One of the best debuts I’ve read in a long while. The Gilded Ones is a book that boasts an original plot, a captivating protagonist, sharp clever dialogue, and immersive descriptions. An undeniably strong start to a unique and compelling series.

I find it really hard to suspend reality but the writing of this book made what would normally be a really hard book for me to get into a relative smooth read. It’s not something I would pick up myself in a store but I would highly recommend. This is a girl-power fantasy. Deka is such an amazing protagonist and I enjoyed this book overall.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

TW: gore, death, murders, torture, mentions of rape

Deka is sixteen years old and she fears the blood ritual that will determine if she is pure or not, whether she will become a full member of her village, where she's seen as unnatural for her mother, for her intuition. But when her blood runs gold instead of red her life is turned upside down. Tortured and killed many times, Deka one day has to face a choice, when a mysterious woman comes in her cell: stay in her village or fight for the emperor against a terrible threat, with girls just like her. Because Deka is an alaki, someone stronger than humans and with rare gifts. And Deka is the most peculiar of them all. During her training she will learn to fight, to be herself, to grow and to discover lies and truths about her life and her beliefs.

The gilded ones is one of the most beautiful book I've ever read. It's a feminist fantasy, with a strong female character, who was taught, all her life, what women have to be and what they can do.
According to the holy books, The infinite wisdoms, in Otera, her country, women have to be meek, subservient. They can't do anything that don't prepare them to an husband and a family. They can't ride horses, run, drink, shout, go to school, they can't even move without a male guardian. They aren't seen as indipendent, only inferior to the men.
Deka has known this all her life and she lived under strict patriarchal rules and impositions, resigned to their idea of female, fearing to be unholy, unpure, unnatural.
Her being an alaki means learn new things and slowly dismantling her beliefs and her idea concerning being a woman.

Her whole growth, her questioning things she thought were truths, her finding her place in the world, her growing stronger and more confident is something that happens throughout the book and the reader follows Deka, discovering things, abilities, family and friends.
The author wrote her journey, physical and emotional, skillfully, because the reader is able to understand her moods, her feelings and thoughts. The reader, a first, meets a young girl, molded by a cruel patriarchal society, fearing herself, her powers, her being deemed "unpure", a "demon". Her fear, disgust, rage and hopelessness is heartbreaking and skillfully written. The reader can experience her feelings and follow her in her growth, seeing her becoming more and more confident, having friends and faith in them and in herself. Becoming stronger, self-assured, able to fight, to defend herself and her newfound family.

In The gilded ones the women are oppressed, abused in a country that see them only as inferior. The alaki's stories, the way they were treated and abused were heartbreaking, like Deka's and Belcalis', their trauma forever part of them, never being able to forget it. They went through hell and came out stronger, tougher and it's beautiful and empowering reading about how they decided to fight against their oppressors, in more than one way, like using the words they say against them, demons, for themselves. Reading how they embrace being different, their powers and strength was intense and encouraging.

The characters were amazingly written, the characterization is one of the best I've read in a long time.
Besides Deka, who is a wonderful and complex character, I loved reading about all the female characters in this book. Britta with her energy, Belcalis with her sarcasm, Asha and Adwapa with their beliefs, White Hands with her secrets. They all fight against the patriarchal society and its belief, imposed on all Otera by priests, generals and the emperor.
I really liked the idea of the training ground, the raids, the war, as setting of Deka's growth and her finding family, friends and answer. The recruits, forced to work and fight with women they (and the society) considers inferior or demons are interestingly written, because they slowly starts to realized too the lies and the manipulations.
Keita is Deka's uruni and the only male character I loved in The gilded ones. His character is complex, deep and with a painful past. It was interesting reading about him changing his idea of a woman, of Deka by being and training with her. His relationship with Deka is wonderful, I love their chemistry, their trust in one other, their friendship and love.

Funny and wonderful is Ixa, his shapeshifting homorous and amazing, fiercely loyal and protective of Deka.

The book is full of plot twists, where the truths are slowly revealed, where myths and legends are very important part of Otera and its inhabitants.
The gilded ones is full of strong and complex character and the worldbuilding is fascinating and evocative. It's a brutal world, there are many gory scenes, violent battle scenes and monsters, even though they are not what the reader think.
It's a book about strong female characters, an attack to the patriarchal and oppressive society.
It's about love, friendship, beliving in one self, finding your own place and family, even though is not the biological one.
This fantasy is amazing and I suggest to everyone that wants to be captured by intense and complex characters, plot twists and a wonderful and evocative setting.

This book was a very interesting read and I enjoyed every minute of it! The cover caught my eye right away, the blurb pushed me forward, and I fell right into the story, not resurfacing until I finished the last page! What fantastic worldbuilding the author managed to bring to life, and I say from experience that is not an easy thing to do, and to do well! The images and descriptions of the deathshriekers, of the girls and their training and partners (trying not to give spoilers lol) was truly engaging, and leaves you wanting more. Even though I managed to guess what was coming, it still was fascinating to watch it unfold, and watch Deka have her eyes opened to the world and who she is. The characters themselves were fully fleshed out and absolutely a delight to get to know! Britta is my favorite!!! I must warn however, that it is VERYYYY gory! So if you’re squeamish like I am, beware! If it wasn’t such a great story, I’m not sure I would have been able to handle it xD
Also, I lovedddr Ixa so much 😍

I'm going to be honest; the village's attitudes towards women and the narrator's ingrained beliefs that these are true really didn't sit well with me. The idea that women are impure and must pray for purity or be killed and exiled was not for me personally. I looked up some reviews to see if this attitude in the narrator ever developed and several reviewers mentioned there is a rape later in the book and I'm not in the headspace to read that right now so I did DNF this book. The premise of the book was interesting and I was excited to learn more about the world, so I am hoping to come back to this in the future when the world is a little more settled. The writing of this book was well done and engaging, so if you are not as effected by these triggers, I highly recommend picking this one up.

*Spoiler free*

I had seen so much excitement for this one online, that I couldn't help but be intrigued. Then I read the synopsis, a great walled city, blood running the impure color of gold, and fighting in an army of girls who are different. It sounded amazing and I was really looking forward to reading it! Trigger warnings: blood, torture, mentions of rape, gore

I'm surprised how much I ended up loving this book. It took my a good long while to start loving it, I think it was about 60% in that I started really falling in love with the world, the characters, and the plot. Usually, if I'm not completely in love by 60%, I don't completely love it by the end, so this was a new experience for me! And I am glad that I ended up loving it.

I think one of the things that threw me off in the beginning was the pacing. I think this book could have benefited from a slower pace. Everything sort of moved full steam ahead, very fast. I think a lot of things in this book would have been better and could have been highlighted with a slower pace. It would make it ache and I think that aching would make this explode with everything it's trying to do.

With the fast pace, I felt like major things happened before I was fully settled in the world. I was still getting to know the characters when absolutely horrible things were happening to them. I feel like this made it hard to get my feet underneath me. I dunno, I feel like some of the emotional overtones of this book sort of got lost in the shuffle and weren't as powerful as they wanted to be. I could tell what they were trying to do, but I couldn't fully feel it. That's just me though!

Nevertheless, this book is amazing. Because once I started to fall in love with it, I completely fell in love with it. THERE'S EVEN A FANTASY CAT!

This book has so much pain, both physical and emotional. But it's also what can blossom out of that pain and the strength that pain can bring. This is done so, so well. Like, words are hard to find to describe how well it's done.

Also, while brutal, this world is gorgeous. I find it to feel golden, which I know is ironic considering the golden blood. There's so much bad, but the good that comes out of it shines so brightly. Plus, the way it ties into the plot twists and it's rulers and how many secrets it holds. There's also so many super cool creatures that I seriously loved.

There is also so many incredible female friendships. There's a sisterhood between them and the support they show each other was amazing. I always love friendships and this book has some amazing ones.

I also really liked all the characters. They all carry themselves and their pain differently and I liked seeing so many stories come together. They're all so well rounded and so real. I loved them all.

I also really, really loved Deka. Her emotional journey, craving acceptance, feeling like a monster, being so completely immersed in the society she's grown up in, was one to behold. It's subtle, but once you realize what has happened, it sort of takes your breath away. It's something else that is brilliantly done and I loved how it was done under the surface. It's not explicitly mentioned, but it's there in the actions Deka takes and the decisions she makes.

It might have taken me awhile to fall in love with this book, but I did fall in love with it. It's powerful and it's gold. It's dark but there's also so much light to be found in it. Plus, a fantasy cat (I really love the fantasy cat, if you couldn't tell)!

From the beginning of the book we are introduced to a young girl named Deka who has to go through a purity ceremony. Even though all the action takes place during and after that, it's important to talk about how the author weaves in the mistreatment of women from the beginning.

There is a moment where a man tries to grab her in the street and have his fun with her but is saved by another man except he goes on to tell her it's just because she is just so pretty. This happens a lot in the real world and it's nice to see it discussed. That's only one instant but there is definitely more and this book is definitely all about women empowerment.

Deka is a very relatable and likeable character. I think that is what really drew me in to her story. She is strong and is trying to maneuver through this world as best she can. I also enjoyed the other characters and really there wasn't many I didn't care for. They all add interesting pieces to the story.

The romance was a miss for me but that is okay. There was much more that I enjoyed than disliked.

The world that this author created was unique and enjoyable to read about. The fighting was intense and I'm excited to see what will happen next for these characters.

There is a lot to be said about this beautiful novel. First off, the character arcs. Our Main Character (MC) is Deka who lives in fear in her village will deem her “pure” or a “demon”. The journey and character development over the entirety of the book was astounding! The entire time I was screaming for Deka to be pure because in this world when someone is deemed a “demon” they’re killed. Then…during the ceremony….something happens to her that will throw her on a new course! I was screaming, “No!”

Then, enters another character, and she gives Deka a choice. What kind of choice? Well, you’ll have to read the book to know, but she is given a great opportunity that allows her to stand up for what she believes in.

The world Namina has created is beautiful and quite majestic. I was fully in the book the entire time. I loved the culture in these pages. The entire time was well spent reading this book.

There are many twists and turns, building the suspense. This book had all the necessities: goal + conflict + stakes.

If you love YA fantasy set in a new world with amazing characters you can root for then you need to preorder a copy of Gilded Ones.

I really did not think I would like this book but I was pleasantly surprised! This book was an easy read that kept me interested throughout the whole thing. I really enjoyed the main character and what she went through. I thought it made the plot very interesting.

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.- Goodreads

Fantastic read. One of my top reads of this year so far. Within the first three chapters, I fell in love with Deka and no matter what I wanted to protect her at all costs.


Deka is not only likable/personable but her character development is done tastefully. She doesn't complain and whine to the end; she pulls up her bootstraps and does what needs to be done. But also the most important thing is she is open to learning, trusts her gut and allows herself to trust other people. You literally cannot get a more perfect character than that.


Throughout the book, I felt very unease because it talks a lot about how women are mistreated even if they aren't considered the impure ones. It is disturbing and I fully understand that is the point because the mistreatment, the abuse is a fuel for not only Deka but the other women. It is an important factor in the book but that doesn't make it less disturbing.


There is a romance in the novel. But I use the term "romance" lightly. I do because it was expected and there wasn't any chemistry or spark. It was something that happened. And it wasn't needed at all. It didn't add anything to it. I would have liked to see more interaction within this particular relationship and possibly see it develop in the second book. This would have been a great filler as opposed to the several drops of nothing happening.


Overall, the plot is extremely developed and as detailed as it is, it keeps you invested. The ending of the novel was good. I am a little unsure of what book two would be about. But that doesn't make me less interested in its summary or release.

4 Pickles

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This book was enjoyable. The story had it's own uniqueness, which was nice. I read so many of the same genre that sometimes they all start to blur together at a point.

Deka seems like a strong character and starts kick butt in the middle of the book. The story like was good and I enjoyed the fight trainings and the battle scenes. I'm rooting for Deka and her love interest and really hope it takes off if there is another book.