^This is a book about a girl named Deka, who is proven as ‘impure’ during the purity ritual, which means she has gold blood, unlike the rest of her country, who have red blood. The emperor soon recruits her to fight in their war against death shrieks, a deadly animal that ravages the country. She meets girls like herself and learns they are descendants of ‘The Gilded Ones’, a group of demons that ruled the country years ago. Deka makes friends with the other girls and is sent to training, since the girls with gold blood are almost immortal, and Deka has survived many attempts to take her life from her village after she is shown as ‘impure’.

There are instances of Deka being called foul terms and mistreated by her village, and there is heavy gore and violence, especially since Deka has to deal with a lot of discrimination due to something she can’t control. This author is making us look at our own society and our own history of mistreating people who look different from us, who have different capabilities or historical injustices by birth, like what still happens in rural India based on the banned “caste system”.

This book is a good read, and I enjoyed it. There is a sequel that I have not yet read. This book is mostly appropriate for age 13 but has a few mature themes like a discussion on celibacy. I would recommend it to people who enjoy reading about strong female figures and those who enjoy books like ‘Before the Sword’ and ‘Wings of Fire’.