Format: Hardback
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: June 12, 2014
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned
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. . . .
In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. 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
Where do I even start with my review for this book? I actually finished it a few days ago but when I sat down to write my review, I had so much trouble putting my thoughts together that there was no way I could write them out and have them sound somewhat coherent. But, now I feel like I’ve had enough time to process the mind-f*ck that is The Merciless. I don’t know what I was expecting going in, but it definitely wasn’t that. There was quite a few things that I liked about this book, first I liked that you never knew what was going to happen next. The books that can keep me guessing are often among my favorites. While I wouldn’t class this one as a “favorite” I really did enjoy it. I also liked Sophia, she ‘seemed’ (you will understand once you read it) like a caring girl, she comes home every day after school to take care of her sick grandmother and when things start taking a turn towards the dark side, she immediately tries to get herself out of the equation. But if I’ve learned anything in my years of reading, it’s that everything and everyone aren’t as they seem.
If you’ve read any of the reviews then I’m sure you’ve seen the ones that say that there is quite a bit of similarities between this book and the movie Mean Girls. While that is true and I did see some resemblances it wasn’t enough to overshadow the plot of the book so it didn’t bother me that much. My only real downfall was that there was enough character development for me, I would have liked to have gotten to know Brooklyn a little more before the whole basement thing. I feel like it would have made the whole torture thing more intense. Not to say that everything they were doing wasn’t intense, but I guess it didn’t hit me as much as it would have had I gotten to know Brooklyn better beforehand, does that make sense?
Overall, The Merciless is a disturbing and shocking horror book. If you have a pretty weak stomach then you might want to steer clear of this but if you’re like me and love horror stories, then you should definitely give this one a go.
