Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Voted by members for the YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi additional read

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna



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

On to chapter 3 and was not expecting it to go in the direction it’s currently going. I’m hooked!

Anyone else finish this?

Kevin wrote: "Anyone else finish this?"
Hey, I finished it this weekend. :) Did you like it? I enjoyed the reading and I think it had some good twists, but I think the writing lacked something, maybe depth or wordplay, and some of the descriptions felt a bit confusing or incomplete to me.

Agreed, obviously I wasn’t the target demo for this book but I think it was a decent YA novel. I did like the twists and how it wasn’t as predictable as I thought it was. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5

Kevin wrote: "Agreed, obviously I wasn’t the target demo for this book but I think it was a decent YA novel. I did like the twists and how it wasn’t as predictable as I thought it was. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5"

I liked it also and rated it the same. I liked the ending, had some quibbles. The author tried, but ultimately didn't explain to my satisfaction why (view spoiler)[so many of the alakai (death shrieks) had to be killed by their own kind...I do not buy all of the "I can't tell you now, you're not ready!" nonsense, people are suffering and dying. It cannot have been the only way, I can think of many other ways." (hide spoiler)] That said, I was satisfied with the ending. Too often, I find these series books cannot stand on their own and it is a pet peeve of mine when it ends on a cliffhanger. To me, it is the sign of talent when an author can end a book without having a cliff hanger and I'm still eager to read the next book. That happened here for me.

Lea wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Agreed, obviously I wasn’t the target demo for this book but I think it was a decent YA novel. I did like the twists and how it wasn’t as predictable as I thought it was. I’d give it ..."
I completely agree with you about that explanation (it didn't convince me) and about the ending, which was not weakened by too many loose ends, so it's definitely a plus.