The Gilded Ones

This isn't terribly written and while I support the themes at the heart of this novel, I felt like I just couldn't bring myself to feel like I actually cared about the characters in this book. I'll admit that Fantasy is typically the hardest genre for me to enjoy/suspend belief enough to enjoy, but I felt overwhelmed by the amount of jargon/scenes of fantastical things/beliefs that I felt like I couldn't even picture what was being described. It just felt a little unfinished in this regard.

Moreso, for a YA novel that shies away from most conversations around sex (there are some, but they are very innocent and not detailed) the violence felt like a stark contrast. The violence is very well described, and I'm not saying that I was put off by it, but more that it felt gratitious and incongruent with the way that the rest of the novel was written. Horrible things happened to these women over and over and over, and while I think it's important to talk about that- it felt like it was just like trauma for traumas sake at some point.

The story was interesting, but it was not quite there for me.