Joint Review: Golden Son by Pierce Brown (Spoilers)

Okay, if you haven't read Red Rising, you may want to skip this discussion/review. If you haven't read Golden Son yet, you may want to be careful while reading this review. If you have read Golden Son, we totally need to have a party and discuss All The Things.

Proceed carefully.



Title: Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy #2)
Author: Pierce Brown
Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
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.

Our Review

You can read Kayla's review of Red Rising, the first book in the trilogy, HERE.

BEWARE! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR Red Rising (AND MAYBE Golden Son) BELOW!
Amber: So I decided to play hooky the last few minutes of work and finish.....

My first thoughts at the end were "Well, fuck."

At least Sevro and Mustang are free somewhere. They'll get Darrow out somehow.

Kayla: So did you see any of that coming? I knew what's-his-face would end up betraying him, but I didn't think Finchner would be killed. But then again, I didn't see a lot of things coming. Every time I thought I had it figured out, something would spin it on its head.

Joint Review: Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Title: Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin #3)
Author: Robin LaFevers
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: November 4, 2014
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
In the powerful conclusion to Robin LaFever's New York Times bestselling His Fair Assassins trilogy, Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind, doesn’t mean she has.

Book Trailer


Our Review

You can read Kayla's review of Grave Mercy, the first book in His Fair Assassins trilogy, HERE.

Amber: So, my first thoughts about Mortal Heart were that I should have re-read both Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph. I remembered little to nothing about the story so far and was pretty lost in the first couple of chapters.

But once Annith was away from the convent, I started enjoying it. My favorite parts by far involved the hellequin (and Balthazaar) and the followers of Arduinna. I really hope that LaFevers writes a spinoff with the other followers of the Nine.

What were your first impressions?

Kayla: When I started reading it, I was worried about how LaFevers would tie it in with the history of Brittany. And, like most other people, I wondered how in the world I would like Annith as much as I liked Ismae. As for the other two books, I had reread Grave Mercy and read Dark Triumph for the first time earlier this year.

I really liked that Mortal Heart had a bit more of the supernatural element to it than the other books. I loved learning about LaFever's Nine and their history. I thought that I would like to read about Arduinna's followers, but after finishing the book, I'd love to read more about Dea Matrona or Amourna. (Yes, I'm aware that it would be tricky, but I am sure there will be MEAT.)

Amber: How did you end up feeling about Annith? I really liked her. She truly cared about her sisters, and she had a lot of compassion. Both of these tempered her almost perfectness. I also LOVED the love interest. If I ever swooned over anything, it would definitely be over Balthazaar.

Joint Review: Night by Elie Wiesel

Back to the Classics Challenge



Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Acquired Via: Library (Kayla) & Personal Collection (Amber)
Release Date: 1960
Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

Our Review

Night by Elie Wiesel is the first book that we have chosen to read for our Back to the Classics Challenge.

Kayla: I'm glad that we read Night first because it was the book I was most likely to put off reading. (I swear I didn't - January was a busy month.) The Holocaust always makes me extremely emotional, but I was surprised by my lack of reaction to Night. Don't get me wrong, I was horrified by the situations Elie Wiesel faced, but I never cried. How did the book make you feel?

Amber: Mostly I felt sad and angry while reading it. Obviously sad about everything that Wiesel went through, but also just that it happened and it happened to so many people. But also sad for the things that Wiesel lost besides his family and his possessions. He lost his faith in himself and in his God. He also lost a little of his humanity. I'm also angry that there are still people in the world that believe that the Holocaust never happened. Then, I just thought it was so crazy that at the beginning of Night, Wiesel talks about how the people he knew were saying that they didn't believe that Hitler was really going to kill the Jewish people. Then they let the Nazis into their homes, then they let the Nazis kick them out of their homes, etc. I wonder if it was because they wanted to believe that human beings couldn't be that awful. Or if they, like most people, think that something bad will never happen to them.

Do you think that your lack of reaction was due to how Night was written? To me, it seemed very matter-of-fact and almost clinical.

Joint Review: Hunted by Kevin Hearne

Title: Hunted (The Iron Druid Chronicles #6)
Author: Kevin Hearne
Publisher: Del Ray
Acquired Via: Purchase
Release Date: November 27, 2012
For a two-thousand-year-old Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan is a pretty fast runner. Good thing, because he’s being chased by not one but two goddesses of the hunt—Artemis and Diana—for messing with one of their own. Dodging their slings and arrows, Atticus, Granuaile, and his wolfhound Oberon are making a mad dash across modern-day Europe to seek help from a friend of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His usual magical option of shifting planes is blocked, so instead of playing hide-and-seek, the game plan is... run like hell.

Crashing the pantheon marathon is the Norse god Loki. Killing Atticus is the only loose end he needs to tie up before unleashing Ragnarok—AKA the Apocalypse. Atticus and Granuaile have to outfox the Olympians and contain the god of mischief if they want to go on living—and still have a world to live in.

Our Review

You can read Amber's review of Trapped (IDC #5) HERE.

*WARNING* There will be spoilers for books in the series prior to Hunted, so if you have not read this far in the series
- DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200! - If you keep going and highlight the black bits, you'll get spoilers for Hunted, too.
***
Amber: I enjoyed Hunted a lot more than I did Trapped, even though Hunted had a few heartbreaking surprises. I cannot believe that the Morrigan basically committed suicide!

Kayla: I liked Hunted a lot better, too. I never got around to reviewing Trapped because I had a lot of bitterness issues with Granuaile, (Atticus is my boyfriend!) but I got over it for the most part. I guess hearing Luke Daniels (the audiobook narrator) as Oberon saying “Hello, Clever Girl” won me over at the end of the previous book. Still – too much bitterness for me to write a glowing review as a Kevin Hearne fangirl. But, OMG the Morrigan! And so early in the book, too… *sigh* I may’ve cried a little, but it was a little overdone.

Amber: I think I may have a crush on Luke Daniels. He’s one of the most gifted narrators I’ve listened to. I continuously get surprised when he switches around in more than five accents in one book. Plus, he totally nails what I think a dog would sound like if a dog could actually talk.

Kayla: Oh, I definitely have a crush on Luke Daniels! Plus, he’s also visually appealing – isn’t he dreamy?