The Gilded Ones (Deathless, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

May 01, 2021 Shannon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow. This book is so good. It’s hard to even tell you all the things I loved about it, so I’ll start with the premise: Deka lives in a world where all girls are checked for the purity of their blood at age 16. The day of her purity ritual, her blood runs “cursed gold” rather than red and a whole new life begins for her. It’s not an easy or good life. Her father, her friends and her community turn against her immediately. She’s offered the chance to leave her village and fight for the empire to s ...more

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Mar 20, 2021 Lianne rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, 2021

YA feminist fantasy about fighting and taking down the patriarchy? Sure! This was a good, fast read, though more brutal (and at the same time removed from that brutality) than I thought it would be. I had a pretty good idea of where it was going, especially after Deka's blood ran gold and she was named a demon, but it was a pretty fun ride getting there. Loved the relationships between the girls. The writing was kind of clunky and told more than it showed, but the story moved fast and I stayed u ...more

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Mar 02, 2021 Jessica rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Some spoilers, and content warning: physical abuse

The Gilded Ones is a story of men using religion to control women but, thank goodness, it is not set in a pseudo-Puritan America. The setting alone is worth reading this book for. Forna's landscape descriptions are lush, and one can imagine the geography of her world without the help of the map at the beginning. The races that populate this book correspond to what one might expect from our modern conceptions of North, South, East and West, but th Some spoilers, and content warning: physical abuse

The Gilded Ones is a story of men using religion to control women but, thank goodness, it is not set in a pseudo-Puritan America. The setting alone is worth reading this book for. Forna's landscape descriptions are lush, and one can imagine the geography of her world without the help of the map at the beginning. The races that populate this book correspond to what one might expect from our modern conceptions of North, South, East and West, but the center is not the (north)West, i.e. America or Europe, but instead in the South (Africa).

My favorite character was Deka's pet shapeshifting dragon kitten, but of course it was. Deka is second, and the way Forna writes Deka's trauma, which can be found in italics throughout the book, shows the ways it can infect all interactions and trigger the traumatized within everyday interactions. Forna also shows Deka's reclamation of self through addressing her trauma and finding strength in what others (literally here) demonized: being a woman with demon blood. She finds and learns to trust a Good Man who does not betray her.

The ending was almost what one might expect, but with enough of a surprise twist to make it refreshing. I've been reading a fair number of "men controlling women through religion" fantasies in the last year, and it's very possible that pandemic exhaustion may be the reason I only like the book instead of loving it. I'm going to revisit it, because I suspect it will reveal even more exciting details you'd miss on one read through.

The idea of power coming from lineage blood always icks me out a little, especially since white supremacists love that idea, but it was turned on its head in this context: power resides in women and passes between them, and is not from one certain race but instead from Goddesses of all four found in the book.

One of my issues with this genre is the reification of the male/female gender binary. There weren't any characters from outside it. There was an almost-immortal powerful being who enjoyed the company of women over men, which was nice. ...more

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