Yeah. I love Lewis Carroll too. Literally wrote a 16 page paper on through the looking glass in high school. There are so many interesting aspects to his stories that are generally ignored by adaptations that I would love to see.
While I admit that Red Rising is solid (I gave it 3.5 stars), the sequel is utter garbage. People tell me the third book finishes strong, but I can't get over how bad the second book was.
I know what you mean, tho I was always a bit biased against it coz I hated first person present tense. But I did like how it went from Generic angry scif -> my fair lady ->infernal affairs / hunger games
I excepted book two was a bit of a down turn, but I powered thru knowing that is what middle bit ought to be But it was at that point it stopped being something different for me but just and other space opera thang.
Then book 3 brought back some of the particularity of being an "outsider" but overall I would not so much say it finished strong, but it finished "naturally". In a way I expected it to as a reflection of book one.
But I did feel I have had enough afterwards, and did not pursue the next trilogy in the series.