Reviews with content warning for Violence - Golden Son

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

75 reviews

praaliine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

where do i even start? golden son was really something, only one other book (series) has ever put me through an emotional wringer like this. every little detail in this book was worth paying attention to because pierce brown leaves no stone unturned. this was in no way a senseless science fiction, it really explored the tragedy of human nature and the relationships developed in this book were the most profound and complex i’ve ever read. there’s a big cast of characters and not one was irrelevant, pierce brown breathed so much life into the supporting characters that i cried at their pain.

i really love how Darrow, as hot headed as he was (rightfully so), remained self aware through it all, he’s broken, confused, (stupid)ly brave and gets ahead of himself way too much, yet he realizes this and isn’t afraid to say so.

I could go on all day about every single character, but i’ll stop here. it took me longer than i would have liked to finish the book, but that’s on me because i’m pushing through a slump. golden son was epic, i’ll always recommend it.

Content Warnings

sammykay25's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

oh NOOOOOO

I knew that little rat bastard Roque couldn't be trusted

Anyways. I loved it so much! Sevro and Darrow are my baby boys who should kiss. that's all

Content Warnings

ripxw's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

cmjohnson's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

oh man. though i was a little bored in the first few chapters, it quickly sucked me in. i liked the change of pace and how we didn’t feel as stuck in one place like we did in the second. a whole lot more violence here too 😅 some critique is that i feel like darrow sometimes repeats himself too much and i feel a bit hit over the head with all the eo and “this is my past” stuff.

i saw the jackal and roque’s betrayal coming from a mile away, but the end was still shocking with just how many people (critical characters nonetheless) died. still curious as to how they found out that darrow was red, and i wonder how this can all proceed now that his secret is out and so many are dead… can’t believe there’s three more books 😭

Content Warnings

zephyrscape's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Now, I have no problem with sad books. I have absolutely enjoyed being wrecked by books before. But in order for that to happen for me, there needs to be enough happy or heartwarming or moving material between the sad parts for me to actually build up an attachment to characters. And in Golden Son, the vast majority of those sorts of moments between sad events are instead subbed out for action sequences where Darrow is angsting over his choices and the world he lives in. Maybe this will work for you if you get a thrill from battle sequences. But it didn't work for me. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth as the book hammered me again and again and again with things that I think were meant to shock and upset me, but only ended up annoying me. I kept internally snapping, "I *know* we can't have nice things, you've already said as much several times!"

The stars I'm giving this book are for the quality of the prose, which is admittedly quite good, and also for fleshing out some of the story's female characters in a way that I felt was missing in book one, which I did appreciate. But I finished this book without the enjoyment of a new idea to chew on and in a markedly worse mood than when I started it.

Content Warnings

luxxltyd's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-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

Content Warnings

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

surdiablo's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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

One of the best page-turners I have ever read ( finished it in less than 2 days ) and it's a massive improvement over it's predecessor in every way! The writing is evidently more polished and flows even better, characters are much more interesting and develops further

especially the protagonist who is vulnerable and learns humility

, and the pacing remains fast with plenty of nail-biting moments, but I didn't find it jarring at all like the last time. What I loved most is the

moral conflicts that arise and how the protagonist has to go back and forth dealing with them. Sure, he's still pretty strong and things tend to go his way for the most part, but he's also overestimating himself and starting to pay the price, especially considering the cliffhanger ending that gave me heart palpitations.

Now, I don't think it's a perfect book and and I could certainly nitpick about a couple of things if I think hard, like

fallopian tubes and DNA compatibility

, but I honestly don't care about such things and can easily handwave it as 'futuristic tech'. 🤷‍♂️ I just couldn't put this book down for the last two days and I loved pretty much everything that happened in it with zero annoyance, so that easily makes it one of my favorites of all time.

Content Warnings

rubyroses's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I’m screwed… I already rated the first book in the series 5 stars… After reading Golden Son I think I’m going to need more stars. This book truly captured my heart and broke it in two.

Unlike the first novel in the series (Red Rising) which focused on a Hunger Games inspired battle arena this novel expands into a galactic civil war. If you enjoyed Enders Game but would have liked more violence this is for you. Not to mention the amount of twist and turns you will never see coming is chefs kiss.

Pierce Brown does well to make even the characters who are evil seem compassionate. In return he also makes the characters you believe to be good grotesquely dark and twisted. In this book you’ll never know who is going to stab Darrow in the back or be his saviour.

But… at least you can always put your faith in Darrow & Servo. Darrow is a man born Red & made Gold but Servo… Servo is a man of two colours. If anything bad happens to Servo in this series I will throw a fit.

Content Warnings

fierymoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

my jaw is on the ground

Content Warnings

More...