“I keep waiting for rescue to come, for a dawn to bloom, for a star to hatch, for a hope to surface. But it doesn’t.”
Going into Gild by Raven Kennedy I was skeptical thanks to the ignorant negative reviews branding it “nothing but abuse” and thrashing the main female character for her inability to “improve her situation”.
Once again, we are seeing people with limited emotional intelligence and having experienced approximately zero trauma reading stories about trauma and criticizing them. As someone who has experienced enough trauma to last a lifetime, I believe this book is a masterpiece in the representation of mental health, emotional manipulation and the lasting impact it has on the way we think and feel about ourselves and the world around us.
Our main character Auren has been locked in a cage her entire life, being made to believe she’s been “saved” and “cherished” by this man. Her entire way of thinking and believing has been hand crafted at the hands of an adult male who has shaped her very being and she has had absolutely zero chance to think for herself or be her own person. So to criticize her for not being able to see that she is being abused, or not somehow making it out of the situation, in my opinion, is incredibly ignorant. Auren has had absolutely nobody to guide her but this man who has imprisoned her from a young age, at what point what she supposed to learn that this is unacceptable when the only person she interacts with instills it into her every single day of her life that this is how her life is meant to be?
“I never misplaced my innocence. It wasn’t my own doing from a forgetful lack of care. It was taken from me, one cruel exploit at a time. I remember each piece of it as it broke away from me, until I was raw and bare, exposed to the harsh elements of the world with a chip gouged deep in my shoulder and a bitter taste always at the back of my tongue.”
The darker physical sexual assault scenes in this book were incredibly difficult to read for me, but I commend the author in how they were written to be powerful but not scarring. They made me uncomfortable but they played a vital role in setting the tone for how women in this world are viewed and treated by men.
Gild provided the ultimate world building experience whilst allowing me to simultaneously grasp the mental state of our main character. Which is the whole point of the plot, her. This story isn’t about epic battles across lands and swords and dragons. This story is about the main characters battle with herself and her circumstances within the world shes been forced and caged into and how I hope more than anything, she breaks out of.
Raven Kennedy thank you for representing depression and emotional, sexual and physical abuse so perfectly. Thank you for writing a character I can so strongly relate to in all that I have been through in my own life. I see so much of her in myself, the way she clasps at straws for any glimmer of hope, any bright side she can find to keep her from utterly drowning in the dark waves that crash over her again and again and again. I hope that when I reach the end of this series, Auren’s darkness is full of stars that keep her safe.
Those stars really are goddesses waiting to be born, I should warn them to stay where they are in the safety of their twinkling light. Because down here? Down here, life is dark and lonely, and it has noisy bells and not nearly enough wine.”
Gild by Raven Kennedy Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Find on Goodreads here.