The Gilded Ones Book Review

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
Published by Delacorte on February 9, 2021
Pages: 432
Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.
But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.
Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.
Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.

I received The Gilded Ones as the extra book in the June 2020 FairyLoot box and although it is a stunning book I never felt the draw to pick it up. Well, I have since had a baby and I need to clear some room off not only my shelves but my spare room in general so I’ve been trying to read through my back list. The Gilded Ones is just one book in that list, and I was a little disappointed with the story and the writing style with this one. 

Characters in The Gilded Ones

The Gilded Ones follows the story of Deka and a regiment of demon girls, or so they think. This story really centres around their bond and how they learn to deal with the fact they are ostracised by society and seen as unclean. The set up was promising and I loved the idea of all of these women coming together, healing together and growing together but everything and everyone just felt a little forced. I think my biggest issue was the over riding trope that Deka was the stereotypical “normal” girl who became something special.

Alongside that the time spent with each character isn’t enough to get to know them. There is a lot of focus on Deka and her relationships but I definitely think she’s my least favourite, I would have loved to have seen more from the other characters especially Britta and Belcalis. They had such interesting back stories and we just got a glimpse, in fact all the other back stories were more interesting than Deka’s. Basically, there was a lot of underdeveloped moments, a relationship which had very little time spent on it and a lot of tropes then it needed.

The best bit of The Gilded Ones

The Gilded Ones had me struggling for the first part and I actually nearly DNF’d it a couple of times. However, the pacing really picked up in the last third and started to get more and more interesting, I definitely enjoyed this part of the book the most, and actually thought it might pick itself up. It didn’t quite redeem the worst bits but it did make it hard to put it down. Plus it interested me enough that I now want to read the sequel when it’s released. 

The worst bit

Apart from the characters being on the boring and underdeveloped side I thought the story was on the predictable side. I always say that there is a good use of tropes and a bad, this was awful. The actual ending was the pinnacle of anticlimactic, there had been so much that had happened I thought the ending was going to be something special. But I just couldn’t believe how easy everything happened and how it all ended up working out. There was no real drama and the moment that could have been the best was instead using it to set up for the next book in the series. 

Next move

I have actually just been approved to read an eARC of the sequel so I’m excited to see where the story is going to end up. I am hoping that some of the issues I had will be sorted out. Plus it might expand on the different people, especially some of my favourites. It would be great to see the regiment grow and become something special. 

Have you read this one? What were your thoughts? Are you excited for the sequel? Let me know in the comments!