The Gilded Ones

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Deathless trilogy. I got an ARC of through Amazon Vine for review.

Story (5/5): Deka lives in fear of being found impure, if she bleeds gold instead of red during her purity ceremony she will be found to be part demon and prosecuted as such. The day of Deka’s purity ceremony her village is attacked by vicious monsters and Deka bleeds gold, sending Deka into a cascade of events she never could have predicted..

This was a very well crafted fantasy story. The whole culture of Deka’s world and the monsters that hunt it are very well done. I loved how the story unfolded and the secrets that were revealed about the alaki (near immortals with gold blood). There is a lot of action in here as show more well and it was very well done.

Characters (5/5): After reading so many epic fantasies in a row it was nice to read a fantasy where we only hear from one POV, Deka’s. She is a very well done character. She starts out pretty timid and is put through more than any character should ever have to go through, but comes out stronger on the other side. The women that surround her and the men chosen as their battle companions are all very well done; they are complex and have a lot of depth to them and were all very entertaining to read about.

Setting (5/5): This is a very well built world that is mainly founded on the mythology/history of the gods that built it. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to seeing where things go in the next book.

Writing Style (5/5): This is incredibly well written; it’s easy to read, moves at a good pace, and has a wonderful blend of an amazing world, intriguing characters, and a well done plot that keeps you guessing. This is just a nice straight-forward fantasy with some interesting elements around mythology and gods. It is a bit darker in tone; the girls are abused (and die a lot) and there is torture and rape (never explicit but discussed).

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. I am getting spoiled with great fantasy novels so far this year!! This was an amazingly entertaining and fast-paced fantasy that I really enjoyed a ton. If you love action packed dark fantasy I would definitely give this a read, I loved it and can’t wait for the next book in the series. show less

“Who better to fight a monster than another monster?”

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for violence against women, including rape, torture, and dismemberment. This review contains some vague spoilers.)

I grin from ear to ear when a dewdrop descends slowly before me, its crystalline beauty easily perceptible by my sharpened vision. I’ve never felt this happy before. Never felt this free.

“Is this what birds feel like?” Britta shouts excitedly. “No wonder they never wanted us to run.”

And I stumble, the reminder as piercing as an arrow. the Infinite Wisdoms forbid running, as they do most things that don't prepare girls for marriage and serving their families. According to show more them, girls can’t shout, drink, ride horses, go to school, learn a trade, learn to fight, move about without a male guardian. We can’t do anything that doesn’t somehow relate to having a husband and family and serving them. Elder Durkas always told us that’s because they’re trying to show us how to live happy, righteous lives.

What if it’s meant to cage us instead?

###

“The Gilded Ones...,” Belcalis says, finishing Britta’s question. There’s no question about it when those veins are so unmistakable, as are the other things: the pregnant belly of the Westerner, the Southerner’s darkness, the pale glow of the Northerner, the scaled armor of the Easterner, wings protruding from it.

“They don’t look like demons at all,” Britta says, shocked. “They look like—”

“Gods,” I whisper, thinking of all the statues of Oyomo I’ve seen, glowering down at us from the corners of temples. “They look like gods.”

###

Keita accepts me as I am—loves me. He doesn’t have to say the words, but I feel them. I feel them in the way he cradles my severed head so gently, even though the very act of holding it should horrify him.

###

Sixteen-year-old Deka of Irfut lives in Otera, a fantastical world that looks little like our own ... and yet still feels painfully familiar.

Long ago, Otera was simply a collection independent villages and kingdoms, loosely divided into four regions: north, south, east, and west. That is, until the humans banded together to defeat The Gilded Ones, four demons who were terrorizing humanity, as powerful as they were bloodthirsty. Ever since, Otera has remained a theocracy: ruled by an emperor, and governed by the Infinite Wisdoms.

Otera is a deeply patriarchal society; women are meant to be wives and mothers, and little else. The prohibitions on female activity are endless: women and girls cannot run, laugh, ride horses, drink, receive an education or learn a trade, fight, leave the house without a male chaperone, be seen in public without a mask after a certain age, work outside the home, or have an opinion. "Women were created to be helpmeets to men, subservient to their desires and commands" - after all, it's right there in the Infinite Wisdoms.

https://giphy.com/gifs/hulu-june-handmaidstale-8gWQQtMJickseSfE1v

While this misogyny is the bread and butter of feminist dystopian fiction, Forna throws in an extra little twist, in the form of the Ritual of Purity. Every year, all the sixteen-year-old girls in the village are rounded up and ceremonially cut. While most girls' blood runs red, as expected, occasionally a girl will bleed gold. She is impure - an alaki, a descendant of The Gilded Ones - and, according to the Death Mandate, she must be executed. But this is often easier said than done: an alaki only has one true death, one from which she cannot recover, and it is different for each girl. Otherwise, she will simply slip into the Gilded Sleep, only to awaken weeks later, good as new.

It's here that we meet Deka, as she's on the cusp of undergoing her own Ritual of Purity. Before her turn can come, Irfut is attacked by deathshrieks: fearsome, supernaturally fast and strong creatures made of quills and leather and rage. (I pictured them as crosses between werewolves and porcupines, maybe with a little pterodactyl and Groot thrown in.)

https://giphy.com/gifs/DCAgeOfResistance-netflix-jim-henson-dark-crystal-WUOLbyg...

Just as her beloved father is about to be slaughtered, a primal, irresistible scream wells up from the depths of Deka's soul - and the deathshrieks freeze. It seems that she alone can command them. For her troubles, she's thrown in an elder's basement, tortured, murdered countless times, and bled dry for her valuable gold blood.

Her salvation comes in the form of a mysterious woman Deka nicknames "White Hands," aka the Lady of the Equus, who whisks her off to Hemaira, the City of Emperors, to join the emperor's burgeoning alaki army, specially assembled to exterminate the deathshrieks.

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Here, she finds her true family: good-natured Britta, with the perpetually upset stomach (much like Roberta in Superman Smashes the Klan, Britta's stomach is A MOOD); sisters Adwapa and Asha who, as daughters of the high chief Nibari, only pretend to follow the Infinite Wisdoms for the benefit of visiting priests; Belcalis, who suffered more than most under the Death Mandate and knows better to trust the elite's fleeting favor; and Katya, a red-headed farm girl who wants nothing more than to marry her childhood sweetheart.

As the alaki train alongside the uruni - regular human boys who are to be their brothers in arms - Deka undertakes her own lessons in secret; White Hands teaches her how to harness her combat state to further enhance her already superhuman powers, and consolidate her control over the deathshrieks.

But with each raid, Deka cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong: with her cryptic answers, what truth is White Hands keeping from her? Why does Deka witness the deathshrieks using increasingly complicated tools - cochleans to cover their ears, armor to protect their bodies, and weapons ranging in sophistication from rocks to swords and maces - when she has been taught that they are unthinking, unfeeling brutes? And what of the shrines to The Gilded Ones the alaki warriors keep discovering along their path of destruction?

https://giphy.com/gifs/movie-charlize-theron-mad-max-fury-road-xTiTnoDmbxELCTTFf...

Usually when I dread reviewing a book, it's for one of two reasons: either the story was so utterly, jaw-droppingly amazing that I fear it's impossible to do the author justice - or it's simply "meh," and I can't for the life of me think of anything to say. I bet you can guess which category The Gilded Ones falls into. This is my first starred read of 2020 - I read an early copy in April, before the release date got pushed back almost a year thanks to the corona virus - aside from a few graphic novels and a reread of Not a Drop to Drink, that is.

The Gilded Ones is like The Handmaid's Tale or The Grace Year, but cranked up to the nth degree, and with a welcome understanding of racial politics to boot. There's so much to love here: richly detailed and wholly imaginative world building; one awesome found family (that keeps growing more wondrous with each chapter); unexpected plot twists like whoah; a terribly sweet (and sometimes weirdly gross; not mutually exclusive) star-crossed romance; and a compelling, skillfully executed plot, the true feminist ferocity of which doesn't become fully apparent until the story's end. The Gilded Ones continued to surprise me to the very last page, in the best ways possible. This book is every bit as beautiful as the cover promises, and then some.

The ending also sets up a pretty epic sequel, which I'm already pining for. It was giving off a serious Fury Road vibe, which I am so here for. In the meantime, HBO? Pick this up, stat. You need a next Game of Thrones, I need some feminist fantasy to inject into my socially isolated veins, let's do this thing! (Hey, it's got to be better than bleach. Hello again from early 2020.)

On the book's Amazon page, Refinery29 blurbs The Gilded Ones thusly: "Namina Forna Could Be The Toni Morrison Of YA Fantasy." Three words, and I'll try to keep it as unspoilery as possible: Octavia. Butler. Deathshriek.

https://giphy.com/gifs/cbc-funny-comedy-26DN1AcPC2dReHuTe

http://www.easyvegan.info/2021/02/09/the-gilded-ones-by-namina-forna/ show less

I think it was interesting for a story to play with the constructs of purity in a fantasy world. As usual, only girls’ purity is called into question and the "purest" girls are the most covered with mask adorned with gold or cheaper metals. We see Deka run herself ragged trying to meet her society's standards. She tries to be as devout as she can.

Unfortunately, and understandably, Deka felt like such a sad sack the entire time. She's tortured in brutal ways and abandoned. I wasn't aware that this was a multiracial (why are there so many blonde and blue-eyed ppl? At least make it interesting, blonde and red-eyed?) fantasy world, so I was surprised at Deka being basically a magical biracial girl.

On top of the impurity bs, she's isolated show more from her mom's side of the family and further alienated. With that being said, I fully understand that Deka’s dejectedness is a purposeful progression.

The storytelling felt very slow-moving, and some readers may drop before they see Deka come to terms with herself. But my heart was gladdened once Deka did. I didn’t care about any of side characters, the allies Deka makes, though White Hands immediately piqued my interest.

The conversations between Deka and Britta just never hit for me. Very ‘we’re friends because we sit next to each other in class’ vibes. I was indifferent to Keita. But I enjoyed the lady army, the commanders and the soldiers were ruthless. the final fight scene felt so technical. The emperor was acting so hammy.

Because I wasn’t endeared to any of the characters, the reading experience was lackluster. I wonder if the author’s screenwriting experience played a part in the execution. Still, creating a fantasy story is no joke! show less

4 Stars

An inspiring story about overcoming oppression in a severe paternalistic society that serves only to put every female in their place, and if they’re not deemed pure enough, they’re killed. Yep. You heard that right.

Harsh. Brutal. Violent. This pulls no punches on what women in this fictional world are subjected to. Good thing there’s an ally who has put in motion a series of events that starts the beginning of the end of such a cruel and unfair culture.

Filled with a bit of magic, a brewing teen romance, plenty of legend and lore, and wondrous creatures and monsters, Deka’s journey has just begun, and I look forward to seeing how she fights for her freedom and those of her fellow sisters!

Go Girl Power!!

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#1 The Gilded Ones - ★★★★★
#2 The Merciless Ones - ★★★★★
#3 Untitled - TBR

Oh my goodness, what a book! The Gilded Ones is the first book in the Deathless series, and it’s already much talked about! Get ready to dive into a YA Fantasy that will brutally show you what happens when society believes oppression is okay. And how one girl, who is deemed different and therefore, cast away from her village, will rise up and fight for her freedom!

I am so thankful to a few teams, for letting me be part of this experience and sending me a copy of this book. Thanks to LoveReading and LoveReading Kids, Usborne YA and Tandem Collective.

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Deka grew up show more and lives in Otera, a kingdom with patriarchal values. The Kingdom has the Ritual of Purity, where every girl’s worth is being determined by the colour of her blood. When a girl reaches a certain age, she needs to prove she’s “pure”. If she bleeds red, she is “pure” and is accepted as part of the village and required to wear a mask.

When the day comes for Deka to undergo the Ritual of Purity, she bleeds gold – the colour of impurity, of a demon. She faces a consequence worse than death, and is saved by a mysterious woman who tells Deka of her true nature. Deka is an Alaki, a near-immortal with exceptional gifts. And this woman offers her a choice: fight for the Emperor, with the other Alakis, or be destroyed…

“Giving us impossibilities and calling them choices.”

My Thoughts:

The Gilded Ones is everything I expected it to be and more. From the very first page, I cared so much for Deka. As the chapters went on, I couldn’t peel my eyes off the book. Firstly, the world building is spectacular. Namina Forna created this fictional world, and society so cruel that it made me hurt for Deka and the other Alakis.

These people don’t really appreciate and accept the worth of a woman, even when she is considered “pure”. The women in the village are only there to bear children and be housewifes. They are also required to wear a mask to cover their faces. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with being a housewife and staying home. But it has to be the woman that makes that choice. And in this society, the woman has no voice, no space to make a choice, no other option. And these are the “pure” women we are talking about. What about those that are deemed “different”?

The Alaki

Deka and the others like her bleed gold, and therefore, the society thinks they are evil. The society is afraid of anything that is different to them, and therefore rejects it. These girls are subject to terrible things, And through Deka and her friends’ experiences, we find out about the most gruesome and brutal things that can happen to women, in a society led by men and voiceless women. These girls now have to fight for the Emperor, having no other choice, and stay together. However, they have some unexpected powers, especially Deka, that with time, she will learn to use. Their training and battles will teach them things that will change them forever.

“The physical body – it heals. The scars fade. But the memories are for ever. Even when you forget, they remain inside, taunting you, resurfacing when you least expect.”

Remember your scars! Embrace them! Let them remind you where you came from, what you went through. Let them remind you how much you’ve achieved! Without those scars, you would never be the person you are today.

As a YA Fantasy, The Gilded Ones exceeds everything!

There is danger, adventure and magic. There is Deka’s main storyline, that drives the story forward as we learn more about her and her role in this world. But there are also the stories of her many Alaki friends she meets, all bearing their own weight, all powerful and emotional in their own way. I especially loved that we had a romance creeping into the book, but it so subtle and never took importance in the story. I loved how independent Deka was, and how well represented it was that love can exist in your world, and you can care about someone, but it doesn’t have to define you as a person, or affect your decisions. This is not the case with most of the YA Fantasy books, and I am so glad that this book focused on it.

Namika Forna wrote a masterpiece, and this book will go a long way! It’s all about that raw brutality and pure emotions dripping into every single page. My heart was breaking for Deka, Britta, Belcalis and the other girls! The Gilded Ones is a book that shows how to live past the stereotypes, and when oppressed, to fight for freedom! It shows in a brutal way what would happen if a certain behaviour becomes supported by the general public and becomes the new norm. It also shows that you can fight through it. And considering today’s world is not too far off from this fantasy, hopefully we’ll all learn a little bit more about important topics worth talking about! show less

THIS is what keeps me reaching for YA fantasy books.

The writing was absolutely solid which led to a story with excellent flow and logical, well-paced progression.

The characters were each amazing with back stories and traits that made them seem like real people. Deka was a kick ass female lead who suffered immensely, but pushed through (and wasn't immediately the best at everything and didn't suddenly become all knowing).

The ending was incredibly well done. The lead up to the final events eventually revealed multiple twists without seeming too sudden.

I will ABSOLUTELY be running to the store when the second book releases.

Definitely a 4.5.

CW: body mutilation, torture, talk of past rape

I have been waiting to read this book since the first time I saw that gorgeous cover. The color scheme and the stunning young Black girl on the cover impressed me immediately and I was so happy when I got the advance copy. But when the release date got pushed to this year, I decided to pick it up closer to when it comes out. And this was wonderful.

I started reading this the day after I sprained my ankle and was confined to the bed, so I really needed a good distraction. And this one turned out to be so good. The story starts off with a bang and it never slows down, keeping us engrossed in it throughout. The mythology and culture of this world is both fascinating and show more brutal, but just as we think we know something, we are bombarded with more twists and revelations and I couldn’t even imagine taking a break from the book. The writing also felt very personal and full of feeling, making us deeply invested in the proceedings and get emotional whenever something happened. The author also never shies away showing the cruelty of the people in this world, especially towards women whom they consider impure and it’s horrifying to read, but it’s also a tale of strength and survival.

Deka is such an amazingly written character. She is a young woman who has kind of been an outcast all her life and just wants to below. But then her life is upended and she is put through such ordeals that it is very despairing, but it also drives her to become a survivor. And after losing the only people she knows in such a brutal manner, the bonds she makes with her fellow survivors was a joy to watch. Her absolute trust of her fellow alaki women, who have equally suffered, and the way they all derive strength from each other was immensely satisfying to read. I am especially in love with her beautiful friendship with Britta who is a ray of sunshine among all the darkness. The bonds these women slowly form with male recruits who initially hate them is also very organically developed in the story, and it never felt contrived. And Keita and all his friends made great additions to a story which was otherwise full of misogynistic men, wanting to completely control women.

The author mentions in her note that this was her story about patriarchy and it’s vivid in every single page. This is the story of what happens when men decide they can’t have women be in any powerful positions, and what kind of lengths they will go to convince the whole population that women are meant to be subservient only. But this is also about women who can change their understanding about themselves if given the opportunity, and take their destiny into their own hands when they stand together, along with some men who are not scared to be supportive of them.

In conclusion, this is a stunning portrayal of what a brutal patriarchal fantasy world can look like, and what women can achieve when they decide they’ve had enough. It’s a story of resilience, survival and strong friendships which will definitely leave a mark on you. I feel lucky to have read such a marvelous debut and I can’t recommend it enough. show less