unfortunately i did not realize that this beautifully written book was a smp book and now i'm sad because i have SO MUCH to say but can't say it because smp is stupid.

HIGHLIGHTS
~Everything Gets Worse
~hearts slay monsters
~never trust a Magician
~my OT3 is the best OT3
~surprise!Chosen One (not how you think)

The first book in this duology, Godly Heathens, blew me away and scored a spot on my Best of 2023 list. Unfortunately I can’t say that I enjoyed Merciless Saviors as much, even if I thought the messaging was powerful and beautiful.

Gem fucked up in the climax of the previous book, making the wrong call out of pain and betrayal and fury. It was a truly glorious moment, though; I had no difficulty understanding and even sympathising with Gem’s choice, and there’s something toxically exhilarating in seeing a character Choose Wrong – not least because they so rarely do, in the kind of fantasy I read. There’s always a last-second Morality Moment, where the hero completely fails to behave like a real person and somehow rises above things like mere human emotion to be the Bigger Person.

So I loved that Gem didn’t do that.

I did not love that we didn’t get to experience the fallout. The blurb mentions how the goddess of death (aka Poppy) can reanimate corpses now, etc…but we barely get a glimpse of all that, because Gem gets zapped into a magic coma (or so I will call it, for ease of writing about it) and wakes up two weeks later to discover how everyone’s powers have now gone haywire.

So we don’t actually see everyone discovering the new ‘balance’ and coming to terms with it. We just…timeskip past all of that.

Um???

I’m not a fan of timeskips at the best of times, and this was not that. In fact, Edgmon employs multiple timeskips over the course of Merciless Saviors, and while most of them allow us to gloss over things like travel time – which I get is difficult to write without boring the reader to tears – they all felt really graceless, clunky and handwavey in a way I vehemently disliked. If you need your characters to get from Point A to Point B, it’s your job to figure out how to keep it interesting.

It’s really difficult to talk about Merciless Saviors because most of the things that happen are massive spoilers. So forgive me for being vague, but I kind of have to be.

>The last thing I see is Christ on the cross above me.

My last thought is that this god did not die for my sins. But others have. And more will yet.<

Gem’s self-loathing spirals fully out of control under the stress and pressure of the unbalanced Balance, what it’s done to Rory and Enzo, and the mundane consequences of murdering Zephyr (who did, after all, have both a human identity and far too many witnesses/hostages for everyone to pretend he just conveniently disappeared). Between all of that, and all the awfulness stirred up in their head during their coma, they implode.

But, uh. What happens as a result of that implosion does not make sense, and never gets explained. The effect it has on the rest of the pantheon – not just Gem themself – also does not make obvious sense, and that’s not explained either. In fact, I’m not even sure if Gem’s actions affected the whole pantheon, or if the rest of the pantheon replicated Gem’s actions after somehow (how?) seeing what it did to Gem and therefore did it to themselves.

???

I’ve gotta be honest: I was not impressed. Not just re the lack of explanations for how The Thing happened/worked, but The Thing itself was…I don’t think predictable is the right word, but…kinda? It was a turn in the story I didn’t like – I might have enjoyed it if it had happened differently, under other circumstances, but I just didn’t like it going down this way. Especially with the damn statues.

But I think I can be objective enough to say that it wasn’t bad writing, just not how I personally would have liked the story to go.

>“You might be the devil. But even Lucifer was carved by the hand of god, and we both know I could cut your wings if I wanted to.”<

We learn a lot more about the Ether – the pantheon’s homeworld/world of origin – in this book, and I’ve gotta say, I was massively disappointed by it. In Godly Heathens, the worldbuilding – specifically re the gods – looked simplistic at first glance, but was actually very deep and thoughtful, with some very cool and interesting interpretations of various concepts and their connections to each other (the romance between Battle and Death, for instance, and the complicated and messy dynamics between the gods of the different aspects of Nature). The worldbuilding for the Ether itself…I mean, there barely is any worldbuilding. It’s our world with a few tweaks; there was no sense of it being alien and other, nothing to make it unique, nothing that even created a real sense of place. It doesn’t feel like another world at all, and although Edgmon floats the very meta idea that maybe the Ether doesn’t exist at all, but is just a creation of traumatised-Gem’s mind – uh, no. I mean, that would explain why it’s so much like our world, but if the Ether is only Gem’s invention, then Rory and Enzo wouldn’t exist except as hallucinations, which they most definitely are not.

>Rory has blood on her hands. Just like Enzo. Just like me. It doesn’t mean any of us are undeserving of another chance. But maybe it means we don’t get to demand that chance from the same people whose blood it is.<

And the decision Gem, Rory and Enzo make regarding the Ether and their connection to it… I still don’t understand their reasoning, but at the same time, wow, saw that decision coming from a mile away. Is it bad writing? I’m not sure, but I know it felt too simple and easy to me, especially after how unabashedly complex Godly Heathens was.

>Hey. Hey, self?

What the fuck are you doing?<

We also finally discover what the deal is with the Heartkeeper – the deity who seemingly remained in the Ether while the rest of the pantheon was dragged to Earth, and whom Gem couldn’t seem to remember or think about for more than a second or two at a time in the previous book. Again: major disappointment. I didn’t like the reveal, the attempt at drama was entirely predictable and pointless, and after setting the groundwork for something Deeply Mysterious to be going on in book one, the actual Heartkeeper (and their story) was really boring.

Merciless Saviors does a pretty hard 180 from Godly Heathens when it comes to monstrousness and being (or not being) a good person. Although I think Gem’s growth in this book is really important, and the intrinsic message – that you can fight tooth and nail to become a good person even if you aren’t one – was powerful and beautifully conveyed, I was a) not completely clear as to how exactly Gem reached this conclusion, and b) disappointed again. I loved Gem’s ‘dark side’ in Godly Heathens, how they were drawn to the Shade’s monstrousness, how they did terrible things unrepentantly. It was interesting. But Merciless walks that all the way back, and again, I’m not saying this was the wrong choice for the story, but it was one that I personally felt let down by. I want to read about monstrous characters, okay? I want to read about unrepentant monsters. Instead, Merciless became very much about declawing one’s monstrousness and investing in being a good person, and yes I understand that that’s the ethically correct choice in real life, but it is very boring to read, no different to a thousand other books I’ve read.

And yet, I can’t deny that the character work was wonderful. Even if I’d prefer my monsters stay monsters, I still deeply appreciated Gem’s arc, and even more so the deepening and enriching of the love story tying them, Rory, and Enzo together. I may not have cared much for what was going on around these characters, but what was going on inside them? Beautiful, perfect, flawless in every way. Edgmon still had my heart wrapped around their finger, and they still hit me with gut punch after gut punch in the Feels. My e-arc of Merciless Saviors is covered in highlights, lines that spoke to me, passages so gorgeous they hurt, and just plain brilliant ways of phrasing vitally human emotions and experiences. To quote Simon Jimenez a moment, ‘this is a love story to its blade-dented bone’, both in the sense of the obvious, breathlessly compelling romance, and also in the sense that Gem really, desperately has to figure out how to love themself. And every bit of that, both those entwined storylines, made me ache in the very best way.

Plus, the epilogue was epic. I hated that we got yet another timeskip, but nothing can make that ending not utterly fabulous.

That’s all I’ll say about that!

So…did I like Merciless Saviors? I…really don’t know. From an objective, writerly perspective, I think there were some not-great choices made, and a lot of deus ex machina-type reveals that didn’t land the way I think they were supposed to. At the same time, I think the messaging, Gem’s arc and growth, were really beautiful, really important, and very powerfully written; as was the love story between Gem, Rory, and Enzo. (There’s one passage where Gem describes what the three of them are to each other that I’m seriously considering getting tattooed.)

(I’M SO HEART-EYES MY HEART-EYES HAVE HEART-EYES, OKAY?)

From a completely subjective, personal perspective, the story took turns I found dull but that were not objectively bad – probably lots of other readers will enjoy them immensely. And there were some turns I liked very much indeed! (HANK.)

So I’m pretty torn.

If you loved Godly Heathens, then you ought to read this one too, because honestly, how could you not? This may not be exactly the book I wanted, but the love poured into and shining out of it is more than worth the clunkier bits.

Solid conclusion and the ending took me by surprise which was unexpected in the best way. I loved how the choices between worlds affected the other. Excellent world building and excellent story.

This is the sequel to the first book Godly Heathens which I loved!
This book picked up right were the first left off. Gem, the "Magician" is faced with the consequences of using the Ouroboros on Zephyr. Rory, the "Mountain" and Enzo, the "Shade" are still right by their side trying to find their way with Gem.
As the TWO world seem to collide, Earth and the Ether, the Magician has some "soul searching" to do.
Other characters are introduced in this sequel that are relevant and important on how the first book happened. It give a good back story on the "beginning". I just got lost through the middle of the book a bit as the flow was a bit choppy for me. The back and forth between gods and humans was a lot to keep up with at times. BUT, I appreciate author H.E. Edgmon and how the story gives light to compartmentalizing trauma in conjunction with the minds imagination. Rory was my favorite character, always true, always the voice of reason, which is similar to myself; their role as the "Mountain" was spot on for their personality displayed in the book. In addition, I loved Hank and was excited to see him as a "Wyvern" in the Ether. I wish I could have a picture of that, but my imagination did just fine.
I was glad for the ending. Wonder if there will be a book 3: I would certainly want to read it.....

Overall 3 stars, as that middle flow was a lot to digest and follow.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via Net Galley, in turn for my honest review.

A wonderful second conclusion to such a unique Ya with some of my favorite queer, Native rep. Can’t recommend it enough!

This story has loss, fear, madness, hope, and sacrifice in it. Gem Echols wants to make it home but where Earth or Ether? Gem having taken Cyclone's power nothing is the same. Rory and Enzo try to keep the balance that is out of whack. Can the balance be fixed? Can they go home? Find out in Merciless Saviors.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for this ARC via Netgalley.

This book was a lot to swallow.

The mind trip was crazy! This book gave gore, romance, deception and trauma, OMG what a ride! It threw me off a bit the way that H.E. Edgmon slid in and out of pronouns, using multiples for the same character. Other than this one hiccup, it was a very entertaining read. The attention to detail in building the world allowed the story to be visible as I read.

In the wake of betrayal and general chaos, the scales of balance that have been precariously kept are skewed unknowably out of kilter, causing a cascade of consequences in Merciless Saviors by H. E. Edgmon.
After quickly learning of and coming to some tentative terms with the fact of being a reincarnated god, Gem was forced to use the Ouroboros knife on Zephyr, which took his life and magic, the latter of which Gem has now absorbed. With Gem’s role as Magician being the keeper of scales, the balance is now thrown into chaos and the powers of all the other gods of the pantheon are corrupted, which they found out belatedly after an impromptu two week sleep that Buck imposed that helped to surface old, buried memories. Needing to restore balance, Gem, Enzo, and Rory devise a plan to kill Poppy at prom, but as plans often seem to do it goes awry, and Gem instead kills themselves as a last-ditch effort to course correct. Waking in the Ether, Gem and the rest of the slowly joining pantheon see what the Ether’s become and question the best course of action to take and just how far they might be willing to go for the greater good: whether to perpetuate the cycle of everlasting battle or abandon their godhood and magic for human lives to possibly heal the Ether and potentially find happiness.
Jumping backing into the story where it left off from Godly Heathens, the story moves quickly and in a similar manner as before, though with a slightly less piecemeal inundation of memories of past and present lives clashing and meshing together as the narrative progresses as Gem is able to recall more details of godhood and past lives in a fuller way. The journey to and throughout the Ether provided a change of pace from the reality of small-town Georgia and high school teenage drama and more explicitly exemplified the magic of both the broader world and as related to the various gods, deepening the mythos that surrounds them, their various reincarnations, and the discoveries about themselves that they come to along the way. Continuing the exploration of mental health raised in the first of the Ouroboros duology, there comes a powerful moment within the narrative where a question arises whether Gem might have created the Ether and the gods to deal with the trauma of molestation, which is bleak and a lot to work through, but an intriguing theory to consider nevertheless, especially when paired with a not-so-surprising moment at the end that fits quite well with Gem’s character development.
Overall, I’d give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have such mixed feelings on this one. As a sequel and conclusion , I feel like it sometimes hit its mark. I could tell there was a lot trying to be done with this, but more often than not, it kind of just missed its mark, but then we'd get a really good moment and it would make up for everything else it was lacking

I devoured this authors work as a whole, and find the feeling their writings tyle gives me is similar to Lani Taylor. It's this earth real dream like feel that just sucks you and give you no quarter. This was a super anticipated read for me... and the world is a major favorite of mine. This series isn't afraid to be scary, gory, or mercless. You find yourself on a journey like Neil gaimans sandman series where you aren't 100% sure what's going on until the story wants you to know. Go in as blind as possible and just sit back and enjoy the ride

The book descriptions was spot on. This was an incredibly stunning conclusion to H.E. Edgmon's Ouroboros series. This contemporary fantasy focuses on Gem, who happens to be a reincarnated god from another world. Dramatic right? Oh, soooo sooo much. But in the best possible way. I won't spoil anything. Go out and get your own copy. Just be prepared for a wild ride that will end in a thought provoking manner which will leave you pondering community.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

I loved Godly Heathens but I have such mixed feelings about this one. As an allegory for mental health. Merciless Saviors is brilliant. As a story, it didn't work for me. I found the plot deeply confusing as well as rambling. I ended up being glad I stuck this one out to the end, but it was a struggle.

What a fabulous ending to this duology! It was HARD to read but so worth it in the end. I can't wait to read more by this author

Admittedly for this review, I am very much going to avoid addressing the plot of the novel, because it is the second book and I wouldn’t want to spoil anything. Instead, I want to discuss my overall impression in a more general sense.
Merciless Saviors is about defining one’s self outside of the expectations of others. There are both conscious and subconscious biases fed to us by society that seep into our overall impressions of those around us.The trauma victim that now can’t be trusted to know the limits of their own body, the promiscuous pansexual, the mental health headcase whose emotions are always embellished. What this story does so well is show us just how inherently damaging those biases are when they are internalized, even for someone as all powerful as a god.
Personally, I would caution that this novel is quite a bit harder to read than the first, and I would definitely check the trigger warnings prior to picking it up. Also, be aware, while Godly Heathens had moments where it fell into stream-of-consciousness, Merciless Saviors does that more so.
Overall, this was an extremely powerful story, and I would certainly recommend it not only as an amazing urban fantasy, but as a catalyst for self-reflection. The Ouroboros has easily cemented itself as one of my new favourite duologies.

Thank you to netgalley for allowing me access to both the ebook and the audiobook.. I loved the queer rep in this book.

When I heard the premise for Godly Heathens, I was so, so excited. And while I did adore the book, it wasn't exactly as grand and sweeping as I had hoped it would be. Merciless Saviors, however, absolutely makes up for this, and then some. This is 100% the queer, indigenous teens find out they are actually gods from another world novel that I didn't know that I wanted but cannot imagine going without. I think H.E. Edgmon excels when he writes snarky, self-deprecating magical queer teens, and that's the perfect niche. The characters are in turns incredibly unapproachable eldritch beings and extremely relatable teenagers who are just trying to figure themselves out, and I love that. I think the worlds that Edgmon creates are the perfect blend of frighteningly alien and ridiculously familiar.

This picks right up where the last left off which I love.

The gender identity journey I enjoyed reading about and seeing that struggle.
My issue was again pacing. The timeline changes kind of got me confused. I would have loved more world building.

Personally, I didn’t enjoy the first book too much. I loved the representation, but I thought it was just a-okay. However, I liked the second book much more.

First, I felt that the characters had a lot more development. Especially since their journeys and development had been set in place. I felt like Gem’s morally gray character really grew throughout the series. From someone who is more moral to someone who is less so. And this is really fitting of their place in the story and their character journey. I felt like there were a lot more dynamic shifts.

I also liked the development of the other characters as well. I felt like because I was already introduced to the characters, I got to see more of them and know them better throughout the second book. I especially enjoyed Rory and Enzo and their relationship with Gem as well as how they changed as individual characters with the challenges that they faced. I also liked how there were some chapters from different perspectives as well. I thought it was an interesting authorial choice that gave the story more depth. Also, I thought Murphy’s characterization as a side character was the most interesting.

For the plot of the story. I felt that there was a lot more tension in the story and there was a lot more going on. I loved how the author carried on from the cliffhanger from the last book and built the tension throughout the story. I enjoyed how the book went in a different direction than I thought it would go (you’ll see when you read it), and it was interesting how the characters resolved things.

Finally, for the ending of the story. I thought it was fitting in terms of Gem’s characterization and also it befitted the plot, leaving readers pondering why exactly the story ended the way that it did. It was, to put it lightly, a surprising (but not really surprising) ending.

Overall rating, 3.7/5

When I first requested this book I didn’t know it was the second in series. It took me a while to read this because I really needed to read book one.

Now that I’ve finished both I can say I’ enjoyed them both very much!

There is a ridiculous amount of rage and anger throughout the book but it has this incredible undercurrent of love as well.

Gem is a beautiful character! How they processed their trauma was writte so perfectly! You can really feel all the emotions!!

Thank you Netgalley for the arc!!

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