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16-year-old girls that exiles those who bleed gold instead of red. During the ceremony, deathshrieks—legendary monsters whose screams can kill—attack. Deka manages to drive them away with her voice alone. Although the town believes she has been killed, Deka's worst fears are realized when she discovers she is bleeding cursed gold and is declared impure. She is imprisoned in a dungeon where she is tortured and killed repeatedly, only to wake up alive each time. Eventually, a mysterious woman named White Hands offers her a chance to join the capital's army of Alaki—impure girls like herself who are trained to fight deathshrieks for the
Emperor. Deka accepts the offer and, along with a girl named Britta, joins the army.
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The novel takes place in the West Africa-inspired kingdom of Otera, where 16-year-old Deka lives in the village of Irfut with her ailing father, following her mother's recent death from a redpox infection. Deka is consumed with fear and anxiety due to the Ritual of Purity, a compulsory ceremony for
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Deka trains hard and learns more about the kingdom and deathshrieks. Soon she discovers she can communicate with the creatures, begins to question the emperor's original intentions and seeks to know more about the true origin of the war.
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praised the lead character stating that "in Deka, Forna offers a driven and determined main character who wades through intense trauma and violence and comes out the other side fueled with righteous fury".
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said of the novel: "Abundant action drives the pace, while a nuanced plot advocates social change by illustrating the myriad ways in which society cages and commodifies women."
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s review of the book states: "Action combines with an intense feminist story of sisterhood, where strength is found in female friendships and alliances." Another review from
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She stated in an interview that she first got the idea when she had a recurring dream of a girl in a golden armor walking in a field while she was still an undergraduate at
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announced that it had been optioned for a film adaptation by the independent film production company
Makeready. It will be produced by Brad Weston, Negin Salmasi and
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The book is the first in a planned trilogy called The Gilded Ones series, originally titled the
Deathless series before publication. It was acquired by
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394:"As a Black Lord of the Rings fan, I felt left out of fantasy worlds. So I created my own"
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The novel received several positive reactions from literary critics. it entered the
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Forna stated that as a child she heard stories about strong women, such as
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told to her by her grandmother and father to distract her from the
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593:"A Complicated Revolution: The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna"
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was published on
February 9, 2021, and quickly entered the
420:"Namina Forna's the Gilded Ones Is a Feminist Magic Epic"
637:"Namina Forna's The Gilded Ones to Be Adapted for Film"
514:"Maya C. James Reviews The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna"
445:"Namina Forna's feminist fantasy novel The Gilded ones"
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before writing the novel years later using elements of
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617:Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 11, 2021).
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276:References
130:. Forna's
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
