Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

32 reviews

jillysmith's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A great second act to the Red Rising series. Frenetic battles, mind games, and a gilded world. The world building steps up and the characters expand, making the impending civil war feel fraught with danger.. Fun twists and shocks throughout

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

clara_groeni's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Violence, Genocide, Grief, and Death

War

malreadsthebooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Incredible book, fantastically narrated. Even better than the first. I’m hooked

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Violence, Murder, Gore, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and War

Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Kidnapping, Racism, and Physical abuse

followerofselena's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Gaslighting, War, Blood, Cursing, and Slavery

gandalf_a's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Vomit, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Slavery, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Cursing, and Grief

Minor: Cannibalism, Genocide, Sexual content, Alcohol, Excrement, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Child death, Trafficking, Death of parent, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Rape

linneak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Slavery, Gore, Blood, Death, Grief, Torture, Classism, War, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Murder, and Toxic friendship

4ny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, War, Xenophobia, Violence, and Torture

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

The political worldbuilding of this series is honestly stunning. I'm so glad that the second book distanced itself from the educational Hunger Games-ness of the first book because at times that was stagnant. But this was so much easier to read. So much happened in these 450ish pages that I don't even know where to begin.

Falling out of touch with friends, betrayal, plot twists which I didn't see coming but thought worked for the characters. It was all so perfectly chaotic I loved it. That ending was a stroke of genius.

Two gripes:
1. The first 6 chapters could have been a prologue just to catch us up on Darrow's life since book 1 since a couple of years have passed. It also felt a bit clunky at the start.
2. I have literally no idea what any of the things are which confuses me sometimes - like what is a ripWing, or a HC, or an anything?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Murder, Classism, Sexual assault, Torture, Death, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Suicide and Pregnancy

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

There was so much treachery in this book. Despite not being in a hunger games situation, it still had plenty of action. We finally find out who Ares is! The revolution is in full swing and I’m apprehensive of where it will go from here because that ending was a dozy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Grief, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical content, and War

Moderate: Genocide and Slavery

Minor: Colonisation

lua_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a VERY fun book to read, but you can tell this author has never suffered any kind of structural discrimination in his life.

I'll say the bad stuff first because I only see people talking about the positives in this book, but keep in mind that I did like it and I'd rate it around 3.9 / 4.0

First, more then in the first book, Golden son makes some very superficial and surface level type of commentary and criticism on the subjects it tries to discuss. Pierce Brown creates some extreme situations and then have his characters fight against its injustices, but he really doesn't recognize or address some of the more subtle violence that structural discrimination creates, which is why I say it's pretty clear Pierce Brown has never actually experienced discrimination. This book gives some strong vibes of white guy talking about what if racism was against white people.

My other criticism is that Pierce doesn't know how to write women to save his life. This DOESN'T  mean I dont like some of his female characters, like Mustang and Victra, it just means he writes them pretty badly overall. Most if not all of his female characters are just plot devices to push his male  characters further (could Ares backstory be more predictable? Let me guess, a woman you loved died and now you know people deserve rights?). Even though Golds are supposed to be the physica pinnacle of society every female character that isn't a love interest gets the "she's so petite, weak and delicate" treatment and either dies to make a Male character sad, or falls into the role of "traitorous bitch". The main character of this book (and most of his Male characters) is so fun to read about, and clearly meant to have several "badass" moments, it's pretty disappointing to see how disposable and surface level Pierce Brown makes his female characters be. (Also Darrow is weirdly forgiving towards a sex trafficker?? Wich to me just once again proves how distant Pierce B is from actual structural violence)

Now the good stuff, this book is one of those books you read when you want a easy "badass action movie" type of book. It's very fun, has some surprising and satisfying scenes, and honestly a very cool and likable main character. Darrow escapes a little from the traditional format of grey character by having some surprisingly "sweet" depth, showing remorse and sadness towards death that most "cool and calculist" characters tend to ignore. His love for people and speacially his friends is emphasized several times, and in ways you'd typically not see with "badass" action male characters like him, wich makes it a lot more fun to read about him (though he could back off with his internal monologues a little).

Overall it's a fun book with space battles and satisfying twists and fights (Pierce didn't right this book to be realistic, he wrote it to be the fun type of power fantasy). But you do have to keep in mind (and trust me, Pierce does not let you forget) that it is a book about structural (sci-fi) racism, written by a white male author in 2012, so it does a few points you have to ignore to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexism, Death, Grief, Child death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Trafficking, Slavery, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual violence and Adult/minor relationship