Blog Book Tour – The Gilded Ones (Deathless #1) by Namina Forna (Review)

Welcome to my spot on the book tour for The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. I received a copy of the book last year and I was excited to finally get a chance to read it.

Book Information:

The Gilded Ones (Deathless #1)

By Namina Forna

Publishing Date: February 8, 2021

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Synopsis:

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 choice: 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 hold many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be-not even Deka herself.

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.

Find her here: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Rating: 💙💙💙💙💙

I have taken off of reading fantasy books because I was getting burned out on the YA fantasy being written with the same theme and it was getting a little too boring for me so I was a little worried that The Gilded Ones would be the same. I am glad to say that it isn’t, I really loved this book. It was refreshing to read a story that had diverse strong female characters.

The story is high fantasy but it does have a lot of topics which deals with racism, misogyny, inequality, abuse, feminism which has diverse empowering characters. The main character Deka is put through hell when it is discovered that she is a demon that was heartbreaking and was hard to read at times. But with everything she went through, we see her grow into a strong female.

Forna did a great job with developing the world and showcasing all of the characters in the story. Even though there were a lot of cringeworthy parts of the story, it is something that was necessary for the story because it shows how these female characters were treated by their male counterparts and how they became stronger to get passed those misogyny beliefs.

The best part of the book for me was friendships between Deka and her bloodsisters. Their friendship deveolped to be strong and they had each other backs. It was refreshing to see it a YA fantasy because they weren’t there to compete with each other but to be there to uplift each other.

I really loved this book and I am looking forward for the next book in The Deathless series.

Click the picture to go to the book tour schedule and checkout the rest of the bloggers posts.