The Merciless (The Merciless #1) by Danielle Vega | 282 pages | Published June 2015 by Razorbill | YA Horror, Thriller, Paranormal, Mystery
Summary:
Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.
Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.
Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls...unless she wants to be next.
By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?
My thoughts:
Read October 5-10, 2016 | 2.5 stars (3 on GR)
*Minor spoilers*
Well, that didn't go like I expected or wanted. This starts out pretty typical to Mean Girls (2004). New girl at school, runs into a cool chick and her buds, gets roped into hanging out with the preppy girls, then assists in kidnapping and torturing previous cool chick because they think she's possessed by a demon. I'd watch LiLo in that. Anyway...This was wonderfully gory and vivid. The language is simple but not stupid and the descriptions are well thought out. I'm also in love with the cover. It's so pink and intimidating. But honestly, those are the only nice things I have to say.
I saw in a few reviews that the religion was quite forceful in this book, and I agree, but that doesn't bother me that much. It's a exorcism book, it's clearly going to involve overly-religious characters, or there wouldn't be an exorcism (***spoiler*** there's no exorcism in this book, because none of these high school girls are qualified for that).
There are a lot of blurbs or whatever that liken this to The Exorcist, but I won't. First, these are high school girls, second, Father Karras actually gives a shit about the possessed person, third, there's no exorcism in this book, just a lot of peer torture. And it is, in fact, torture. There's fingernail removal, FINGER removal, burning, and half-assed crucifictions.
Sofia, the main character, falls in with Riley, Alexis, and Grace, the good-girls of their high school. They think Brooklyn, the cool chick, is possessed for... some unnamed reason. They think she killed a teacher and skinned a cat, but they don't have any substantial evidence for that. Well, Sofia sees Brooklyn and Riley's boyfriend together in a hot tub and tattles to Riley, who loses her damn mind. She was a little too religious before, then she just snaps. All sense is gone. I really really thought it would be just that. A religious spaz. But no. I can't have anything nice. I don't really want to spoil the "twist" ending, but I'm thoroughly disappointed in it.
I'll spoil it if you want, but you'll have to message me for that ;)
I will say that I'm considering reading the other book because I'm curious as to where it'll go, but I'm not sure yet.
Find it:
Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble
No comments:
Post a Comment