We Unleash the Merciless Storm

This is one of my most highly anticipated sequels of this year and I’m so so happy that I was able to read it as soon as it released. I absolutely adored We Set the Dark on Fire and had huge expectations from this one as well, and the author doesn’t disappoint.

The previous book ends on an intense cliffhanger and the author doesn’t let up by starting off almost at the next moment, but this time the story being told through Carmen’s POV. The story in this book takes place in just a few days, so the pacing, tension and the action is absolutely relentless, not giving us any time to take a breath or relax. There was a sense of danger at every moment that the author managed to create, making me scared for my beloved characters all show more the time and I think the ability to sustain this sense of dread for a whole book was genius. But even during all these tension filled pages, there is so much emotion and love and vulnerability, and I’m amazed at the author’s ability to balance them all.

While the first book was all about building up this unjust world and it’s cruel discrimination towards the poor and underprivileged, this book is all about what it means to be part of a resistance and fighting for a cause. In this day and age where we see many resistance movements across the world trying to stand up to authoritarian forces, the book rightly has some timely commentary on the importance of believing in a cause and fighting for it, but also about never putting one or two leaders above the cause itself. Through the characters’ thoughts and actions, we see how the strength of a resistance is in remaining loyal to all the people, in trying to build a community and figuring out ways to live, not just survive.

There is also something we read or see a lot in media, about how love is a weakness that distracts you from your path and the author dismantles this perspective beautifully, showing how love in its different forms - romantic, platonic, sisterhood, found family - is a source of unimaginable strength and it gives us much more reason to survive and fight and succeed.

We get the whole story through Carmen’s POV and I loved getting to know her more deeply. She is very conflicted after her experiences from the first book, unsure if she believes in the resistance anymore - particularly its leadership which seems to have changed direction and started using its people as disposable pawns - and is also worried how she can reconcile her faith in the cause with her love for Dani. Even though the story takes place in just a few days, we see Carmen go through a gamut of emotions, think and realize what is important to her, and though she does act impulsively at times which made me want to chide her, she ultimately does what she truly believes in her heart without ever compromising on her principles or giving up her love. I especially admired her belief that the cause and the people for whom they are fighting are the most important thing, not the leaders.

It almost felt like Dani was only present for a very short time in the book (it’s probably half) and most of their time together was spent in trying to run and survive and fight. But I’m glad that they got to talk about their feelings, understand what is important to each of them and then support each other unconditionally in their final stand.

We get to know a few more resistance members better this time and it was actually nice to see Sota again. He really is a sweet boy and true believer. I also liked how decisive and strong a leader Alex was, with some excellent support from Jasmin. I really liked the author stressing on the importance and power of sisterhood, especially towards the end when they were all tested. The final chapter really was the epitome and realization of what they were fighting for.

To conclude, this book is as exciting and intense as I wanted it to be and I rushed through it because I couldn’t put it down. If you like your YA fantasies to be full of a group of women trying to fight and lead a resistance against an oppressive government, along with a beautiful love story, then this duology is perfect for you. It is fast paced, it is eye opening, it will make you question your own beliefs and finally leave you feeling hope. As someone who prefers more clear cut endings, the climax here felt a little dissatisfactory to me because it was too open ended and just leaves us hoping that the characters end up achieving what they set out to do without ever getting to know the results. show less

Literary Merit: Excellent
Characterization: Excellent
Recommended: Yes
Level: High School

I jumped into this book (probably mistakenly) without reading the first installment, but found myself enjoying it immensely anyways. In my experience, finding unapologetic lesbian romance in a YA novel is rare, as authors tend to focus more on gay or trans characters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (representation is always good), but I figured it was about time the "L" in LGBT got some attention. Even though I hadn't read the first book, I found myself instantly invested in this story and these characters, and it left me wanting to go back and see what I'd missed.

We Unleash the Merciless Storm begins rather abruptly, with a young woman named show more Carmen Santos returning to her once beloved home (the stronghold of a rebellion known as La Voz) to find that everything has changed in her absence. The rebellion's beloved leader El Buitre (or "The Vulture") has become enthralled by a dangerous new recruit named Ari, who has sown seeds of doubt amongst her former family members. Complicating things, Carmen has also fallen in love with a girl who may or may not be loyal to their cause, putting everything she's ever worked for in danger. With her loyalty questioned, Carmen must decide whether to follow the rules or sacrifice everything for a chance at love.

Firstly, I will admit that I didn't know what was going on at all times in this book, as I didn't have time to read the first one beforehand. Despite this, Mejia is very forgiving with her prose, offering up context clues to help the uninitiated. In my opinion, a good sequel should reward loyal readers while also being accessible to new ones, as it's very easy to see a flashy book in the store or at the library and not know it's a sequel. While I didn't pick up on everything, I learned enough about the mechanics of this world to not be entirely lost while reading, so Mejia earns brownie points for that.

The next most important thing for me to address is the amazingly unapologetic representation in this book. Not only are the main characters unapologetically lesbian, but they are also Latina as well. In fact, this entire book seems to be steeped in Hispanic folklore, as it begins with the legend of the Salt God and how La Voz came to be. At the beginning of every chapter and peppered throughout the story, we learn more and more about the folklore behind La Voz, culminating in a very mystical display of ancient power at the very end of the book. While there isn't overt magic to be found in this book, the entire plot is shrouded in elements of fantasy. As someone who knows next to nothing about Hispanic folklore, I thought this was really cool, and I was happy to see both LGBT representation and Latinx representation in the same book.

As much as I enjoyed the representation, however, I enjoyed the side characters even more. Sota was my absolute favorite of these characters, and even though I hadn't read any of his development in the first book, I found myself growing really attached to him as a brother figure to Carmen. This proved to be a mistake, however, as [SPOILER ALERT] he dies at the hands of the establishment La Voz is trying to bring down. It is a credit to Mejia's writing that I felt Carmen's loss so profoundly, as she had expertly woven in backstory to help establish their history beforehand. It truly felt as though Carmen had just lost a sibling, and it was made even worse by the guilt at knowing it was her fault. Similarly, when El Buitre dies at the very end, it feels as though Carmen is truly losing her father, and the loss is both sudden and devastating. Jasmin and Alex are also amazingly kickass heroines, and I love that the four female heroes of the story form an unstoppable team at the end.

Another enjoyable thing about this book is the sheer amount of suspense. I honestly never knew who was on Carmen's side, who had ulterior motives, and who was a traitor. At first, Alex (one of Carmen's closest friends) turns on Carmen. Then, Carmen doesn't know whether she can still trust Sota. When she finally meets up with her forbidden lover Dani, Carmen is unsure whether her affections have changed. Finally, the members of La Voz learn that there is a traitor in their midst, and Carmen endures a whirlwind of shocking events until the traitor is finally revealed. The suspense of not knowing who to trust makes for a very intriguing novel, and I found myself turning the pages quickly to find out what would happen next.

Though I really enjoyed this book as a whole, I must also admit that the pace did feel a bit rushed at times. While I'm assuming we learned a lot more about Medio's world in the first book, it felt like there was this entire other part of this society I was missing, like an enormous piece of the puzzle hiding behind a curtain. It felt like this universe was very vast, but I was only seeing a small snippet through the eyes of the rebellion. Again, this may have been addressed in the first book, but I can sadly only judge based on what I read in this one. While the lore behind La Voz and its traditions was fascinating, I can't help but feel like a I missed a huge part of this fictional society in focusing on the rebellion.

It also seemed like loose ends were tied up extremely quickly, though not nearly as quickly as series like The Belles. There was definitely a sense of gravity and urgency (we do, after all, lose two beloved characters in the second half), but the final battle didn't feel nearly as grand and epic as I had hoped. In fact, it kind of fizzles out when Carmen loses consciousness, waking up to find it over and her side victorious. That was a tad lackluster, but not enough to make me dislike the book.

As I said, this book was pretty good overall, certainly better than the last sequel I read for ROYAL. Unlike Twisted Fates, I actually found myself getting very invested in these characters, and reading this book made me want to read the first one. Though it is by no means perfect (there are definitely some issues with pacing), I think it did a great job establishing the characters, building suspense, and getting the reader invested in the story. As an added bonus, it's full of healthy representation, as there are several LGBT couples to be found throughout the book. I thought that was awesome, and I'd love to see more of it in the future. If I have time, I'm definitely planning on picking up the first book and giving it a whirl, if only to fill in some of the bits that felt lacking for me. If you're a fan of romance, intrigue, and suspense, I'd say this book is right up your alley. show less

We Unleash the Merciless Storm is the sequel and ending of the duology fantasy series, We Set the Dark on Fire, this time told from Carmen's point of view. Being raised by the resistance group La Voz, Carmen had become one of their best spies by the time she was twelve, but she's been away on a mission for the past 5 years and when she returns home, a lot has changed. Her beloved leader, the man she looks at who raised her, is under the influence of a new recruit, one who is a big influence for the assassination plot of the girl who Carmen loves, Dani. How will Carmen save the girl she loves while still fighting for the community she holds so dear?

The ending of a great duology! This time, the book is from Carmen's point of view. I quite show more enjoyed being able to see Carmen's take on the world around her and get to know more about her life and upbringing, especially her relationships with Alex and Sota.

Though it was a bit slower in my opinion, especially since it was a bit repetitive about how much she loved Dani before getting back to her. The novel tended to pick up and then slow down frequently. I wish it was in both Dani and Carmen's POVs - Dani had a lot going on during this as well and though we get some of the information, I would have liked to read about it first hand.

The book does wrap up some questions that were left unanswered in the first book. There are a few points that I thought were stretched a tad bit (I'm going to forgive the fact characters seemed to have a rapid healing rate), but none of them were anything that ruined the book for me. I still read it up as fast as I could.

This duology is a good example of some badass women who don't need to follow, or rather, be owned, by a man to do great things. All the women were strong, fierce, and determined to do what they believed to be right, no matter the struggles. It also had a quite a few positive, loving lesbian couples shown in the novels and that sometimes is hard to come by. show less

2.5 stars!

‘We set the dark on fire’ set a high bar of a rebellious story fighting several issues including and not limited to ‘class system/caste system’, patriarchy and homophobia.

Naturally, I had similar if not more expectations from its sequel. The issue I have with it is that it had so much potential but ended up being a collective of missed opportunities.

It worked out okay towards the end. I liked how it had women that took charge and fought for their people and rights. Honestly, thats it.

The first 100 or so pages were promising and then the story dipped into annoyingness. Carmen was so foolish that I was screaming.

Spoilers Ahead:

Sota died. Nothing significant came out of it.

Ari betrayed them. Their leader shared the show more blame and ended up being murdered by Ari and the girls murder Ari in return.

All these developments happen within the blink of an eye and amount to almost nothing. The number of lines used up to praise their leader and Lavos go to the dumps in minutes.

I would have really liked if the story was something more. It felt really rushed and forced.

For all the love I have for ‘We set the dark on fire’, the sequel did not hold a candle to it. show less

Oh my gosh.

What a brilliant follow up to the first. What gorgeous writing.

The things this story made me feel. Ugh. More detailed review to come, but what a brilliant tale.

I'm a little disappointed in some ways.

This book is phenomenal. I liked it better than I liked the first in the series. I will write a full review at another time, but I reviewed the first book on my blog at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2019/08/19/femme-rebels/

CW for violence and death in combat

Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2019/12/23/2019-in-review/