A review by laurenmidna
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

4.0

I wasn't sure that I would like this one, in the beginning. It felt like a lot happened all at once, overwhelmingly, without giving me much time to care about the characters. But as the story progressed, I realized that the shock of the first few chapters was really just context for the rest of the book, a backdrop of suffering that each of the girls goes through in their journeys here. Deka was a really fun main character, flawed but still strong, and easy to root for. There were a few things about the story that felt a little bit rushed or hand-wavy, but overall it kept me hooked the whole time.