A review by clotalksbooks
The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

adventurous dark slow-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Sadly, I'm disappointed with this one. Things that I struggled with in the first book seemed magnified in this one. The writing was a little... immature for me which was in stark contrast to the brutality of the action. Some of the descriptions of death were rather disgusting haha. Internal eye rolls at the "revelations" by Deka, who is rather slow and would say things that frustrated me.

The story has such potential, and this book just didn't deliver fully for me. It weirdly felt like not much was happening, despite lots of repetitive action, until the very end which (similar to the first book) saved it for me. There are some scenes towards the end that really touched me and got me feeling like yes, this is the glimmer of gold I have been waiting for. Hence my overall rating.

There are lots more diverse representations in this book, which at times felt like unnecessary spotlighting without feeding the story. I'm hoping this gets explored in greater depth in the next book.

Maybe this is just a scene setter for the third book. I will still continue the series as I am invested. Fingers crossed the third one is more for me. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings