I'll be the first to admit that I didn't really enjoy The Sunshine Court, and I can also admit that a lot of that was because of how heavy it was, while also not giving a (happy) conclusion to Jean's story.

The Golden Raven was much more up my speed - it was still heavy, but not quite as unbearably so as The Sunshine Court , and while it still doesn't give a conclusion to Jean's story, it ends on a much higher note.

Content warnings include: PTSD (not diagnosed), homophobia, racism, violence, self-harm, arson, sex off-page. Mentions of: rape, torture, suicide, organised crime, murder, dugs, neglect, heavy child abuse.

Reading this without having reread TSC was a bit like jumping in blind. The first chapter alone re-introduces at least half of the over 30 person strong Trojans team plus add-ons, and my god, that certainly felt like whiplash. Generally, Sakavic does not shy away from trusting the reader to figure things out - the narration is entirely focussed on being in the character's head, and there are no allowances made for descriptions of things the characters already know. Readers need to entirely rely on context clues to figure out who people are, what place names mean, what the relationship between characters is, what past their share, etc. While this can be a bit annoying in terms of just wanting to know all the context, this also endears the books to me - it's part of why I reread the original trilogy so much. Maybe it's because of those rereads that the original trilogy feels so much more coherent to me, and if I reread Jean's story down the road, I will understand it just as well.

TGR introduced much more of Jeremy's struggles rather than just focussing on Jean's. Jeremy's family is not all that great, and he has his own skeletons in his closet that are slowly revealed. I did enjoy getting to know him better, especially after I found that TSC only treated him very surface level.

I also enjoyed Jean much more in this one. TSC is very dark because Jean is very stuck in his own head and his trauma, and it ends with him finally finding a small spark of a path forward. This path becomes bigger and bigger in TGR, which I loved to see. He also has much more external support, with Kevin making some appearances (and my god, he is NOT afraid to burn bridges, which I did not except but cheered on heavily.)

There is still so. Much. Trauma. And unexplained details from Jean's past and the Ravens, but I found them to be much more bearable this time around - partiually because Jean is finally reaching a point where he accepts and even seeks out help, and slowly begins to warm up to the Trojans, and even begins to feel like one of them.
We also got to see some more personality from differnt Trojans, whcih I enjoyed.

The plot around the starting Exy season is a bit of a clusterfuck too, but I suppose that was expected. It's still much slower than the original trilogy, though. I really enjoyed how the Trojans offer a whole new perspective of Exy - so far we only got to see Neil's and Jean's perspective, as well as some of Kevin's and the Raven's, all of which are... extreme, to put it mildly. While the Trojans are definitely not an average team either, and are singled out and even ridiculed for their specific playing style, the attitude of the Trojans overall was very refreshing. I won't say I always agreed with them, but, like Jean, I found myself convinced at the end of the book.

The unforgiving narration aside, another thing that stands out to me about Sakavic's writing in this series is the romance. It's incredibly subtle. While the attraction between Jean and Jeremy is made clear, it's still fascinating to me how Jean's sexuality in particular is only ever addressed in other people's reactions to his (nonverbal) reaction to people, and it's never addressed by him. Jeremy is a bit more vocal about his sexuality and has multiple sexual partners in the book, but it's also from his POV that we get the first real glimpses of there maybe being potential for something more between him and Jean. I would still not call this a romance, at all - except I had the same thought while reading the original trilogy, and now, looking bad an reread, Andrew being smitten with Neil is very obvious when you know where to look. But even then, it's still very much hidden behind his characterization.
It's fascinating to read, is what I'm saying, and it's another thing that makes these books so rereadable (which I am already looking forward to).

Overall I had a much better experienced with this than with the prequel, and I am very much looking forward to the final book in the trilogy! I can also imagine enjoying TSC much more on a reread.