Red Sparrow

A friend in graduate school had a classification for certain books he read, they were “TV books”, meaning that they were easy, entertaining reads that he read instead of watching things on TV. I’ve thought of this often over the years since then, and this past week I was consumed by one such book, Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews.

I’ve no idea how I discovered Red Sparrow, but I did and over the last week I read through the spy thriller. But I know it made it on my list because one of the main characters was a woman. It’s getting better, but finding spy thrillers with women in the lead is quite hard. And this character, Dominika, didn’t disappoint. She is a synesthete, words form colors for her, making her incredibly good at reading a person’s character and intentions.

As Dominika gets roped into working for the Russian spy service by her uncle, we find out that she is incredibly smart and quickly starts to use the agency to her own advantage since they are using her to theirs. And while she works with the CIA, she is thinking deeply about what the right thing to do is.

Red Sparrow is an engaging thriller, with characters I found intriguing, and I can’t wait to read the second book in the series, Palace of Treason; I’ve got a hold on the digital copy and am waiting as patiently as I can.