Golden Son by Pierce Brown

5/5 stars

SPOILERS AHEAD

Yo, Pierce Brown. What the actual fuck? This man is so diabolical I think it's going to take me at least a full week to process this, but I'm going to speed write this review so I can immediately get on to the next one because I am sitting here, mouth ajar, bombarding my friend Kelly with disbelieving texts because she's the only other person I know who's read the series.

I genuinely don't even know where to start. This whole entire book was a masterpiece and simultaneously had me wanting to throw my Kindle out a plane. I feel personally victimized.

The world building is absolutely insane. We're on different planets, in different time zones, different gravities, it's all so huge. The battles are bloody, the deaths are brutal, and the pain is neverending.

"Once upon a time, a man came from the sky and killed my wife."

"How cruel is life, that the sight of my dead wife means hope."

"Don't say it, Eo. Don't." "I am with child."

"Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark."

We started this book launched a little bit into the future, in the middle of space, and then instantly almost 900 people die because Darrow has too many enemies to count. Mustang is far away, Sevro is far away, and Darrow is trying to launch himself out of a spacecraft to land in an enemy craft and take on Karnus himself, because of course he is.

From there, we launch into some of the most intensely laid out plans of betrayal and backstabbing that I've ever seen. I thought that Aelin took the cake for most intense scheming and plans that no one but her knows, but damn it does Darrow knock her out of the water.

There's so many poitical games being played and so many tiny, intricate details that have to go exactly to plan or everything goes to shit. I genuinely can never be sure who's side the Jackal is on, but I guess it's pretty safe at this point to assume it's whatever side is against his own family. Even Mustang is plotting and planning on her own, allying herself with the Bellona's and being with Cassius. I was just as shaken up as Darrow was when he first saw Mustang with Cassius. That had to have hurt.

"I am the one they call the Reaper of Mars, who struck down a full Peerless Knight, who stormed Olympus and made slaves of my Proctors. My name is Darrow au Andromedus, and I have been wronged."

I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Darrow had just gone along with Ares's original plan to blow up the gala instead of going against their plan and making one up on the spot. It was genius though, to make the Sovereign choose a side and stop Darrow from killing Cassius during that duel, because that was the start of her downfall and her loss of control.

Darrow dancing across tables of food at the gala and chopping off Cassius's arm definitely didn't help ease the tensions between the two families, and I couldn't believe how many bloodlines were just ended as a result of the battle at the gala.

TALK ABOUT BEING GAGGED! Fitchner being Ares had me entirely mindblown. I was not expecting that at all, and it makes all of his actions during the Institute so much more layered.

The Iron Rain was unreal. I need to get a higher-budget brain because oh my god, even the low-budget version I have was unreal. I need HBO Max to hop in here and make a Game of Thrones level series about this so I can see it played out. It was some of the most spectacular writing I've ever encountered, and I know my brain is not doing it justice.

We met a lot of new people in this book and got to know some old characters a little more, that I'm really loving. So naturally like half of them ended up dead by the end.

"It is not right to live so long, I think."

I actually felt myself tearing up when Lorn was killed by the Jackal at the Triumph at the end of the book. That sweet, sweet, hardened old man just wanted to live on his island and spend time with his grandchildren, only to be cut down by the Jackal right in front of them all.

Tactus sucked, obviously, but it was still tough to see him begging Darrow for forgviness at the end, and to know that Darrow would have given it to him had Lorn not killed him.

Quinn's death was a bummer... I wonder if Roque would have stayed loyal had she not died...

I love the Telemanus's. They're weird little giants, feeding jelly beans to foxes, but they're loveable and funny and a force to be reckoned with. I hope we get more of them in the next book.

Victra is a flirty one, and I love her for that. She's been so loyal to Darrow the whole time, and if she ends up dead in the next book I'm going to be so upset. Her fate is left a little vague, but being covered in blood with her eyes closed while Darrow is taken away doesn't bode very well for her...

I fucking LOVE Ragnar. At every opportunity he's shown how loyal he is to the man who offered him freedom. He's had so many chances to take the freedom that Darrow has offered him and get revenge on the Golds for everything they've done to his people, but he hasn't. I really love his character and I'm excited to see how he evolves throughout the rest of the book. He's such a great representation of the entire point of the war, and I hope that he sticks around.

"Now! Who can I reason with?" "Me. I am heir to this house." "Hmm... pass! You're creepy."

I don't even know what to say about Fitchner's head being in that box. I don't even want to talk about it. I'm so mad at Pierce for this one... when I catch Harmony, because I just know it was that bitch. I loved Fitchner so much, he was so damn clever and so damn funny just like Sevro.

"Julian. Lea. Pax. Quinn. Weed. Harpy. Rotback. Tactus. Lorn. Victra. They deserved better than to die for a slave."

I have never been as dissapointed in a character as I am in Roque. I thought he was so much better of a man than that, and I'm terrified that he seems to be aligned with Cassius and the Sovereign now...

"Feels good. That's how I know it's right, Reap. Despite all this shit. It feels good in here. It feels... how do you say... bloodydamn good."

I'm so stressed out about Mustang. The fact that both she and Sevro were missing from that last scene either means they're in it together, or that Sevro is trying to hunt her down to stop her. If anything happens to my boy Sevro I'm tearing the book up. I refuse to accept anything bad happening to him. Other than like, his entire life and his father getting murdered and all that. But as my half Red/half Gold little wolf I accept no more pain for him.

The entire scene with Darrow being back on Mars, seeing his mom, and the confrontation with Mustang... my heart was in shreds. He's just a boy. I get why Mustang freaked out, but I'm crossing all my fingers and all my toes that she realizes his intentions have always been good and comes back to him. So devestating to leave his old home and have her essentially reject him. I get why Darrow told her, but man is he risking a lot...

Also... we breezed past the whole "new breed" of Reds thing... because "a hundred coffinlike tubes" with "Reds of a new breed" to create an army that can defeat the Golds is absolutely insane and Harmony is off her rocker.

"Because in the end, what does all the power in the world matter if your closest friends can betray you?"

Guess we'll find out...