I have finished reading #TheGildedOnesTrilogy as January comes to an end, and I am pleased with having such a great start to the year in books.

The last book in the series is The Eternal Ones, and it set out to answer the question: Deka holds the power to defeat the gods, but can she become one?

Something stuck with me on Deka’s evolution, she started out as a young girl just turned sixteen wanting to be declared pure by the gods at Oyomo so she could continue in the expected order of women to get married, have children and serve their husbands- and then she bleeds gold and is declared a demon, only to learn that she is a by-product of the gods and she has to fight deathshrieks- and as the war intensifies she learns that everything she knew about the benevolence of the gods were lies, and that there were many more gods.

Yet, for someone who was cast out, looked down upon and killed eleven times- she could choose vengeance instead of granting the people choice…it’s interesting that she had the power to destroy and compel people to worship her and grow stronger as a result, but instead she gave them the chance to choose and honoured their choice.

It’s been a splendid journey and I am so team Deka! This trilogy stays in my personal library as an absolute favourite. There is a character that I believe made this epic even better and that’s White Hands, don’t call her Fatu- because if anything is true about her as a warrior and strategist is that she doesn’t get angry, she gets even.

I cannot end this flowery review without sharing a phrase or moment that I would remember from this book, and that is the conversation between Sayuri and Deka where she says:

And do you know, madness is illuminating. Because when you no longer think like others, you are forced to think like yourself. To see things in ways you might not have seen before. To see the truth. And that brings understanding, painful though it may be.

Have a great day and I can’t wait to delve into the next read.