Review: The Merciless (The Merciless #1) by Danielle Vega

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The Merciless by Danielle Vega

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Received: borrowed
Publication Date: June 12th 2014
Publisher: Razorbill
Genres & Themes: YA, Paranormal, Creepy, Secrets.

BLURB:

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. . . .

REVIEW:

Okay…

Well that was weird…

And what’s with that ending…?

Sofia…

description

I just realized that this is actually a series. Good thing I guess because that cliffhanger might have just killed me. I mean, finishing a story that way? Even though I didn’t actually enjoy reading this book, I HAVE to know what happens. So WILL read the sequel.

It starts pretty contemporary-like with Sofia, new student in high school, meeting new people, both popular and unpopular ones-doesn’t matter for her. We don’t know much about the main character, so I didn’t get why they all wanted to be friends with her. Exactly like the movie Mean Girls. I guess some thought she was…interesting? But, well, I didn’t.

I can understand that this book is shelved as ”horror” but I thought it was more disgusting than scary. Riley (most popular girl in school) wants to do an exorcism on Brooklyn (which she accuses from stealing her boyfriend) and it takes so so long. Basically, that’s the whole plot (since it did take more than 60% of the book); the tentative to practice an exorcism on Brooklyn and discovering every character’s sin. Of course, there are consequences to that and that’s when it gets bloody.

Questions unanswered:

1) How did Brooklyn escape from that bathroom when the door was locked?

2) Why is Riley having an obsessing with nails? Creepy creepy obsession.

3) Is Sofia in love with Charlie and the other way around?

4) If yes, why? They just met!

5) Why don’t we have a background on Riley and Brooklyn’s stories-lives? I don’t know anything about them, except that Riley is jealous, religious-very-and that Brooklyn likes tattoos, piercings and not following the rules.

The story is not whole bad. The pacing is fast, so it did capture my interest for a good time. I was curious to know if something really horrible and scary was going to happen but there wasn’t, except for some raw and just disgusting things. Like crucifying someone with nails.

Told you, nail obsession.

What I really really didn’t like was the author making me love some characters than making me hate them and love them again. I didn’t even know what to think about them anymore. Were they all bad? Did I hate them because of what they did, each one of them? Could it be that I have pity for Riley or her two other friends? I was pretty much conflicted.

The writing is good so that wasn’t a problem at all. Along with the pacing and curiosity to know what was going to happen next (even though I did get tired of the plot) brought me to the conclusion that this is an ”okay” story.

I don’t actually recommend it wholeheartedly, but I won’t suggest you to stay as away as you can from this book either. Maybe some of you will like the creepy (but not scary) and disgusting elements. And let’s not forget the twist. Maybe you’ll love that wicked twist.

View all my reviews on Goodreads.

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31 thoughts on “Review: The Merciless (The Merciless #1) by Danielle Vega”

  1. This book looks so weird. I don’t think it would be something if like to read, but I’m pretty sure if they ever made this into a cheesy horror movie of definitely be all over it. Until then I think I’ll skip this one. Though I am sort of interested in what kind of twist you’re talking about…

    Anyway, awesome review 🙂

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  2. Have you seen The Roommate? After I began reading your review, I was reminded of that movie. It’s contemporary, a girl’s roommate is psychotic and very attached to her. When you described it as creepy rather than scary, I thought of The Roommate because even though it was supposed to be “scary”, I just found it creepy and weird.

    This will probably be a book I end up borrowing from the library rather than paying. 🙂 I have to admit, I was fascinated when I first heard about it, again, because I assumed it was more creepy than scary.

    I really do like the cover, it reminds me of the burn book in Mean Girls. Of course.

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      • Oh okay. 🙂 Well the two reminded me of each other. Even though I haven’t read the book yet.

        Got it. So maybe if I read it, I won’t get nightmares. 🙂

        Yes, the great Burn Book, Regina ends up writing about herself in the book then putting the blame on someone else.

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  4. So this doesn’t sound like my kind of book. I like creepy, but this one seems a bit too… weird? And gross. And the whole confusing/questions unanswered thing is a turn off, too. It seems less like a paranormal thing (based on the blurb and your review) and more like a crazy psychological thing- those girls HAD to have had some issues. At least it wasn’t totally awful. I’m glad you enjoyed some of it! 😀

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  6. This might seem strange but I think it is great that you need to know what happened so much that you are willing to read the next book even though you really don’t want to. I love it when an author can do that, of course I also hate them for it at the same time. 😛

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  7. I really want to read this! I’m stalking my library everyday because they said it was arriving soon but… nothing. anyways it’s a shame you didn’t like it but still want to keep reading. I hate when that happens to me. LOL!

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  8. Yep – my thoughts exactly Lola! I felt that the characters weren’t really “developed” – that they just had secrets revealed about them and that apparently equaled their “development.” In the actual horror aspects though, I did think it was relatively decent.

    Thanks for sharing Lola, and, as always, BRILLIANT review! ❤

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  10. Hm. I am still not sure about this one. I’ll be honest, I kind of love the cover, and that is my main reason for wanting to read it (so dumb, I know). But knowing it is a series, and that it was gross.. I am leaning towards skipping it. Thanks for the great review!

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  12. I was pretty meh towards this one, too. I mean it was okay, but definitely don’t go into this thinking you’ll be getting a meaningful story because it’s all about the gore and shock value to me! Haha.

    Faye at The Social Potato

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  13. I have heard that this book is a little on the strange side, I’m totally on the fence about reading it! The cover is kind of cool though. So it’s more a maybe than a maybe not 😛

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