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liannablakeman 's review for:
The Gilded Ones
by Namina Forna
This was such a wonderful book!
This story follows 16-year-old Deka, a young woman living in Otera, a fictional, patriarchal kingdom. Every 16-year-old girl goes through a purity test, to see if their blood runs "pure." Deka's did not, and hers ran gold, the color passed on by the Gilded Ones, the demons from thousands of years ago. Saved by a mysterious woman, she discovers she is an Alaki, a being with exceptional power and near-immortality: considered a demon to the patriarchal society she inhabits. The woman brings her and other Alaki to a camp where they train to take down a great danger to the kingdom where she discovers something even darker and dangerous about herself.
I loved the story of Deka and how she came into herself. My favorite books are about strong, independent women, and Deka certainly showed up in this book. Truly - all the women featured in this book were strong and true to their sisterhood.
The plot was action-packed, filled with fighting scenes, budding friendships, and just a touch of romance (truly checking all of my favorite boxes!).
I do have some difficulty with this book, and some frustration. It painted these women, and all the main characters for that matter, as too perfect. There were no complex characters, no characters making wrong decisions (but for the right reasons), it was all just too perfect for me. I also didn't like how the horror and trauma many of these characters faced, was more or less glossed over and romanticized. There were a couple of instances where that wasn't the case, but I felt that the character building was missing an important step of these women overcoming their past trauma.
Perhaps that element is due to the classification of it being a "YA novel", which is why I'm not letting it affect my rating too much, but it is something that bothers me with this book. (This may also be an element of fantasy books in general - the main character must go through a traumatic ordeal, but they overcome it and fight the bad guys and win - with their trauma shoved quickly and silently away, no therapy necessary, just the old-fashioned good vs. evil.)
Other than that, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone looking for an adventure-filled, fantasy, YA read.
This story follows 16-year-old Deka, a young woman living in Otera, a fictional, patriarchal kingdom. Every 16-year-old girl goes through a purity test, to see if their blood runs "pure." Deka's did not, and hers ran gold, the color passed on by the Gilded Ones, the demons from thousands of years ago. Saved by a mysterious woman, she discovers she is an Alaki, a being with exceptional power and near-immortality: considered a demon to the patriarchal society she inhabits. The woman brings her and other Alaki to a camp where they train to take down a great danger to the kingdom where she discovers something even darker and dangerous about herself.
I loved the story of Deka and how she came into herself. My favorite books are about strong, independent women, and Deka certainly showed up in this book. Truly - all the women featured in this book were strong and true to their sisterhood.
The plot was action-packed, filled with fighting scenes, budding friendships, and just a touch of romance (truly checking all of my favorite boxes!).
I do have some difficulty with this book, and some frustration. It painted these women, and all the main characters for that matter, as too perfect. There were no complex characters, no characters making wrong decisions (but for the right reasons), it was all just too perfect for me. I also didn't like how the horror and trauma many of these characters faced, was more or less glossed over and romanticized. There were a couple of instances where that wasn't the case, but I felt that the character building was missing an important step of these women overcoming their past trauma.
Perhaps that element is due to the classification of it being a "YA novel", which is why I'm not letting it affect my rating too much, but it is something that bothers me with this book. (This may also be an element of fantasy books in general - the main character must go through a traumatic ordeal, but they overcome it and fight the bad guys and win - with their trauma shoved quickly and silently away, no therapy necessary, just the old-fashioned good vs. evil.)
Other than that, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone looking for an adventure-filled, fantasy, YA read.