Review: Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on March 25, 2016 | 1 Comment


Review: Golden Son by Pierce BrownGolden Son by Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising #2
Published by Del Rey (1.6.2015)
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Paperback, 464 pages
Source: Library


4 Stars

With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation.

Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.

A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

My thoughts

I am a child of hell, and I have spent too long in their heaven.

My goodness. This book was SO slow. There was soooo much politics and war strategy throughout 75% of this book, and I was growing severely bored with it. The pace was extremely slow as compared to the first book. I was rather sad that it wasn’t as special as the first book was.

Despite that, I was still intrigued by the premise. I love the hierarchy of the Colors, I think it’s absolutely brilliant, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Pierce Brown’s writing is quite beautiful, too. The world building could use some work though, because while I love the idea of the world, it’s very overwhelming. At this point in the series, I should have a very good grasp on the world. But there’s still a lot of terms I don’t understand because they weren’t explained. I still have no idea what ripWings, leechCraft, starShells, and hivepods, etc. are, which made it difficult to picture the battle scenes. The terms were just thrown in there, again, with zero description.

Power doesn’t shift. Power is resolute. It is the mountain, not the wind.

There was still a lot of violence and brutality, which is one of the things I liked about Red Rising. Also, Pierce Brown does not pull punches. People die. Sometimes people you care about. Bad shit happens. I love when an author isn’t afraid to do things like that.

I’ll admit that some of this book was a struggle. It seemed to drag on and on, and not much at all was happening. Except for, like I said, politics and war strategy. Snoresville. But, the ending made up for all of that.

The ending absolutely slayed me. If you start to lose hope in this book, hold out for the ending. If the book hadn’t been so slow up until the end, the emotional intensity of the ending would have easily pushed this book into 5 star territory. Some may not like it, but it was the saving grace for a book that was starting to feel like it was suffering from severe Second Book Syndrome. View Spoiler » The ending is a total shitstorm and it broke my heart and left me sobbing. It’s quite devastating! But if you don’t know by now, I love that. Life sucks, and I love when an author can take a realistic approach and make sacrifices. In this case, it really sucks. Crush your soul? *Flynn Rider voice* Like a grape!

We will break the chains, no matter the cost. You cannot stop us. We are the tide.

Favorite quotes

“Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark.”

“As sure as I am your friend, you will recover from this. We are not our station in life. We are us – the sum of what we’ve done, what we want to do, and the people who we keep close. You’re my dearest friend, Darrow. Mind that. No matter what transpires, I will protect you as surely as you would protect me if ever I needed it.”
RIGHT. IN THE FEELS. View Spoiler »

“You’re a sinister little shit, aren’ you?” Victra asks.
“I’m Gold, bitch. What’d you expect? Warm milk and cookies just because I’m pocket-sized?”
Oh my goodness I love Sevro XD

“You know what I said earlier?” Lorn asks me.
“About tact?” I ask.
He grins evilly behind his beard. “Slag tact. Terrify them.”

Overall Assessment

Plot: 4/5 
Premise: 4.5/5 
Writing style: 4/5 
Originality: 4.5/5 
Characters: 4/5 
World-building: 3/5 
Pace: 2.5/5 
Feels: 4.5/5 
Cover: 3/5 
Overall rating: 4/5

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Jessi (Geo)

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