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corabookworm 's review for:

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna
adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No

it’s hard for me to rate this book, because on one hand, it was interesting and entertaining, and a pretty solid second book. but some of the concepts in it also made me a little uncomfortable. (such as the fact that the only asexual character was asexual because of the trauma and abuse she’d gone through, and the fact that a lot of queer characters seemed to be revealed as queer just to give them a traumatic backstory.
also, the reverse-sexism thing at the end was such a different theme and idea from the first book that it gave me whiplash. it just felt like a whole different story
) but it wasn’t that bad of a book?? and i enjoyed reading most of it, especially the beginning. all in all, i’m pretty conflicted :/

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