A review by waybean
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

The Guilded Ones was a very enjoyable, exciting read. I found myself wanting to pick it up several times throughout the day, which is sometimes a problem as I tend to get distracted by other activities to remember to read. 

The main character, Deka, was likeable enough. Besides the obvious, she was the average young adult protagonist with a good heart who was always sticking up for other characters. I didn't find her to be stupid or too naive, which is a problem I run into with most YA novels. I enjoyed her development throughout the book as she began to mentally change her idea of the role of women in their world, and how she should view people like her. There was enough female empowerment without it feeling obnoxious as it often is presented in feminist liberal spaces. I think there were very wonderful lessons presented to girls in this novel. 

I didn't find the other characters to be particularly memorable excluding her Karmoko. Her love interest,
Keita,
is included in this sentiment. I felt that he was kind of boring and that he should had a longer character development before he changed his beliefs. I also they fell for eachother a little too soon. He was sweet though. The romance was unnecessary in my eyes but I feel that way about many romances in books, so take that with a grain of salt. 

I thought that the introduction of her shapeshifter companion, Ixa, was a /little/ cringeworthy and gave me Harry Potter familiar typa vibes, but it's Young Adult, so I'll let it slide.

Also, after all the the constant reminders about how brutal the Warthu Bera(?) training was going to be, the author wrote in...very little of that. Some of the content of the book was disheartening enough so I suppose writing those scenes explicitly would have been a bit too grim, but I would have liked to read some more cool battle scenes.


I found the pace to be a little too fast, but maybe that was just because I was having fun. This story gave me very much
Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer
, which I thought would be a bit much for a story in this format, but I ended up loving it. 

I would definitely recommend viewing the content warnings if you're sensitive to your average fantasy pain, suffering, and death, because despite the tone of this review, it was QUITE heavy. 

I enjoyed the ending, and though the plot twist was a liiittle predictable, it was satisfying nonetheless. I think that the story was wrapped up pretty well in the end, and for that reason I don't see myself reading any further books in the series. I do however very much look forward to reading more books by Namina Forna. 
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