Review: Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Publisher: Del Rey
Series: Red Rising #2
Pages: 464
Received: Received a copy from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: January 6, 2015
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Goodreads 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.

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds—and their only path to liberation is revolution. And so Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within.

A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.

My Review:

Oh my gosh, the love that I have for this series is so hard to describe. Pierce Brown has taken hold of me and I just want to continue on as the story goes deeper and becomes more intense. This book takes place some time after the first book, Darrow has gotten himself deeper into the Gold life as he serves for one of the highest families. Darrow is still hoping to infiltrate the most privileged of the people and ruin them by taking them down one by one through the inside.

I still have so much respect for Darrow, and after this book it grows that much more. Darrow has so many virtues and yet as he gets deeper into the world of the Golds, things slowly change as he finds friends and even love within this place. In this book, Darrow is getting himself deeper into danger and the stakes are even higher now that he actually is part of a Gold family. He struggles to hold onto his memories of Eo as he starts to lay down the work to take down this powerful Society.

There is a lot more drama in this because Darrow is getting himself further into Society, and we get to learn a lot more about the Peerless Scarred and even get to see more of the universe that this is set in. I love that Pierce Brown takes this story into different territories and shows readers a new part of this universe.

All of these books have such non-stop action, but the best part of this is how Darrow is beginning to really see how the Golds work. He begins to actually go back and forth between the thoughts of a Gold and those of a Red, he is truly torn between two worlds as he continues along his path of destruction. Darrow is slowly getting himself into more trouble as he has problems sticking to his promise to Eo while he falls in love with the Gold world.

More secrets are slowly revealed but these books never feel boring, every little thing has a deeper meaning. Darrow is fighting harder than ever for a rebirth of the Society, and there are so many more secrets that are slowly unraveling everything for Darrow. These books are just so intense and thrilling that you don't want to stop, I have loved everything that Pierce Brown has given readers with this series, and honestly after the drama in this story there is so much more for Darrow to go through before this fight is over.