Starting out with a slight spoiler for the rest of this paragraph, so [CW for a dog dying of old age, but trust the process, it'll turn out okay in the end]

Coming from someone who thought GODLY HEATHENS was a fantastic book, 5/5, no complaints - MERCILESS SAVIORS fell a little flat for me. The first half of the book had the same energy and vibes as the first book, but it started losing traction at that point. I found some of the transitions (either between characters, timelines, or realities) very confusing and hard to keep track of, and I kept coming away a bit lost.

I'm not really sure what to do about the ending, either. It doesn't get wrapped up as nicely as I would prefer, too ambiguous and not enough questions answered.

All in all it was still worth reading because I just find the characters so fascinating, and I love the irreverent way Gem's voice is written.

3.5, rounded up. Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

I have thoughts and feelings about this book, but you won't hear them. Not yet. And it's a pity, because I really wish I could openly support this queer, BIPOC author. Unfortunately, St. Martin's Press has yet to address the issue surrounding the issues surrounding their boycott. My full review will be posted with an accurate star rating when the demands of the boycott have been met. Until then, my review will hold at one star.

The demands are:

1) Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.

2) Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.

3) Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

For more information on the boycott, visit the Reader for Accountability website: https://r4a.carrd.co/

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"Merciless Saviors" by H.E. Edgmon, the riveting sequel to "Godly Heathens," is an amazing conclusion to the duology, which I greatly enjoyed.

There was a seamless continuation from the first book (so I definitely recommend making sure to reread the first book before starting this one), noting the heightened intensity and exploration of deep themes such as "good vs. evil" in the face of trauma. The character development, particularly that of the main character, Gem, is very well-executed. I thought that Gem’s character was well-developed in the first book, and her character continued to be fleshed out in the sequel.
I absolutely loved the found family aspect of this book, which I considered to be top-tier. I absolutely love found family stories and that just made this book even more enjoyable to me. I also thought the raw portrayal of pain and trauma was well-crafted throughout this book as Edgmon explored the rage, devastation, and decimation that emanate from profound pain. The handling of trauma was well-done as well, capturing the brutality of trauma alongside the love, understanding, and care.

The first half of "Merciless Saviors" is fast-paced and extremely engaging, leaving me unable to stop reading. The second half, however, had a bit more of a weaker plot and pacing, with certain revelations feeling dragged out or hastily addressed. Other aspects seemed a bit repetitive, making it a little more difficult for me to finish the book. Still, I was still emotionally invested in the characters, especially Gem and Enzo, as they demonstrated emotional depth and complexity throughout the book.

I definitely recommend “Merciless Saviors” to fans of the first book as well as the found family troupe as the book offers a unique blend of fantasy elements and exploration of trauma.

I was immediately drawn right back into this world. The world building and characters in this duology are was so unique. I thought the conclusion was gratifying and showed great character growth. This was a fantastic duology that kept me enthralled the entire time! I can’t wait to read the next book by H.E. Edgmon!

A special thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press but because of the publisher's stance on the genocide happening in Gaza, I will not be promoting this book at all. Unless they change their stance, I will no longer be requesting/reviewing any of their publications.

Additionally, these books are just not very well written despite the cool concept.

This book was actually the second in the series, which I didn't realize at first. The opening felt so abrupt as if I was expected to know the characters, lol - which I would have had I known to read the first book!

Even so, it was captivating and so original. I loved the duality of each character. Very clever.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

OKAY WOWSIE WOWSIE WOO WOO!!!!!

So so much to say. Will I say it all? Probably not because my mind works much faster than I can type.

ANYWAY.

I loved GODLY HEATHENS so much. MERCILESS SAVIORS is a stunning follow up and a gorgeous end to a rage-filled love story about friendship, trauma, and finding out exactly who you are.

Edgmon is one of my favorite writers simply for how much life they breathe into their characters. You get such fully developed PEOPLE. You get the good, the bad, the very ugly, and the ethereal beauty of humanity. On top of that, you get these gods and monsters and it’s just an amalgamation of the genius that is Edgmon’s brain.

Like… these gods are all terrible people. But it’s the awareness that shows the humanity. It’s never gratuitous. Well, that’s a lie, it actually is. But, it always served the story.

You get the extremes in every aspect with MERCILESS SAVIORS. There’s so much death and destruction but there is also so much love and friendship. I cried so much while reading this.

It was also quite the trip. The world-building of the Ether and just fleshing out exactly what each god could do was stunning and wild.

*SOME SPOILERS*

The first half of this book was such a fantastic follow-up to the HUGE cliffhanger in book 1. I enjoyed the complicated dynamics between all the gods. Even when they were fighting, they still had a weird bond and it was fascinating to read. Especially picturing them all as the teenagers they were.

The romance between Gem, Rory, and Enzo was also fascinating and very real. I enjoyed the messiness and the passion between them all.

Again the examination of things like racism, colonization, mental health, queerness, environmentalism, and so many other things also really stuck out to me.

The second half of the book was where I started losing a little bit of interest. Once they got to the Ether,, especially after all the conflict on Earth...it just felt a little flat and the stakes, while still high, did not grab me like they did when they were fighting the additional force of their own humanity on earth. IT took a little something away from the story but I also understood why it happened. I still enjoyed it and thought this duology was super solid overall.

After loving Godly Heathens, book one of the Ouroboros series , I was so excited for Merciless Saviors, book 2, that I immediately dived into the arc.

I won't go into details because I don't want to put Spoilers. This picks up right where book 1 ends. From there things are strong, and we are even given another main characters POV ( sadly this only happens once or maybe twice ) which was disappointing. I would have loved much from the other POV. Things seemed to keep going at a good interesting pace for me until somewhere in the middle where it lost me. Time is seen as linear, and we get all the time jumps and place jumps that it took me out of the story. From their I struggled to keep invested and was waiting for it to be over.

Overall, The Ouroboros series is wonderful, I don't think however it really needed to be two books. I did enjoy the actual ending though it was satisfying, it was just the progression to get to it in book 2 was a bit slower than the first. I still think the conclusion is worth reading if you enjoyed Godly Heathens.

3.5 rounded to 4

I don't know if it's because I read the Godly Heathens and let it sit with me for half a year before reading this, but I couldn't get into this as much.

I'm disappointed, too, because I was so ready to see how the messiness from book one would wrap up in this one, but it didn't live up to the expectations I had. A lot of the story is retreading old ground up until the last two chapters where Gem and co. suddenly tried to right the wrongs they've committed. It didn't really feel earned, and I barely registered it was happening until I got to the Epilogue, where the past 18 months since the last chapter are explained away in brief paragraphs before it officially(?) ends.

I don't really have more to say. I don't feel like I completely wasted my time reading this, for I am I was able to read this through and still find myself looking fondly on my time reading the first book. But now I feel like I'm caught in a weird limbo state on my feelings of the duology as a whole.

If you love messy, morally ambiguous queer characters, Godly Heathens definitely delivers on that, but this one would get a 'meh' from me.

Reincarnation is never easy especially when you are just a normal teenager before you find out you used to be a God in a past life. This goes up all the questions I had at the end of the first book and showed me that I loved Gem as a character even more.

For those who enjoy...Escapism, Indigenous MC, Queer normativity and plots

Gem Echols is out for leveling the playing field. After everything that went down in Godly Heathens they only want for self.

Gem is a kid with an ax to grind with general existence and every heteronorm person they come into contact with which is weird.

Gem is walking chaos with undying love that teeters on obsession for Rory, Enzo and the meaning of "home"

Gem isn't a person made to be liked but if they didn't give up so easily maybe they could have been. Gem and co. are passed morally grey.

Thank you so much, St Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

TW: abuse, violence, paedophilia, murder, death

After the insane cliffhanger of Godly Heathens, Merciless Saviors begins right after Gem's choice of killing the god of air with the Ouroboros, stealing his power. Now, everything is turned upside down and the scales aren't in balance anymore. With new complex powers Gem isn't anymore the god of balance and all the others' powers' are thrown into chaos. Death can reanimate corpses, Art's power are corrupted, the Shade can't use his own..
As Gem, Rory and Enzo struggle to find a way to restore the balance without sacrificing anyone else, but soon they are forced to face the idea of letting go of their humans lives and embracing their being Gods.

Merciless Saviors is the brilliant and even more gorier conclusion of the duology started with Godly Heathens. With the whole balance turned upside down, his mother who knows part of the truth, a complex relationship with both Rory and Enzo and a God Complex to deal with, Gem finds themselves with a mess to take care of and the desire of being finally themselves.
The story is complex, filled with twists and if in the first book the reader started to know a bit about the Ether, now it's even more clear and, also, more about Gem's, Enzo's and Rory's past lives and the choices they made and have to make now.

I absolutely loved this duology. I loved how fascinating and complex the characters are and how they were able to be selfish, brutal and cruel, fighting for themselves, their loves ones and their world of choice.
Beautiful.

this book was very interesting!!! i liked it. cant wait for yall to read it!!! had a great time reading it

This book is so emotional in the best way possible. It will make your heart race and then rip it out, and you'll love it. You won't just enjoy having a good cry along with the characters, you will enjoy the world of gods and magic and battles. I absolutely loved every second of this tense book and felt so deeply for the characters. i can not recommend this enough.

4 Stars This starts up right where we left off in Godly Heathens and just keeps going. I will admit to some confusion as I was reading the chapters but started understanding as we went further in the reading, I want to believe it was meant to be like this. Edgmon wrote this as an almost open ending, where more could happen but that is up to the reader. It is as darkly written as the first and more topics come up to be watchful for (read the content warning in the beginning). I will say this series was one of the most unique reads I have read in the last year and look forward to seeing more writing by Edgmon in the future.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Having read the first book in this duology, Godly Heathens, I absolutely HAD to request this sequel. It wasn't just because I found the story of the first book compelling (though I did), but also because the ending of the first installment was just so unsatisfying for me that I felt cheated. I knew my true rating would depend on the sequel and whether the story still felt incomplete. It did not, and I absolutely loved this book!

We pick up exactly where Godly Heathens left off, and from there it feels like the story reaches its true climax and resolution. Without going into specific detail so as to avoid spoilers, I feel like the author sort of neatly combined all the threads of the first book in a way I found fulfilling. Would highly recommend this series on the caveat that the two books must be read together.

For sensitive readers, there is graphic violence and descriptions of gore, self harm, sexual assault, and body horror.

Merciless Saviors picks up right where Godly Heathens leaves off... and then does a time jump. Its not a huge time jump, but it kind of still throws you and maybe would have been better to end GH on a cliff hanger and start MS with the time jump.

Its also hard to write this review without spoilers because a LOT happens. The book felt strangely slower paced than the first given that, but considering the fact that MS is about acceptance I think it works well. I loved that we got more of Enzo and Rory in the sequel. It really added so much more to the dynamic with Gem. I do wish we had gotten to spend more time actually interacting with the environment in the second half of the book. For me, that is my biggest complaint. We're dropped into a totally new place and it felt glossed over, like a super fast tour with tons of exposition. Other than that, I really enjoyed Merciless Saviors and found the conclusion to be very satisfying.. and very Gem.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

<i>*I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*</i>

3.5

Merciless Saviors picks up right after the events of Godly Heathens, and then immediately has a two week time jump and I found that transition a little jarring. That being said, I love thematically what this book and duology is doing.

If Godly Heathens was indigiqueer rage, Merciless Saviors is acceptance. While this book is short, the character arcs are so satisfying and I loved the exploration of trauma and “goodness”. I love fantasy that deals with meddling gods, so to see these teens as reincarnated gods with all the drama and mess that millennia of knowing one another entails was a lot of fun.

These are the kind of books I wish I had had as a teen, so while I didn’t love this duology as much as I did The Witch King, I love that teens today get to see such diverse characters. I highly recommend reading these back to back if possible, or at least giving yourself a Godly Heathens refresher before jumping into Merciless Saviors, which is out in April 2024.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it. I love the cover and the name I always love seeing how that ties in after finishing a book.