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A review by fulltimefiction
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
3.0
The Gilded Ones is a very promising YA. It was one of my most anticipated books in this genre for this year. While I loved some of the topics it dealt with, I found it lacking in many aspects.
I should mention however that this has violent and gory content in a surprising amount for YA. There’s also rape off-screen and child abuse.
I won’t be rewriting the plot for this book because you can just read it by clicking on the title. Goodreads’ summary is better than mine and this will be a short review.
The pros:
✔ Fun and quick read. For 400 pages, the book didn’t take much time at all. It also found it fast-paced something I always prefer in this genre.
✔ I loved how Forna handled heavy topics like race, patriarchy, and feminism and build a world upon them. I found them well executed for a book in this genre.
✔ GIRL FRIENDS. Yes, no infamous girl on girl hate. The girls were very supportive and likable. No mean girls. Plus some secondary characters also had personality!!
✔ Women empowerment!
✔ I found Deka’s character development very believable because this is normal. And not the God knows how liberal girls who have only been told about a woman’s place since childhood yet always have been rebellious. So this was refreshing.
The cons:
Sadly while I liked the idea behind this book (and that note at the end), I did not connect with this book.
✘ I couldn’t connect with the characters and even when something bad happened I wasn’t emotionally affected by it. The author stuck to the important stuff which is nice. Yet. This affected the world-building, which wasn’t developed as much as I would’ve liked.
✘ Inconsistent narrative. There were some time jumps between chapters and it wasn’t very smooth. I appreciate however not wasting time on filler events.
✘ She met someone for the first time and this person had a particular feature, without even talking to them (yet), she was like I shall call you “Brown Eyes” in my head. What?! Do people do that at their first glance of someone?
✘ The romance was too rushed. It’s true that for them, months have passed but it was very painfully YA like. I did not feel the tension between the two nor the chemistry, there wasn’t enough build-up, especially since most of their relationship progressed off screen.
✘ Some things didn’t make sense. Like how all the girls mostly getting period after 16 with some very rare exceptions? Someone mentioned to me that in some periods of history the average age for menstruation was 16 because of malnutrition. While this makes the late timing for girls in this book more believable, it is still the average (meaning many get it before too but also after 16). This book made it sound like it has a timely manner and there were children who weren't poor (even if not the majority) so... also no one ever gets nose bleeds? Or gets itchy enough to draw blood say because of a mosquito bite? Or accidentally trip and hurt themselves?!
✘ the dialogue was sometimes very cheesy and it also took a very YA turn. I wasn’t convinced by the explanation the plot twist gave.
I would recommend this book to teens who would not be affected by such a violent plot. It’s very feminist and deals with real-life issues like racism and xenophobia all while having a fun plot and likable characters. The story was pretty much wrapped up, at least most questions were answered. It can be read as a standalone. But I can see why there’s a sequel. This is a nice book but sadly a bit generic and not a memorable one.
I should mention however that this has violent and gory content in a surprising amount for YA. There’s also rape off-screen and child abuse.
I won’t be rewriting the plot for this book because you can just read it by clicking on the title. Goodreads’ summary is better than mine and this will be a short review.
The pros:
✔ Fun and quick read. For 400 pages, the book didn’t take much time at all. It also found it fast-paced something I always prefer in this genre.
✔ I loved how Forna handled heavy topics like race, patriarchy, and feminism and build a world upon them. I found them well executed for a book in this genre.
✔ GIRL FRIENDS. Yes, no infamous girl on girl hate. The girls were very supportive and likable. No mean girls. Plus some secondary characters also had personality!!
✔ Women empowerment!
✔ I found Deka’s character development very believable because this is normal. And not the God knows how liberal girls who have only been told about a woman’s place since childhood yet always have been rebellious. So this was refreshing.
The cons:
Sadly while I liked the idea behind this book (and that note at the end), I did not connect with this book.
✘ I couldn’t connect with the characters and even when something bad happened I wasn’t emotionally affected by it. The author stuck to the important stuff which is nice. Yet. This affected the world-building, which wasn’t developed as much as I would’ve liked.
✘ Inconsistent narrative. There were some time jumps between chapters and it wasn’t very smooth. I appreciate however not wasting time on filler events.
✘ She met someone for the first time and this person had a particular feature, without even talking to them (yet), she was like I shall call you “Brown Eyes” in my head. What?! Do people do that at their first glance of someone?
✘ The romance was too rushed. It’s true that for them, months have passed but it was very painfully YA like. I did not feel the tension between the two nor the chemistry, there wasn’t enough build-up, especially since most of their relationship progressed off screen.
✘ Some things didn’t make sense. Like how all the girls mostly getting period after 16 with some very rare exceptions? Someone mentioned to me that in some periods of history the average age for menstruation was 16 because of malnutrition. While this makes the late timing for girls in this book more believable, it is still the average (meaning many get it before too but also after 16). This book made it sound like it has a timely manner and there were children who weren't poor (even if not the majority) so... also no one ever gets nose bleeds? Or gets itchy enough to draw blood say because of a mosquito bite? Or accidentally trip and hurt themselves?!
✘ the dialogue was sometimes very cheesy and it also took a very YA turn. I wasn’t convinced by the explanation the plot twist gave.
I would recommend this book to teens who would not be affected by such a violent plot. It’s very feminist and deals with real-life issues like racism and xenophobia all while having a fun plot and likable characters. The story was pretty much wrapped up, at least most questions were answered. It can be read as a standalone. But I can see why there’s a sequel. This is a nice book but sadly a bit generic and not a memorable one.