The Eternal Ones

• Author: Namina Forna
• Genre: YA Fantasy
• Publication Date: February 13, 2024
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Series: The Gilded Ones #3

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The dazzling finale to the groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling Gilded Ones series. One girl holds the power to defeat the gods—but can she become one?

Mere weeks after confronting the Gilded Ones—the false beings she once believed to be her family—Deka is on the hunt. In order to kill the gods, whose ravenous competition for power is bleeding Otera dry, she must uncover the source of her divinity. But with her mortal body on the verge of ruin, Deka is running out of time—to save herself and an empire that’s tearing itself apart at its seams.

When Deka’s search leads her and her friends to the edge of the world as they know it, they discover an astonishing new realm, one which holds the key to Deka’s past. Yet it also illuminates a devastating decision she must soon make…

Choose to be reborn as a god, losing everyone she loves in the process. Or bring about the end of the world.

I’ve been reading this series since before the first book came out, since I originally got an ARC of the first book, as well as receiving a signed copy of it through a subscription box I had at the time. So I’ve been pretty invested in the story all along, and have been impatiently waiting to find out what happens to Deka and all of her friends. The last book left off on a cliffhanger, so I made sure to do a quick reread of the series before starting this book to refresh my memory.

Books like these are the reason why I love to reread the whole series before starting the next book, because it lets me not only get an uninterrupted storyline, but because I get to see the bigger picture in action. This series in particular is a fantastic example of getting to see character growth and change, and how the relationships between the characters developed and changed over the course of the series. 

In this book, Deka and her crew are racing against time to find the source of her divinity, so that she can ascend to her goddess-hood before her physical body gives out and the empire completely breaks down. While the circle of people around Deka have been through trials and tribulations and faced impossible odds, this is the first time the bonds between them seem to really be tested. Deka is having a really rough time with her situation, and as her time to make a choice dwindles, we see a real change in her personality.

It was difficult to see Deka in so much pain, both physical and emotional, that she was taking it out on the people who are around her, and hurting the people closest to her. It was also really hard to watch the people around her keep trying to reach out, and be hurt by how Deka behaved towards them. It’s always easiest to lash out at the people who are closest to us, when we are experiencing difficult emotions and don’t know how or where to process them appropriately. 

Over the course of the story, there’s a lot of action and the plot moves forward, but I found myself most captivated by the emotional journey that takes place amongst Deka and her companions. I’ve had a soft spot for Britta since the first scene she appeared in, and loved seeing how heavily she factored into this story, as well as other side characters from the series, and some new side characters also. And it isn’t just Deka that experiences a character arc like this, but multiple side characters, too. 

I found this to be a wonderful story overall, and loved how it closed out the series. Forna did a fantastic job of gradually switching the focus of villainy from the oppressive patriarchy to that of the oppressive new system that has arisen  to take its place, and addressing the overcoming of prejudices and reclaiming women’s rights. The only thing that I felt had room for improvement was the pacing of the story, which wasn’t consistent throughout the story, but I loved the way that Forna decided to back off on the romance between Deka and Keita while the characters are facing the end of the world, and it signals a great direction in YA books.

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