I wasn’t sure about what to except when I started The Merciless Ones. The first book, The Gilded Ones, was an ok read but nothing that I really connected with. But since I liked the idea of it and world the book was set in, I was happy to give the sequel a chance. And I’m really happy that I did that! Because it’s so much better than the first book!

The story feels much more focused and stream lined, which made me able to follow the story better. The pacing was also better, and just the overall story was more engaging to me as a reader! There was just so many twists and turns to the plot, that it kept your attention and fueled your imagination trying to figure the things out alongside the characters. I became really invested in Dekas story and the world within the book, and as such I read it in one sitting. I also like that the supporting characters gets some depths to them, as well a some more lore of the world - which is always welcome.

Now I can’t wait to see where the third book will take the story next, although I am a bit worried about how far “the chosen one” trope will go. Because there’s nothing fun reading about an overpowered main character.

Spot on! Just what I needed after the first book, I could lose myself in this world. Cannot recommend enough!

You're expecting this, so I'll get it very quickly out of the way; there's no recap of any kind, but this is a proof, so there may be one in the book proper. Otherwise, I recommend rereading the first one before you start this one, as there is a lot going on, and as a high fantasy there are specific terms being used whose meanings aren't immediately apparent.

Right, we've dealt with that.

This is an intricate, complicated fantasy with a lot of things going on. I did guess one of the big reveals, but it was fairly well telegraphed. I loved the friendship between Deka and some of the other characters; found family is always amazing and I really liked it here. It's really well done.

This is a long read, longer than the first one, I thought. Parts of it seemed repetative, but on the whole it moved quickly and there was almost no padding.

There's at least one more book to go, and I'll be interested to see what happens in it. This is shaping up to be a great series.

I've read the first book recently in my native language and I had to request the sequel when I saw it here.
The plot was good, the characters well built and all in all I really like this series.
I would recommend it!

I can’t really express my disappointment of this sequel. I really loved the first book in the series and I gave it five stars. That was a fast paced and action filled novel with great characters and a great plot. Here, I’m not sure what’s going on because nothing happens. It’s so slow and just goes on and on and the characters all of a sudden feels super flat and the plot never grabs hold. It was a pain to get though. Only upside to this was the rather interesting ending that kind of makes it feel worth while reading the final book.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!
At first, I couldn't believe when my netgalley request for this book was approved.
Because this is one of my most anticipated releases of the year!
And as expected, this was everything I needed in the sequel and it DELIVERED.
Can't wait to read Namina Forna's other works!

I really enjoyed reading the merciless ones. It was very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the advance copy of Namina Forna's, The Merciless Ones. The story continues from the first book, The Gilded Ones, Deka again fighting with her close group of friends for the greater good. In the last novel, Namina Forna focused on Deka finding her identity and understanding the nature of her power. In this second book, she discovers that her power is threatened, so she must learn to survive all over again in a struggle for a new world order. I like the idea that Deka has to start believing in herself or others will turn her uncertainty into a weapon. Readers will enjoy this exciting, imaginative, high-fantasy book and its strong female lead.

I'm obsessed with this series with all its fallen gods and goddesses, rising powers, blood and gold. The writing is rich and atmospheric and there is so much depth and mystery to the characters. I loved The Gilded Ones and The Merciless Ones did not disappoint. The whole book has played in my heart like a movie and I'm left hungry for more. WHAT an ending that was! I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for the next instalment.

A brilliant sequel to The Gilded Ones. I hope there will be more in this series!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

„The Merciless Ones“ is the second book in Namina Forna's Deathless-trilogy.
My reading experiences was a mixed bag. I loved some things and didn't like others.
Let's start with the positives.
I really loved the human relationships in the Merciless Ones (and of course non-human, let's not forget Ixa).
Friendship and found family are depicted in a beautiful way. Especially Britta is just the best, she must be protected at all costs.
Also the relationship between Deka and Keita is realistically romantic. Forna doesn't fall into the pitfalls lots of romances depicted in YA-books fall into, which are often superficial.
But Deka and Keita really care for each other.
What Forna also does really well is mental health representation. She writes trauma in a realistic way, especially the long-term effects.
Namina Forna explores many good ideas in her second book in the Deathless series, but the execution is not that good.
The plot of this book is absolute chaos and is teeming with plot conveniences. Everything about the magic is just determined by what the plot needs in that moment. It doesn't feel like the magic serves any other purpose and so it lacks in depth in my opinion. I personally love soft magic systems and don't mind some good „here comes the cavalry“. But the magical abilities of the characters really just pop up out of nowhere directly before they are needed for the plot.
Also the writing style really needs some polishing and a little bit more editing. Especially the beginning and the transitions between different scenes are very clunky. I as the reader don't feel rooted in this world and cannot really visualize the environment. That leads to a disorienting feeling in the transitions from scene to scene.
The political messages are so blunt and just too on the nose for my taste. The ultimate bad guy is clear from the beginning, but in the middle of the book I thought Forna would subvert that expectation, which was not the case.
One other thing that I don't really understand about this series is why it is marketed as YA. It's far to violent for that in my opinion.
Among the book community lots of readers were disappointed with the ending of the first book and hoping that they find some resolution for this in the second one. I think they will be disappointed. I personally didn't mind the ending of the first one, but I'm asking myself if the release of the second book was maybe rushed. The writing in the first one wasn't the best, but for a debut author it was ok, oftentimes this can be improved upon in the second book, but sadly that was not the case here.
Now let's talk about the ending of this one. It just doesn't make any sense to me, and the story also could have been ended then and there. But then there would be no need for a third book. I didn't understand the reasoning behind the decisions that some actions must be delayed and cannot take place right away.
But overall I enjoyed my experiences reading this book despite everything that bothered me, because I love the characters, their relationships and their handling of trauma very much.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, The Gilded Ones and was excited to read what happened next. However, this felt like a disappointment. Sequels are often tricky especially if they are the middle book of a planned trilogy as this appears to be. You have to keep the reader interested but still leave enough to happen in the final book. The author does that in this instance by making Deva question everything that happened to her in the previous instalment and it really didn’t work for me.
Other than Deva’s continued questioning of herself, I didn’t feel that I got to know any more about of the characters which was disappointing. The book mainly seemed to be Deka and her friends moving from place to place and getting involved in a lot of killing and general violence.
I’m really grateful to Net Galley and the publishers for giving me the chance to read this ARC but in this instance, it wasn’t for me.

The book jumps right into the story, placing us 6 months after Deka saved the goddesses and found out who she really is. She and her group of alakis and deathshrieks are on a rescue mission. The reader feels like they are traveling alongside the characters, curiosity piquing as the plot unfurls, accompanied by the oh-so-personal tone of the dynamic writing. A new threat is introduced in the form of an unknown symbol, used by a new sort of enemy, that affects Deka and messes with her power.

The narrative is potent with purpose, with the intent of the protagonist and embellished with an ever-expanding mythology of such creativeness. I love how the events make you wonder about what you think you know. Will the rug be pulled under us like in the 1st book? The author is a master at building towards that. There is an undercurrent, a nagging feeling that there is more going on than Deka is aware of. You can just smell some sort of betrayal.

Female empowerment and misogyny are key themes in the sequel too. But so are all equality and prejudice. The power of change which is scary and many times fought against. How being different isn't a bad thing. Humanity is one. The Earth is one. Everything is connected. This story is a testament to free will.

A slow burner at the beginning, it builds up and builds up until a blast from the past puts a fire in the engine and the book soars from that moment on. I do love how the story evolves, the twists and revelations seemingly natural and gradual elements of it, but still heart-squeezing. A worthy sequel takes its place in an unforgettable series.

I was so ready to read this book after finishing The Gilded Ones, and it did not disappoint.

Starting a short while after the events of the first book, (perhaps a couple of months?), the Gilded Ones are free and are regaining their strength in Abeya. Abeya is a haven created for those loyal to the goddesses. Deka, their beloved Nuru, and her bloodsisters have been freeing other daughters of the Gilded Ones while Keita and the Uruni aid in the attempt to siege Hemeira. The groups meet again and are sent on a mission to capture Elder Kadiri and find an Arcane object known as the Angoro.

I took a little while to get into this book, with it having a somewhat slower start than what I prefer. However, once I was 35% of the way through I was hooked. The pacing increased as events unfolded and Deka and her friends began to question everything they knew and had been told.

The character development through this book was incredible and some moments had me sobbing. This book focuses so much more on gender identity and sexuality. There's heaps of representation in this book, all of which I thought was handled well. I would expect no less from a sequel to the first book, which tackled racism and sexism as well as it had.

The plot twists were not too surprising, but I won't fault the book for that, it was still immensely enjoyable.

I would like to thank Usborne Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed The Gilded Ones when I read it last year which is why I was so excited for the sequel. For the most part, I really enjoyed reading The Merciless Ones .

Namina Forna's writing is beautiful. The way she describes things really draws you into the story and I could easily imagine scenes playing out in front of me. Unfortunately, I think this book fell prey to the second book syndrome. Compared to how action-packed, relatively fast-paced and full of twists the first book was, I felt The Merciless Ones was nothing like that. The pacing felt quite slow, especially at the beginning. It took me a while to immerse myself in the story. I also had no idea that this was going to be a trilogy, so around the last ten per cent of the book, I was a little confused as to why things were left unresolved

All in all, I think The Merciless Ones is an okay sequel, but the way it ended has left me pretty excited for the third book!!

I gave 4 out of 5 stars because I just can't wait for the third book. This story was thrilling, emotional, gipping, and just phenomenal. When I read the first book, I thought it should have ended there because I didn’t enjoy it but this second book is vastly different. I kiss my hand to the author's brilliance.

A brilliant sequel to The Gilded Ones, this continues the story of Deka (the Nuru) and her friends. As she is both. outcast and saviour Deka is in a politically tense situation, she has reawakened The Mothers but their power is weak, so they give her a task to find and destroy an artefact that is preventing their powers from returning. Deka begins to suspect that The Mothers are hiding information from her and that their version of events may not be what they seem.

This sequel of The Gilded Ones starts with four female corpses around Deka’s age, and that scene alone, that sentence actually, got my eyes glued to the pages right away.

What I loved most about the first book was the writing, lush and even lyrical at times. The moment I started reading, I immediately recognized the same writing, and I was so happy about that. Whereas The Gilded Ones was focused on racism and sexism in a world where men dominate, The Merciless Ones concentrates far more on gender identity and sexuality. I was really pleased to see so much more queer representation. Therefore, I highly recommend this story to people who mainly read queer stories. Because it’s a trilogy, I’d suggest reading The Gilded Ones first.

Some things I liked a little less. I found the pacing off at times, and I could see the plot twists coming from a million miles. Because of that, I felt that this book was a bit less exciting than the first one.

My actual rating is somewhere between 3.5 and four stars (where are those half stars when you need them!), and I round it up because overall, I really enjoyed the story.

So much has changed since the beginning of the Gilded Ones, and the Merciless Ones is no less full of twists and turns. It's dramatic, action packed and unpredictable. The Merciless Ones is full of world building as we slowly learn the backstory of the Gods of this world. I really enjoyed following along with Deka as the assumptions and beliefs she held true get tested. The nature of the plot means it does jump around a lot, and there are a fair few sudden reveals of immense previously unknown powers, but it kept me immersed. It's definitely worth picking up for fans of the Gilded Ones.

I really wanted to like this, but reading it reminded me that I wasn't a fan of the first book.

The writing style is part of the problem. I feel that when someone writes a duologu or a trilogy, they should assume the reader read book one, and not spend a long time recapping and explaining everything from the first book. But that's exactly what happens here. And because it's done in Dekas voice it makes her sound pretensious. She is constantly harping on about characters and history and what her father did. It was just too much for me.

And then there were the other characters. What was going on with Brittas voice? Ok, I get it, she was a country girl but the dialect comes across as niave. The characters felt flat to me. I just couldn't get behind any of them really. They all seemed childish and yet are meant to be warriors.

Another reason for only 3 stars is the author's obsession with the word of the day genuflect. It was overused in my opinion. And the pace wasn't there, probably because Deka keeps recapping everything and having flashbacks, but the fights were basically the same, Ixa saving the day, Britta blowing stuff up and then Keita suddenly getting powers. It was like every time the characters got stuck or led into a trap, one of them developed a power and they all jumped on the back of Ixa and flew away. Only for Deka to then hand herself in every 5 minutes and wait for another predictable battle.

Sorry. This is a crowded market and whilst the ideas are good, they haven't translated to paper.