Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Title: Golden Son (Red Rising #2)
Author: Pierce Brown
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Buy this book: Amazon / Book Depository

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 Songuarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

Me when my copy of Golden Son arrived.

Golden Son is going to prove to be a very difficult book for me to review, I am certain of that even before I begin it. Red Rising, the first book in the trilogy, was a book that took me completely by surprise. I hadn't known what to expect from it, but my expectations weren't very high, so I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up absolutely loving it and it became one of my top reads of the year. My review of Red Rising can be found here, if you want to read that first. Red Rising blew me away and had an ending that made me desperate to get my hands on the sequel, so I died of excitement when a review copy of Golden Son found it's way to my front door. I dived in, unbelievably excited and completely nervous that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. Thankfully, it exceeded them.

This is a review for the sequel in a series, so I feel like it should go without saying that it's probably going to contain a few spoilers from book one. I'm mentioning it here anyway because I don't want to spoil book one for anyone who hasn't read it. If you haven't read it then you need to go and do that right now. So go. Have you gone yet? To anyone still reading this, I'm going to assume you've already read Red Rising and get on with my review.

Be prepared.
Your face will look like this when reading.
A LOT.

UUUUURRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! Honestly, what is Pierce Brown doing to me? Or what do I keep allowing Pierce Brown to do to me would probably be more accurate. This book messed with my emotions so badly. I finished it with my mouth hanging open in complete shock and I was already doing grabby hands for the final book. The wait for book three is going to feel like an eternity and I dreading it. I need that book in my life. I should have known that this book would surprise me, in the same way that Red Rising did, I just wasn't completely prepared for how different it would be, how much more serious it would all feel and how much bigger the twists and shocks would be.

What had surprised me most about Red Rising was how adult it felt, it was so much darker and grittier than any YA I'd read for a long, long time. This is something that continues in Goldon Son, except for the fact that it all feels a whole lot more serious than anything Darrow has had to deal with before. The events of Red Rising feel like child's play compared to Golden Son. It's something that makes it very hard to review because I don't want to give away much of the plot. Or any of it. There's a reason the Goodreads summary gives nothing away. I had a few ideas before I started of what I thought it would be about, I turned out to be completely and totally wrong.

I have absolutely no words to review this book, which is rather embarrassing but it's also the truth. It was a roller coaster ride for me, where once I'd gotten on I could not get off until I'd reached the end. The pacing was perfection, it would run off at full speed, slow down for a minute and then jump straight back into the action. The twists and turns of the story took me completely by surprise and I was left in shock more times than I could count. Reading my notes back makes me laugh because of how many exclamation points I needed to use to properly convey my shock at each revelation. And that last cliffhanger.... more exclamation points then you can imagine.

Yeah... this happened to me.

Pierce Brown definitely knows how to write characters, I love that they're all so complex and none of them are perfect. Sevro remains my favourite of all the characters, probably because he's the character that makes me laugh the most. Darrow is still a character I really like and admire, he's strong and determined but also struggles and doesn't always know what would be the right path to take. I enjoy being able to watch all the characters as they grow over the course of these books, and I am beyond excited to see where the final book takes them all. But I'm also very, very scared. If the end of Golden Son has taught me anything, it's definitely to never underestimate Pierce Brown and his ability to shock me.

5/5 Butterflies

If you've read Red Rising then I can see no reason why you wouldn't be running to the bookshop to grab this as soon as you can. You should really go and do that! This is a fast-paced, action-packed read that's going to really shock and surprise you. You think you know where the story is going and then Brown completely takes it in another direction. If you love a great dystopian, sci-fi, or are just looking for a series that's going to suck you in and completely win you over then this is a series for you. I will warn you though.... the minute you finish this you are going to be crying over the fact you have to wait for book three. 

*I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.