A review by praaliine
Morning Star by Pierce Brown

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

As a reader, there’s always that one book (or more than one) that you come across once in while that completely alters your perception of literature and storytelling. Morning star was it for me, the whirlwind of strong emotions aside, Pierce Brown continues to outdo himself and master his craft. There’s a big cast of characters and yet I can tell he’s given ample attention to each one, making them so complex and so real that I laughed and mourned with them. The character development (for Darrow, his friends and his enemies) is remarkable, it was so refreshing reading about these characters breaking out of the tired worn-out mentality that drove the corrupt Society. Sadly, there will always be those characters that are just unable to think beyond their status in the hierarchy and cannot move on, and there were. It was also interesting to read about certain eerie and deranged antagonists (oh and Pierce KNOWS how to write a psychologically sinister character), how they played the long game and their malevolent plans fell into place as they willed it, and how they were met with their due penalty. 
He’s done such an excellent job of capturing our own society, its so easy to read some of these characters and fell repulsed by them claiming we’re morally better than them, but this brilliant story forces you to reckon with the fact that all humans have these innate selfish ambitions and desires, and must seek to do better. This book has an abundance of found family like I’ve never seen before, it was fast paced, it was heavy and at some stages, thrilling and exciting. Plus the battle scenes were epic—as usual.This was beautiful and the ending was satisfying, but I’m definitely not stopping here, I intend to finish this saga and I have high expectations because bar has been set by Pierce himself.
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