I have no idea how to rate this book because I have so many mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, 'girl dies so man has a reason to fight' is such a terrible trope. On the other hand, the way that Darrow speaks about how much he loves, respects, and trusts his wife is so nice. Coming from a culture of singing, dancing, unbreakable familial bonds, and living your entire life in a selfless pursuit of your community's wellbeing? How ideal and wonderful. At its core, with Darrow being lofted as this perfect and ideal specimen, those aren't bad qualities to have in someone that readers might look up to, especially given that this series is advertised towards men. That being said, Darrow is extremely flawed, reckless with his life and loved ones, has a huge ego and only begins to learn humility after many people die. I stuck through the entire first section of the book because even though I hated Darrow, I'm really hoping that his ego will be part of his big character development throughout the series. They did make him superhumanly strong and handsome though, and everyone constantly comments on how perfect he is, so I don't have extremely high hopes.  I struggled to finish the book because of his characterization. 

 

The class commentary is unmatched. This book is much, much less accessible/generally appealing than something like the Hunger Games, but has the same vibes, just much more raw and explicitly violent. That is not to my personal taste but also not a bad thing at all! You can tell that each major lesson he learns brings him one step closer to becoming the figurehead and leader of a great revolution. Stakes are high and the book does not shy away from that at all. However, he is so stupid, and makes a ton of terrible decisions that do result in people dying. I feel like the only way he actually learns is when someone dies. There's a pretty inconspicuous cycle that he repeats several times throughout the book, and I suspect it will persist throughout the series, and it's this: 1) Darrow gets put in a situation where a struggle for power/influence is involved, 2) Darrow makes a stupid decision based off of anger or rashness 3) someone close to him dies because of his decision 4) Darrow learns his lesson.  I was getting real annoyed with him by the end of it. There's something to be said about making a flawed character act out his flaws, but 16 hours is a very long audiobook. Darrow's flaws (his ego, his anger) I think are meant to reflect the fact that he isn't so different from a real Gold, so he has the means to either free his people from their chains or just become the Gold tyrant that he always hated. I get that. But 16 hours of that cycle killed me a little. 

I have also never read a book where I have felt the impact of each and every move that the main character makes in such a tense way. Every single tiny little decision that he is faced with is like a yawning cavern of uncertainty in front of him. Whichever fork in the road he makes will permanently affect his ability to proceed with his goal, and permanently block off the path of the decision that he /didn't/ make. It's a war of minds as much as it is a war of strength and resilience, and I love that.  

Final verdict: cool lore, love the underdog-struggling-against-his-chains narrative, I'm looking forward to seeing the revolution play out, but Darrow is enough of an asshole that I struggled to get through most of the book. 3.5 star. 

Side note: the audiobook version has a clip of Eo singing her song at the end. If you have access to a library, def check out the book and listen to the last couple mins of it. It's incredible.