Gruesome images of ‘The Merciless’ will haunt readers of new series

“The Merciless” is the first of a new four book series.

“The Merciless” is the first book in a four-book series, written by author Danielle Vega, also known as Danielle Rollins and Ellie Rollins, published back in 2014. 

This story is rightfully listed in the horror fiction category for reasons the reader is soon to realize.

The story begins in the most unusual way, making it clear that the readers should turn back now or forever be haunted by the gruesome picture the words paint in their mind:

“It’s a cat. A dead cat. Skin’s been peeled away from the cat’s body in strips. Flies buzz around its head and inside its mouth, crawling over its tongue and teeth. Red paint clings to the stiff grass beneath the cat’s body, and candles surround it, cemented to the ground in pools of black wax.” 

The main character Sofia is no less horrified by the sight underneath the bleachers at her new school than her new acquaintance Riley, ring-leader of her fellow popular girls Alexis and Grace. When she’s informed by the group that the outcast, another girl at school known as Brooklyn, has been rumored to have committed not only the horrible sight beneath the bleachers but also a murder of a beloved school teacher, she can’t believe it. All that Sofia can see is a regular teenage girl with perhaps a tad more confidence and defiance than the rest. But Riley is determined to make Sofia see Brooklyn as the demon she really is. 

That is how Sofia finds herself in a dark, dusty, run-down basement with her newfound friends, reading Bible verses and drowning their fellow classmate, Brooklyn, in holy water. It’s only a simple exorcism, Riley assures her, and Brooklyn only has to admit her sins for the demon in her to be released. 

But what will happen when Brooklyn refuses to atone for her alleged crimes? 

As the night grows longer and Brooklyn further refuses to comply with the religious schoolgirls, they will find their ways of exorcism to become increasingly darker. Will Sofia find a way to save herself and Brooklyn in time, or will she fall victim to the same fate?

With 304 pages, “The Merciless” is a thrilling horror novel that will keep readers on their toes, making one begin to question every dark corner after a peek at the contents of this story.

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