horroroctofficial2016

Title: The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sofia Flores
Author: Danielle Vega
Series: The Merciless #2
Format: Hardback, 320 pages
Publication Details: July 5th 2016 by Razorbill
Genre(s): Horror; YA
Disclosure? Nope I bought it!

Goodreads

Sofia is still processing the horrific truth of what happened when she and three friends performed an exorcism that spiraled horribly out of control. Ever since that night, Sofia has been haunted by bloody and demonic visions. Her therapist says they’re all in her head, but to Sofia they feel chillingly real. She just wants to get out of town, start fresh someplace else . . . until her mother dies suddenly, and Sofia gets her wish.

Sofia is sent to St. Mary’s, a creepy Catholic boarding school in Mississippi. There, seemingly everyone is doing penance for something, most of all the mysterious Jude, for whom Sofia can’t help feeling an unshakeable attraction. But when Sofia and Jude confide in each other about their pasts, something flips in him. He becomes convinced that Sofia is possessed by the devil. . . . Is an exorcism the only way to save her eternal soul?

Review

!!Spoilers of book one lie head!!

I have to start this review by referring to the Beautiful-with-a-capital-B cover. The first book was amazing too, with its bright pink, leather-look hardcover and gilt pentagram, but I think I prefer this shiny gold beauty. They really speak to my 15 year-old goth and ‘ooh pretty sparkles’ split personality!

This sequel begins not long after the horrific events of the first book in which Sofia’s school friends tortured bad girl Brooklyn in an attempt to exorcise the demon out of her, but ended up getting themselves killed in the process. Sofia was the only survivor, and we discover that she is now in therapy to come to terms with that fact there was no demon, just troubled teenagers who made bad choices.

Sofia is still struggling with this and feeling haunted by the past -in particular by Brooklyn who she sees and hears when no one else does – when her mother is killed in a car accident. Cue being sent to a creepy (although I wanted creepier) Catholic Boarding School.

Here Sofia hopes to start afresh. She has seemingly nice dorm-mates, an altar boy to crush over and Sister Lauren to look out for her. But Sofia doesn’t feel herself. She gets jealous of her friends, goes after the out-of-bounds guy and finds her roomies’ clandestine rabbit repulsive when everyone else thinks he’s cute. So naturally, she starts to worry that she’s evil. And unfortunately for her, she’s not the only one who has noticed…

As I’m writing this I’m realising how stupid this book was. The plot was pretty terrible and could have been so much better, and the characters were completely underdeveloped (as they were in the first book), but I can’t deny that I’m entertained by Vega’s stories.

Is it trashy and riddled with clichés? Yes.
Do you care about any of the characters? No.
Was there a great twist? No.
Are you going to remember this book? Doubtful.
But was it thoroughly enjoyable? Yes.

Bizarre, I know. But i still really liked this book. I wanted more from it, but it was such an easy-to-read, infuriatingly enjoyable read in which the pages just flew by. I’m not quite sure how she does it!

horroctrating-3

Review

As a huge fan of YA (obvs) and horror I’m always excited to see YA horror books (Yorror as I’m now calling it) published, as they’re few and far between. It took me a while but I’m so glad I eventually got round to buying a copy of this- especially the awesome pink leather hardback version, which is pretty epic!

The Merciless isn’t a case of your old-school Goosebumps or Point Horror. It’s actual horror, that I imagine some parents wouldn’t be too happy about their teens (and certainly pre-teens reading. I kind of wish this book existed when I was 15 because man, I would have lapped it up then.

The Merciless is about a group of ‘good’ girls who take it upon themselves to exorcise the demon out of bully Brooklyn. A prank gone wrong? Revenge gone too far? There’s a whole lot of blood, torment and, well, torture, and the whole way through you’re left thinking ‘are they really doing this?’

I can definitely see where they got the whole ‘Mean Girls meets Stephen King’ tagline from. Unlike Stephen King however, this book is severely lacking in the character development department. But you know what? I kind of didn’t care. It would have perhaps made it easier to believe if we knew more about protagonist Sofia before she became friends with the ‘mean girls’ and got involved in the whole Satanic mess, but it wouldn’t make much difference, and it didn’t affect my enjoyment overall.

Like Mean Girls, this book is pretty shallow. But what it lacks in depth it makes up with in relentless action and chaos. It’s also mightily swift in pace. I definitely struggled to put it down, in fact I’m pretty sure I only put it down once.

I also really enjoyed the sort-of-twist, and although most of the book felt predictable, it was quite easy to second guess yourself and end up with a genuine surprise on your hands.

I’m already looking forward to the second book. I just hope Vega can develop the characters a bit more.