Blog Tour: The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

Happy Friday y’all! Man, I am so excited that it’s finally Friday because your girl is the most ready for a weekend! But, before we get into the weekend, let’s talk about The Merciless Ones. Thank you so much to TBR and Beyond Tours for having me as a part of their tour for The Merciless Ones. I absolutely loved The Gilded Ones when I read it back in 2020, so I was the most excited to read this one and get back into Deka’s world. If y’all haven’t read the Folded Ones yet, make sure you go grab that one so you can read The Merciless Ones ASAP!

The Merciless Ones 4/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Fans of The Gilded Ones and Children of Blood and Bone will love the second book in an epic fantasy series about a girl who is the key to saving the empire–or its greatest threat.

It’s been six months since Deka has freed the goddesses and discovered who she really is. There are now wars waging across the kingdom. Otereans now think jatu are traitors to the nation. Deka is called a monster.

But the real battle has only just begun and Deka must lead the charge. Deka is tasked with freeing the rest of the goddesses. Only as she begins to free them, she begins to see a strange symbol everywhere in places of worship and worn on armor. There’s something unnatural about that symbol; just looking at it makes Deka lose her senses. Even worse, it seems to repel her powers. She can’t command or communicate with the new deathshrieks. In fact, she can’t even understand them when they speak.

Deka knows freeing the goddesses is just the beginning. She can tell whatever dark force out is powerful and there is something sinister out there threatening the kingdom connected to that symbol–something merciless–that her army will need to stop before humanity crumbles. But Deka’s powers are only getting stronger…and her strongest weapon could be herself.

Content Warning: scenes of violence, including some graphic violence and description of sexual assault

I really, really enjoyed The Merciless One! Like I said earlier, I loved The Gilded Ones when I read it, so I had been anxiously awaiting The Merciless Ones and I definitely was not disappointed. I didn’t realize that this was a trilogy, and oftentimes, we get stuck with a middle book that feels like it’s just filler, but with The Merciless Ones, I feel like we got a lot of important content (plus a lot of fun interactions between Deka and her friends as well as between her and Keita too). There were so many things that happened during this book that I was not expecting at all! And everything felt like it was paced so well- I was always so engaged and drawn into everything that was happening. Was it all really fast? Yes, but I loved that- it felt like I was right there watching it happen and that increased the tension and made everything feel even more urgent. With that big reveal at the end, I cannot wait for book three! Make sure y’all go out and buy The Merciless Ones today! Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo | IndieBound

About the Author:

Namina Forna is a young adult novelist based in Los Angeles, and the author of the upcoming epic fantasy YA novel The Gilded Ones. Originally from Sierra Leone, West Africa, she moved to the US when she was nine and has been traveling back and forth ever since. Namina has an MFA in film and TV production from USC School of Cinematic Arts and a BA from Spelman College. She works as a screenwriter in LA and loves telling stories with fierce female leads. Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads