overall story was a great adventure, but there were a few points where it got confusing, and sometimes switching narrators was more confusing than helpful. Honestly, even though Asiva and Riz-Ali were the main characters, I was much more invested in what was happening with Taru than anything else. Watching Taru learn and grow and become such a strong character was a delight. Unfortunately we don't see that as clearly with Ashiva or Riz-Ali, and the 'romance' was barely there and kind of just popped up out of nowhere.