Series: Red Rising Trilogy

Synopsis:

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.

**ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

They say a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. They made no mention of the heart.

Wow. This author. This author, guys. You know that feeling you get when you’ve been punched in the gut?? Yeah, well, me either-but, I’d like to think that this is what it feels like. It’s like the rug is being ripped out from underneath your feet, but instead of just falling down to your knees, underneath that rug was absolutely nothing, so you’re left flailing and grasping at air and are free-falling through space and time and nothing seems to matter. You feel weightless and your stomach dropped out the minute you were blind-sided, so you don’t know what to do or how to act and there’s zero you can do but embrace the clouds as your crazy descent lengthens and continues…all until the third book is released. In short? Pierce Brown….You are a genius.

Too late, you sons of bitches.
Too bloodydamn late.
I can’t think. I’m screaming inside. Laughing like the flames of a wildfire. Laughing because I know it is my madness that these logical warriors cannot fight.

What kind of wicked, wicked man ends a story like that? Seriously. It has been a long, long, long time since I have been shocked by an ending. More than that, it has been even longersince I was disturbed by an ending. What gets me most, though, is that I knew it was coming.

I bloodydamn knew Darrow and his crew were in for some wicked shit and then it’s just like…BAM. I simply thought I knew, but this??? This madness?? Cruel. Depraved. Heart-breaking. I had no idea the lengths to which this horrible…thing…would go, and I think that’s where this story really hit me upside the head. No matter how much Brown warns, no matter how much Brown foreshadows, no matter how many gruesome, grisly deaths he throws at us, I seem to always be at a loss for words in the end.

Were I still the man Eo knew, I would have stood frozen in horror. But that man is gone. I mourn his passing every day. Forgetting more and more of who I was, what dreams I held, what things I loved. The sadness now is numb. And I carry on despite the shadow it casts over me.

Brown is a master manipulator of story-telling-He twists and winds and twirls words on the page into an enigmatic puzzle that leaves you both breathless and disturbed…but it’s beautiful-if there ever was such a thing. It just…doesn’t seem like it should spring off the page like it does. It’s potent and raw and reeks of havoc and destruction-but it works. And, as sad as it is to say, I think this series is probably the most challenging series I’ve ever read. Let me explain: I don’t read (many) war books. I don’t read historicals (much) and I generally stick to YA. That’s not to say YA isn’t expertly written or without it’s more difficult works, but I like my light reading. The Golden Son is, believe it or not, YA. But much like Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy, this series is advanced. It is barbaric in it’s ways and it holds nothing back. It’s nothing for a best friend to have their neck cracked right beside our main character even as war wages on. So, to say this is advanced, to me, is an understatement. And not only is it the actions of our characters that makes this series stand out, it’s the manner of speak. It’s the words, phrasing, it’s the way they live. I love it, but more than once I found myself squinting at the page or scratching my head trying to figure out just what was going on. Whoops.

“Mother bid me to tell you: a pauper can never be a prince. Every time you look in the mirror, remember what we did to you. Remember you breathe because we let you. Remember your heart will one day be on our table. Rise so high, in mud you lie.”

And Darrow. Oh, how I love this flawed, rash character. I know a lot of people don’t necessarily care for Darrow, but, for me, he has always been such a fun character to follow. In book one, he lost his wife in an act of rebellion and was thrust into the deceptive world of the Golds (he was a lowly Red). He schemed, he fought, he won. But victory doesn’t come without a price. He made enemies. He watched as friends were butchered right in front of his face. He had to eliminate people he didn’t want to kill. But to pursue and embrace his wife’s hope for a better world, he had to make some tough decisions. Now he has infiltrated into a high-ranking Gold’s home and is a part of their society. With the support of his Gold house, he is protected from those who wish him harm. But, there is a heavy price on his head…and those who would soon rather rip out his heart than bear having him rule in any world. What would his wife think of him now?

This is exactly why I build my reputation as a killer, to leverage in situations like these. If they knew my heart, they’d kill my friends one by one. This is a gamble.

Darrow made mistakes. Again. He made even more enemies and was betrayed time and again…but I loved his inner monologue. He is so kind beneath his quest for vengeance. He wants so strongly to be able to trust his friends. To save them. To shelter them. He wants a better world for his Reds, but he has found home with many Golds. I adore his inner struggle and the need to do right by everyone, even when he can’t. Even when his back is against the wall. He declares war, but when it comes down to it, Darrow truly seeks peace. And this is the heart of the novel, to me: His inner struggle to do what is expected of him while fighting for what is right. He has become a monster, he is lost, but Mustang grounds him and she makes him a better man…and I am obsessed with watching it all unfold.

Part of me wishes I would only remember Eo. That my mind belonged to her, so I could be like one of those knights of legend. A man so in love with one lost that he closes his heart to all others. But I am not that legend. In so many ways, I’m still a boy, lost and afraid, seeking warmth and love. When I feel dirt, I honor Eo. And when I see fire, I remember the warmth and flicker of the flames across Mustang’s skin as we lay in our chamber of ice and snow.

Lies and betrayal, death and destruction, war and politics….the violence in this novel was astounding. It was grisly and cringe-worthy (though, hiding in a horse carcass in book one probably made me cringe more than anything in this one did…I still cringed, but…yack.) and not for everyone. When I read book one, I liked to imagine that many of my friends might have been able to expand their horizons and get on board with RR. But with GS, I know this isn’t for all my friends. It’s a distinct type of story that makes you think and ponder and merely hope for something good to happen. And, most of all, the romance is scarce. I personally loved the amount of romance in GS. I loved seeing how much Darrow truly cares for Mustang and how he has matured enough to know that while he loved Eo, she wasn’t perfect and she could be rash. And while he will always love her, always, he can seek love again. It has been three years and he still mourns her loss, but he can’t help falling for Mustang, the Gold who nursed him back to health at the Institute and the girl that stands by his side in the face of war. Two girls on different sides of the same token, he loves fiercely and with all his heart. I loved seeing his vulnerability unfold before my eyes.

Eo said people would always look to me. She believed I had some quality, some essence that gave hope. I rarely feel it in myself. There is none in me now. Just dread. Inside I feel such a boy-angry, petulant,selfish, guilty, sad, alone-and yet they look to me. I almost break underneath their gaze, almost wither away and ask someone else to take the reins. I can’t do it. I’m small. I’m just a liar in a carved body. But that dream must not be extinguished.
So I act and they watch.

I don’t lie. My stars may be fuzzy sometimes because I rate based on my love of the story and how it made me feel, but my reviews aren’t. They are clear and precise about what I like and I’ll spit the truth even if someone disagrees with it. Sticking with that statement, this series fluctuates as I read. It’s crazy!! Pierce Brown plays with my heartstrings up until the very last page and he doesn’t let me catch my breath for more than a tiny chapter or two. But no matter what, he always gets me on the last 40%!! No matter how wordy or political or calculating the beginning may be, the end is something to behold. The action is off the wall crazy. The peril is off the charts amazing. The angst could choke you with just a few words. I am a sucker for a few good fight scenes, and these were spectacular. No matter where the book went the whole time, it always circles back perfectly. All the lies, betrayals, deceptions, and death lead somewhere utterly pulse-pounding and you can see it coming a mile away and STILL be flummoxed. I have grown to love the guts and gore and power plays, and this author hands them to me on a beautiful silver platter. I need not pout because there wasn’t enough of whatever…because those last pages? They’ll take your breath away.

My breath rasps. My heart rattles against my sternum. I drink in my body’s terror and smile. They said this was suicide at the Academy when I wanted to launch myself. Maybe they were right.
But this is why I was made. To dive into hell.

So…obviously I loved it. And I loved it simply for this: Darrow is a good man in a world corrupt by power and deceit. He struggles with the truth throughout the entirety of the novel and wants nothing more than to trust and embrace his friends…will he pay a price for trusting the very people he grew up despising? Or will he pay a bigger price for not confiding in the pit vipers he has chosen to alliance himself with? Crude, brutal, and nothing held back, Pierce Brown knocked it out of the park with this one-crazy lingo and all.

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OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG GUYS. GUYS SERIOUSLY. I never get approved for anything. Ever. Like….ever. PERIOD. And then THIS. I get approved for a book that I had no inkling or hope of ever getting approved for. ME. I got approved for the second RED RISING! ME.

EEEEP!! What is this life?!!!

See-not lying-I LOVED THE FIRST! –

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…

Blood. Glory. Power.
Trust. Lies. Betrayal.
Loyalty. Deception. DEATH.

All in the name of the game. All to become a gold. But it’s so much more than that. I don’t quite know when I decided to rate this book thusly, but what I do know is that putting anything lower than those five stars made me feel edgy and as if I was doing the book an injustice. For much of the story I felt like I was playing catch-up where other people seemed to be getting it from the beginning. It starts out excellent, giving us an insight to the lowest of the lows’ lives. And then, everything changes.

A young girl’s dream becomes a necessity-a reality that needs to come to pass. And the person who is responsible for making that dream, that vision, happen…is Darrow. And I
bloodydamn
LOVED it.

I was not raised in palaces. I did not ride horses through meadows and eat meals of hummingbird tongues. I was forged in the bowels of this hard world. Sharpened by hate. Strengthened by love.
He is wrong.
None of them will survive.

As mentioned above, I was kind of confused as to what was going on after Darrow left the reds’ territory. I was following, albeit slowly. This book had a manner of speak that wasn’t simple, but was innovative and intriguing all the same. When we first meet Darrow, he is a helldiver, responsible for the job that will build Mars into a place where the people of earth can make it their home….but what if this is all for naught? What if the so called ‘truths’ Darrow and his fellow inhabitants have been fed their whole lives is a lie and Mars is already ready for people of Earth and the golds (the highest rank and governing power) are just using them as their little worker drones and slaves?

“You repeat the same damn points,” I say bitterly. “You think a dream is worth dying for. I say it’s better to live on our knees.”

Well, Darrow’s wife has an answer to that. She has a vision that there is more to life than slaving away and putting lives in danger for no reason. She wants Darrow to aim higher and to become someone that people can follow, someone people would look up to. She wants him to live to his full potential-but he wants none of this. He loves his wife so much it envelops his heart and soul, but he believes in order and doing what you’re told-then they will just leave him be and let him and his family live their lives. Until the day he and his wife are sentenced to 50 lashes…and his wife is killed for an act of rebellion.

We grew together, and now are grown. In her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I hear my soul. She is my land. She is my kin. My love.

Thus begins Darrow’s journey to live out Eeo’s dream. He is drowning in his sorrow, so heartbroken and more fit to pass away than to live a day without her. But soon he is recruited and made to pass for a gold-he will infiltrate the school and fight to become a leader of the golds (and essentially every caste and color) as a red disguised as a gold.

“I live for you,” I say sadly.
She kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

What comes from the trials of Darrow to become a gold are horrifying, barbaric, off-the-grid crazy and while at first I found myself cringing, I started to become more and more engrossed with each passing trial and chapter. I’m not going to lie-at some point, and I’m not sure when, one of the trials became a game of sorts about surviving in the wild while duking it out with other tribes. I didn’t notice it was a game at first, a survival-of-the-fittest of some sort-I must have been snoozing when it was announced they were to do so-whoops, my bad. Obviously if you put a large group of head-strong golds that are fierce, genius, brutish, you will see dissension in the group and, inevitably, they will split. These separate groups are tribes, and they are all students fighting to win, to become number one.

“Look into yourself, Darrow, and you’ll realize that you are a good man who will have to do bad things.”
My hands are unscarred and feel strange when I clench them till the knuckles turn that familiar shade of white.
“See. That’s what I don’t get. If I am a good man, then why do I want to do bad things?”

The gruesome and grisly trials Darrow encounters made me purse my lips and cringe on more than one occasion-hell, 50% of the book I would say I was making a face of revulsion in one way or another. At one point, he is forced to kill a kid to pass a trial in a hand-to-hand fight to the death-only one can leave the room. Effed up, right?

I am the reaper and death is my shadow.

I loved Darrow. He was strong, foolhardy, passionate, fierce, and he loved with all his heart. But, more than that, he made mistakes. He ran into traps, he trusted those he shouldn’t have, he let people do things he shouldn’t-and he lied. I wasn’t sure where the story was going, if I’m being honest. I would sit there and think, is this about his rise to power only to become like the evil golds he so despises? Will he actually become one of them? He hates the golds, he hates them with every ounce of his soul-for they were the ones who tied the noose around his wife’s neck and made him watch…but what happens when he finds true friends in the ‘game’? Will he ever be able to hurt any of them when he rises to power as a red? And, worst of all, what if he becomes as heartless and soulless as the gold bastards he is trying to overthrow? What then?

Oh, I want to accept. But then I would have to let the Proctors beat me. I’d have to let this little whorefart win and let his father smile and feel pride. I’d have to watch that smug smile spread across his bloodydamn face. Slag that. They’ll feel pain.

Well, I can assure you, he damn well does become a monster for some time. I liked it. I liked questioning what he was going to do next-for he was the boy who had to hide behind a facade as a gold, but was the red at heart who helped everyone as much as he could, only to get a taste of the power and lose himself to the game, to becoming number one….was this what his dear wife, Eeo, would have wanted for him?

I know I am impetuous. Rash. I process that. And I am full of many things-passion, regret, guilt, sorrow, longing, rage. At many times they rule me, but not now. Not here.

I could go on and on and on and on because I still find myself reeling on what actually happened. So many lies and betrayals and new relationships formed…and just as many stabs in the back. I loved seeing him try and find the balance between barbarics and necessity/need and power for survival, but also to possibly win the top spot everyone so covets. Anyway, I think it goes without saying that I got enough blood, guts, animal guts, and bone crushing to last me for a bit…but it was awesome. I don’t know when this went from a 4, to a 3, all the way up to a 5, but it fluctuated just as I’m saying and, let me tell you, I wouldn’t change a bloodydamn thing.

“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.”