Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Merciless Ones

Many moments in this made me feel like I was reading a psychological thriller. Deka, previously so sure in her understanding of herself, her world, and her goddesses is made to question everything. Even her own memories.

The first book focused in on how misogyny impacted and harmed its main target: women. The journey was about Deka and the other alaki finding their power as women, learning to love themselves, and to fight for their freedom. THE MERCILESS ONES expanded on this theme making it clear that, as Fannie Lou Hamer once said, “nobody’s free until everybody’s free”.

I am grateful for the way Forna highlighted how misogyny negatively impacts (to varying degrees) everyone not just women. And this sequel doesn’t stop at misogyny. It addresses homophobia, transphobia, generational trauma, grief, found family, religious genocide, and the need to move beyond seeing the world through restrictive binaries.

Simply cannot wait for the third book (even more than I was anxiously waiting for the second!) 🔥

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dhwani's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious 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

A perfect sequel to The Gilded Ones (which I rated 5/5 too), The Merciless Ones is dark, adventurous and thoroughly thrilling. It follows the story of Deka, who has finally freed the goddesses but still has to do much more than that to ensure the safety of people in Otera. Enraged by her actions, the jatu are killing and torturing the women even more so, and Deka has to stop it. She comes across a lot of new things which she was never certain existed, hence, with her bloodsisters and the uruni by her side, she is sent on a mission to find an artifact that the goddesses are certain is the reason behind the peculiarities seen among the jatu and the new deathshrieks.

However, as she goes about this journey, she encounters a lot of people who make her question her loyalty to the mothers. She discovers powers she never thought she possessed, and a lot many truths are revealed to her. On the other hand, there is also the enigma of the symbol that makes her lose her senses and the story behind it. She knows that whatever she is against is no common army she can defeat easily, and her only weapon to get out of this battle alive and save the people of Otera is herself.

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t remember the previous books easily when a sequel is released, and I didn’t have enough time to reread The Gilded Ones. This book, although, summarised the previous points such that I recollected everything perfectly and the elements leading up to the building of the new story weren’t lost. Deka’s character was my favourite, like always. She is written in a way that lays her vulnerable with both her strengths and weaknesses. Her powers don’t mean that she forgets the trauma she has from what happened to her.

The side characters were also all so well-written. I loved getting an insight to their backstories and despite having so many side characters, none of them were useless or just standing by.

I also liked the fact that unlike other liberal feminist stories, this one focused on the problems faced by all the genders and people instead of the usual man-hating feminism that the mainstream is reverting towards. The values set in this book were so good and I liked that part the most. AND WE LOVE TO SEE BADASS WOMEN FIGHTING AJHBHSB ALL THE CHARACTERS WERE SO SO COOL IMAGINE HAVING POWERS AND FIGHTING TOGETHER AS A TEAM TAKE MY HEART ALREADY!!!

There were also so many plot twists and THE ENDING HABJHHJNFJDSB I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL TO BE HERE ALREADY!!!

I totally loved this book and please read it and let me know so we can scream about it together!!!

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