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A review by mrtvavrana
The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I think I was too excited about the first book, as The Merciless Ones proved to be a bit disappointing.
The events of this book take place six months after the end of The Gilded Ones. The beginning is quite strong, but then things slowly fall apart.
The main thing I was praising in book one—time skips when nothing interesting happens—kind of dropped. We see many more meaningless interactions, and the story moves too slowly. The book lacks the action that I loved so much in the first book.
This book is definitely more characteristically young adult—some of the dialogues and interactions are very, very childish. This is kind of upsetting, as I was so excited about the lack of this childishness in The Gilded Ones.
My biggest disappointment, though, is how strongly this book is orientated on romance. My biggest fear came true, unfortunately.
We did get some more queer representation, and there is also a non-binary character introduced. I absolutely hated that one of the queer people is a gay boy who was horrifically tortured. The whole time I was thinking about why do we even need to torture the gays? It's fantasy. Why can’t people just not get tortured for being gay? And not to mention, this torture is only described once and does not bring anything to the story…
Somehow, Deka becomes truly annoying during this book. It was really hard to witness it. More so since she was a total badass in the previous book. I also really disliked how her friends just went with whatever she wanted. No questions asked.
Many new things we encountered were explained either poorly or not at all. The plot was predictable; I do not think there was a single surprise. At times, though, the “big twists” were out of place and so random. They did not fit with the story or the characters.
While I did not outright hate The Merciless Ones, I definitely did not like it and even considered not finishing. I am so upset that almost every single thing I enjoyed in the first book was destroyed in one way or another. It lacked the depth and beauty of the world Namina Forna crafted in The Gilded Ones.
The events of this book take place six months after the end of The Gilded Ones. The beginning is quite strong, but then things slowly fall apart.
The main thing I was praising in book one—time skips when nothing interesting happens—kind of dropped. We see many more meaningless interactions, and the story moves too slowly. The book lacks the action that I loved so much in the first book.
This book is definitely more characteristically young adult—some of the dialogues and interactions are very, very childish. This is kind of upsetting, as I was so excited about the lack of this childishness in The Gilded Ones.
My biggest disappointment, though, is how strongly this book is orientated on romance. My biggest fear came true, unfortunately.
We did get some more queer representation, and there is also a non-binary character introduced. I absolutely hated that one of the queer people is a gay boy who was horrifically tortured. The whole time I was thinking about why do we even need to torture the gays? It's fantasy. Why can’t people just not get tortured for being gay? And not to mention, this torture is only described once and does not bring anything to the story…
Somehow, Deka becomes truly annoying during this book. It was really hard to witness it. More so since she was a total badass in the previous book. I also really disliked how her friends just went with whatever she wanted. No questions asked.
Many new things we encountered were explained either poorly or not at all. The plot was predictable; I do not think there was a single surprise. At times, though, the “big twists” were out of place and so random. They did not fit with the story or the characters.
While I did not outright hate The Merciless Ones, I definitely did not like it and even considered not finishing. I am so upset that almost every single thing I enjoyed in the first book was destroyed in one way or another. It lacked the depth and beauty of the world Namina Forna crafted in The Gilded Ones.