17.2k reviews for:

Golden Son

Pierce Brown

4.39 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging 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: No

Pierce Browns style of writing is absolutely amazing. He made me feel so many things with just one sentence. The way Darrow spoke of Eo made me cry every single time. Brown has a beautiful way of portraying so much with so little. 
The reveals throughout the book were done so spectacularly and I’m so freaking upset about all that was lost in this book. 
Here’s hoping I can stop crying in the next few days. I can’t breathe. 
adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

Phenomenal, no notes.

This is a good book but it left me with a sense of lacking. The plot moves at a breakneck pace, and plans are formulated but not told to the reader, so we are left to discover them as they unfold, and go awry. It's an effective writing style, as it lets every chapter end with a cliffhanger, and keeps it being a proper page turner. A lot of the characters talk very similarly, and are all similarly tough and brave and strong, so there is not much to separate some of the secondary characters in this world. Some people we are just told are brilliant/clever/fearsome, but it never feels like what we get on the page really justifies that.

The ending is great, to be fair.