The Merciless (The Merciless, #1)

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I just finished this and I'm sitting here wondering what the hell I just read. This book is completely insane and, let me tell you, this is not your typical YA read. The Merciless is chock-full of horror, gore, and suspense and kept me up late on more than one night hoping to see what happened!

The book opens with Sofia who has just moved to a new town. It's very "Mean Girls" in that she finds herself torn between the "cool kids," Riley, Grace, and Alexis, and the weird, gothic girl, Brooklyn, who everyone loves to hate. Sofia never really makes a choice between the two, but finds herself in a very unfortunate situation when Riley kidnaps Brooklyn, determined to save her from the demon she believes to be possessing her. From that point on, the suspense is palpable and left me never quite knowing what would happen next.

Somehow I managed to read this book without having read the full blurb (even though I thought I did) so everything was kind of a surprise! I've read some reviews that claim the blurb ruined everything, but even after having read it, I don't think this would be the case. I spent much of my time wondering if Brooklyn was actually possessed or if Riley just needed to be in an insane asylum. Vega writes in such a way that it is extremely difficult to know for sure.

Character development in The Merciless wasn't that impressive, but I honestly don't feel that much development is needed in the horror genre - especially in a story that takes place over a few days. The mean girls were mean, Brooklyn was weird, and Sofia was torn. There was one character that did seem to grow (or at least came to feel remorseful) and, while Sofia may not have grown as a character, per se, pieces of her character were being revealed up until the very end of the book.

The world building here was also so-so. Then again, the entire thing took place between a school and a couple houses, so not much needed to be said, in my opinion. The atmosphere was sufficiently creepy and that's really what matters to me.

Horror is (shockingly) the most important factor in the horror genre, and this book nailed it. The Merciless has it all - it made me cringe, if it was a movie it would have made me jump, it grossed me out. And the ending was totally unexpected (to me, at least). I'm disappointed that this doesn't seem to be a series, but Danielle Vega does have another horror novel in the works, according to Goodreads, and I can't wait to get my hands on it! I highly recommend The Merciless to any fan of horror.