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Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The Interwebs were correct – these books are great

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

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Once again, I have done as told by the Interwebs, but failed to record which website recommended it.  This was either Vulture or Pajiba, I’d wager.  What an excellent recommendation.  It should be required reading for my whole family (but they never do as they’re told). We meet Deka in the Gilded Ones on the day of her purity test – when all of-age girls are bled to make sure they bleed red, not gold.  If this sounds like some solid gold bullshit to you, […]

A little disappointed in this one.

The Merciless Ones (Deathless, #2) by Namina Forna

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I’ve been going back and forth, and then back and forth again over whether to round this up to four or down to three stars. I think I’m settling on three stars because the plot made my head swim, and not in a good way. No one but Deka, Ixa, and perhaps Britta get significant development, so I had very little incentive to actually remember who any of them were, which didn’t help with my confusion. This is very different from the first book, where […]

“When gods dance, humanity trembles”

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

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Completely separate from the book, but can we just talk about what a disappointment the cover is? The cover for The Gilded Ones was fire, but this? I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s nowhere near as great. This was one of my most anticipated sequels of the year, and it didn’t disappoint. Since this is the second book in a trilogy, this review will contain spoilers for the first book. Deka has taken her place as the Nuru, the chosen one of the Gilded […]

Not Quite Golden

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

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Ok this one is tough because I am not entirely sure what happened here. There is a lot of caps and exclamation marks and questions in this review. I guess I had some feelings. First, I think an audiobook might have been a mistake because there are points where I am honestly confused about what happened. Yes, I was cleaning while I listened to this but I do that with most audiobooks and am not usually so lost. It felt like multiple plot lines or […]

Smash the demon lizard patriarchy.

The Gilded Ones (Deathless, #1) by Namina Forna

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I was really nervous about this one. I wanted so badly to love it. I made the rookie mistake of falling in love with the cover (it’s so pretty!). And I did end up liking it! A lot! I think I want to re-read before I fully pass judgment on it, because my main takeaway right now is that this is an extremely well-written YA fantasy story (written in the first person present POV, and I liked it despite that terrible choice) that does fall […]

“Are we girls, or are we demons?”

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

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I will be 100% honest – I picked up this book solely based on that cover, and I have zero regrets. This is a hard-hitting and fiery young adult fantasy about overcoming the patriarchy. In Otera, it’s accepted that women are subservient to men, and anyone – or anything – that goes against that is against the natural order. At fifteen, girls go through a bloodletting ceremony to prove their purity. Girls who bleed red are now considered women, free to find husbands and have families, […]



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