Reviews - The Merciless Ones

1.81k reviews for:

The Merciless Ones

Namina Forna

3.94 AVERAGE

rose_r3ads's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

tanithcos's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful tense 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: Yes

mewatersmith's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

bamfling's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

nellicecilia's review

4.5

adventurous challenging dark hopeful 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

I read the first book of the series just before this one and wanted to dive right into the second book. About first 100 pages or so were not too interesting and I felt like I was bored. However, as a whole, this book kept me on its grip until the last pages.

I really appreciate how the characters in this book represent the sexual and gender diversity. As the books main plot is all about the differences and confrontation between men and women, and the whole society is built to favor men and subordinate women, it feels a bit overwhelming at times, as I imagine is the author's intention. Especially in today's reality we are living in, I feel it's super important to publish and read books like this. We have to support women and the LGBTQA+ people. I feel that the author has woven these themes into the plot and characters skillfully and subtly. I didn't realize any of the now-obvious hints on the first book that were made clear in this one. Well done, Namina Forna!