Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Gilded Ones

The plot was engaging throughout and the characters were explored well. The main character has a lot of growth throughout the book. There were a lot of questions and mysteries throughout the book which are steadily answered and mostly tied up by the end. Some things I found a little confusing but overall a great read.

It was a lot more explicit in sexism/misogyny and violance than I expected going in. There is graphic torture quite early on and this continues through the book. I felt it was important to the story though and the book explores the emotional impacts of this on the characters well.

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booksanna's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

Ok. This was amazing. The details and world building, character relationships, the moral impact, and depth of the plot are outstandingly glorious. If you love Greek Mythology, then you will love this. Very powerful and legend like story with a very interesting world. The content is a little dark, but not depressingly dark(has some triggers). Awesome writing style, and I love Britta and Ixa. Has the Chosen One trope, so if you are not a fan of that then I would watch out. Overall has very fantastical but still relatable universe. Looking forward to reading the 2nd book.

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theworldisyourlibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

I like the message behind the book (very girl power), the world created was very different and unique, and the way the author tackled the heavy subjects was very good. The characters were very develop, Deka grows a lot and struggles on a very realistic way due to the circumstances she’s in. And for a YA there wasn’t unnecessary drama. 🙌🏼

I really loved the sense of sisterhood and familial bond the girls develop with each other and how they protected each another.

Although the book is the first in a series you can read the first one as a stand-alone.

Warning: the plot is very violent and do check out the trigger warnings.

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abby_reads_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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corabookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? N/A

3.75

this book was good! it wasn’t at all close to what i was expecting, and i didn’t love it as much as i thought i would, but it was entertaining and intriguing enough that i’m excited for the sequel! i think my main problem was with the pacing of the book, the way it was written just didn’t allow me enough time to bond with the characters enough to care about them. however, i did like the friendships between them, and the found family was adorable. not to mention the plot, which was really good!! i loved the plot twists and the fight scenes, and the world building/magical creatures were super cool. overall, this book was a bit disappointing (my expectations were high) but still good. 👍

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sauvageloup's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

3.25

A difficult book to rate because the start felt so different to the end

Pros:
- it really picked up by the end, I was fully gripped and just finished it now after hours of reading. The story and the action is definitely there, and really gets going.
- the worldbuilding and the fantasy were interesting and I appreciated the map in the front. I liked the side-characters too, Britta, Keita and the others, and whilst Deka didn't grab me, I did like her. The plot twists were such that I definitely didn't expect the reveal of

White Hands being a Firstborn. I thought she was gonna turn out to be evil, working for the emperor

.
- Ixu was very cute

Cons:
- Deka is very passive and seems to get pushed around by whoever is the first to tell her anything. She makes no steps to seek information for herself, but only when others are willing to tell her or allow her access (like to the heraldry). I thought she was a bit dim telling the other alaki all about her special abilities (she's pretty overpowered) from the off, but that worked out I guess.

She also trusts White Hands way more than I thought she ought, considering the woman had some mysterious big plan and wouldn't tell Deka anything. I fully expected her to screw Deka over and was a bit underwhelmed when that didn't happen.

- the start felt very amateurishly written, with very typical YA tropes used in an unoriginal way, and way, way too much exposition. The author introduces far too many characters who barely have a role and there was way too much telling. Every other paragraph had several sentences just narrating about the world.
- I hear what Forna is trying to say about feminism but it didn't carry off for me. The comments on the real world were too heavy-handed
- the trauma throughout didn't feel realistically handled. There's moments of dwelling on it, but it felt shallow and didn't affect Deka nearly as much as could have been expected. The ongoing impact of trauma was much better shown in The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, imo.
- Deka's character also seems to change in the space between one chapter and the next. In the previous ones, she prays to Okoyo, she wants to be pure, she hates being a demon. And then suddenly she's having all these rebellious thoughts and calling all the other girls to face their natures. That character development felt totally rushed and provoked by nothing at all.

This one definitely improved and I don't know whether I'll check out no.2 when it's out or not. It felt like a book with a lot of potential, but it fell short, feeling too shallow and awkward to be really brilliant. There was also not really enough angst for me - a lot of torture and pain but very little of the actual struggling to deal and heal with it.

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hanarama's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Book at a Glance:
• Sierra Leon-inspired fantasy
• Intense patriarchy and gender inequality
• Diverse characters
• Uncovering the truth
• Seizing power
• CW: body horror, death, blood dismemberment, child abuse, violence, child soldiers

Deka has newly turned 16, and is preparing for the Purity Ritual, a ritual that all girls must undergo to test if they are human or demon. Where humans bleed red, demons bleed gold, and when a demon is found they are killed.

Deka bleeds gold, but is saved when an emissary of the emporer recruits her into a secret army. Within her cohort, Deka finds a family unlike any she could have imagined. In the face of a brutal patriarchy, the cohort of young demon girls uplift and support one another. And together, they uncover a secret that could unravel society.

Overall, The Gilded Ones is a solid debut novel. Despite the predictable plot and YA cliches, the characters are likeable and the story is engaging overall.

Though there are loads and loads of characters, it feels like Forna has made an effort to give spotlight scenes to many of the supporting cast. It can still be hard to remember who is who at times, but Forna does a great job at making the cohort of girls feel like a found family. I hope that future installments provide more opportunities for these characters to be developed.

The mythology of the setting is interesting, and it made me want to learn more. With the characters uncovering information at the same time the reader does, there is a nice sense of discovery. Though a lot of information is revealed to the readers, it does feel like there is still a lot left to learn about this setting and its mythology.

That said, I had some issues with the pacing of this story. There is a significant middle part that follows the girls as they begin seeing battle. At this point, Forna falls into a lot of repetitive scenes. It feels like the story is dragging along. Many of the battles feel the same as one another, so it pushes the reader to skim through. Furthermore, many of the battle scenes feel relatively lowstakes, which contributes to the monotony. Forna's repetitive tendencies appear throughout the book, but are most egregious at this point in the story.

The end, I felt, tied things up a bit too nicely, with Deka succeeding at many of her goals. It makes me curious how things will unfold in the second installment.

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