Book Review: Gild by Raven Kennedy

Title: Gild
Author: Raven Kennedy
Publisher: Raven Kennedy LLC
Publication Date: October 18, 2021
ISBN: 9781737633808 

Synopsis:
In Highbell, in the castle built into the frozen mountains, everything is made of gold. Even me. King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I’m called his precious. His favored. I’m the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don’t leave the confines of the palace, I’m safe.
Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck. Suddenly, my trust is broken. My love is challenged, and I realize that everything I thought I knew about Midas might be wrong. Because these bars I’m kept in, no matter how gilded, are still just a cage. But the monsters on the other side might make me wish I’d never left.

—–

As much as it pains me to say it, I think I can only solidly give Kennedy’s Gild 2.5 stars out of 5. I’ve struggled with lowering my rating even further, though it’s so hard to rate a book so poorly. I’ll admit, I may have fallen into a trap of investing in a series because of a beautifully executed reprint edition (full marks for a gorgeous book design), but the story itself so far isn’t living up to the hype.

What is most difficult to stomach in this romantasy, versus many of the other great books on the market right now, is the terrible treatment of the female characters by every male character, with the exception of one, and he’s killed off. I honestly am shocked that it’s categorized and rated alongside other wonderful romantasy novels, because thus far, there is zero romance to be found, and the violence against women is appalling. I’m not sure if the author was going for the shock-factor, or if there is some “greater purpose” to the violence in this book, but there are numerous books that successfully convey violence in a way that is critical to the plot, and this is not one of them. The disturbing scenes seem to be added in for shock value rather than actually contributing to driving the plot. The fact that this book is getting so much traction in today’s day and age hurts my heart. There is so much sexism and misogyny, it hurts my heart to read it. Where you see empowered, or very soon to be empowered women, and many respectful and supporting male characters in so many other series, those two critical elements are missing from this book, so it reads very disrespectful and far past morally grey. The FMC is often complicit or blind to the terrible treatment of herself and the other women in her presence, though she can’t be blamed because she does appear to be a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, or something of the like.

What does it have going for it? That gorgeous cover for one. Plus a unique take on the fable of King Midas whose touch turns everything to gold. There’s also mention of the fae who abandoned the world these characters inhabit, so there is clearly more going on that has not yet been revealed to the characters or the readers about how expansive this world is. I can’t say that I’m not intrigued about where this story might go, what kind of character arc the FMC will follow, and I would hope that the violence gives way to romance at some point. None of these are really enough to redeem this story so far, so I am still undetermined as to whether or not I’ll continue with these books, but the Goodreads star ratings seem to improve drastically with the next few books, so it gives me hope that there might be some redemption for this series.

Has anyone else read Gild? What did you think?

Happy reading!