Reviews with content warning for Death - Golden Son

where do i even start? golden son was really something, only one other book (series) has ever put me through an emotional wringer like this. every little detail in this book was worth paying attention to because pierce brown leaves no stone unturned. this was in no way a senseless science fiction, it really explored the tragedy of human nature and the relationships developed in this book were the most profound and complex i’ve ever read. there’s a big cast of characters and not one was irrelevant, pierce brown breathed so much life into the supporting characters that i cried at their pain.

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i really love how Darrow, as hot headed as he was (rightfully so), remained self aware through it all, he’s broken, confused, (stupid)ly brave and gets ahead of himself way too much, yet he realizes this and isn’t afraid to say so.

I could go on all day about every single character, but i’ll stop here. it took me longer than i would have liked to finish the book, but that’s on me because i’m pushing through a slump. golden son was epic, i’ll always recommend it.

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luxxltyd's review

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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surdiablo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of the best page-turners I have ever read ( finished it in less than 2 days ) and it's a massive improvement over it's predecessor in every way! The writing is evidently more polished and flows even better, characters are much more interesting and develops further

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especially the protagonist who is vulnerable and learns humility

, and the pacing remains fast with plenty of nail-biting moments, but I didn't find it jarring at all like the last time. What I loved most is the

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moral conflicts that arise and how the protagonist has to go back and forth dealing with them. Sure, he's still pretty strong and things tend to go his way for the most part, but he's also overestimating himself and starting to pay the price, especially considering the cliffhanger ending that gave me heart palpitations.

Now, I don't think it's a perfect book and and I could certainly nitpick about a couple of things if I think hard, like

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fallopian tubes and DNA compatibility

, but I honestly don't care about such things and can easily handwave it as 'futuristic tech'. 🤷‍♂️ I just couldn't put this book down for the last two days and I loved pretty much everything that happened in it with zero annoyance, so that easily makes it one of my favorites of all time.

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rubyroses's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I’m screwed… I already rated the first book in the series 5 stars… After reading Golden Son I think I’m going to need more stars. This book truly captured my heart and broke it in two.

Unlike the first novel in the series (Red Rising) which focused on a Hunger Games inspired battle arena this novel expands into a galactic civil war. If you enjoyed Enders Game but would have liked more violence this is for you. Not to mention the amount of twist and turns you will never see coming is chefs kiss.

Pierce Brown does well to make even the characters who are evil seem compassionate. In return he also makes the characters you believe to be good grotesquely dark and twisted. In this book you’ll never know who is going to stab Darrow in the back or be his saviour.

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But… at least you can always put your faith in Darrow & Servo. Darrow is a man born Red & made Gold but Servo… Servo is a man of two colours. If anything bad happens to Servo in this series I will throw a fit.

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