Tehlor Kay Mejia

In this nail-biting sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia's critically acclaimed fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, La Voz operative Carmen is forced to choose between the girl she loves and the success of the rebellion she's devoted her life to. Perfect for fans of The Handmaid's Tale and Anna-Marie McLemore. Being a part of the resistance group La Voz is an act of devotion and desperation. On the other side of Medio's border wall, the oppressed class fights for freedom and liberty, sacrificing what little they have to become defenders of the cause. Carmen Santos is one of La Voz's best soldiers. She spent years undercover, but now, with her identity exposed and the island on the brink of a civil war, Carmen returns to the only real home she's ever known: La Voz's headquarters. There she must reckon with her beloved leader, who is under the influence of an aggressive new recruit, and with the devastating news that her true love might be the target of an assassination plot. Will Carmen break with her community and save the girl who stole her heart--or fully embrace the ruthless rebel she was always meant to be?

We Unleash the Merciless Storm

Sarah Sammis

We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia is the sequel to We Set the Dark on Fire (2019). While the first book was from Dani's point of view, this one is from Carmen's point of view.

Dani and Carmen had gone to school together to learn how to be wives to the elite men, the leaders, of Medio. Dani had garnered the top spot as the Primera. Carmen was the Segunda. As the wives of Mateo they had specific, divided duties and roles, but very little in the way of personal freedom.

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Ben Bastow

In this nail-biting sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia’s critically acclaimed fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, La Voz operative Carmen is forced to choose between the girl she loves and the success of the rebellion she’s devoted her life to. Perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and Anna-Marie McLemore. Being a part of the resistance group La Voz is an act of devotion and desperation. On the other side of Medio’s border wall, the oppressed class fights for freedom and liberty, sacrificing what little they have to become defenders of the cause. Carmen Santos is one of La Voz’s best soldiers. She spent years undercover, but now, with her identity exposed and the island on the brink of a civil war, Carmen returns to the only real home she’s ever known: La Voz’s headquarters. There she must reckon with her beloved leader, who is under the influence of an aggressive new recruit, and with the devastating news that her true love might be the target of an assassination plot. Will Carmen break with her community and save the girl who stole her heart—or fully embrace the ruthless rebel she was always meant to be?

Flavia Louise

I was sadly quite disappointed by this :(
I loved book one and this one just took me forever and I sadly didn't care that much.

Monae Reads

Sahi K

This is one of my most highly anticipated sequels of this year and I’m so so happy that I was able to read it as soon as it released. I absolutely adored We Set the Dark on Fire and had huge expectations from this one as well, and the author doesn’t disappoint. 

The previous book ends on an intense cliffhanger and the author doesn’t let up by starting off almost at the next moment, but this time the story being told through Carmen’s POV. The story in this book takes place in just a few days, so the pacing, tension and the action is absolutely relentless, not giving us any time to take a breath or relax. There was a sense of danger at every moment that the author managed to create, making me scared for my beloved characters all the time and I think the ability to sustain this sense of dread for a whole book was genius. But even during all these tension filled pages, there is so much emotion and love and vulnerability, and I’m amazed at the author’s ability to balance them all. 

While the first book was all about building up this unjust world and it’s cruel discrimination towards the poor and underprivileged, this book is all about what it means to be part of a resistance and fighting for a cause. In this day and age where we see many resistance movements across the world trying to stand up to authoritarian forces, the book rightly has some timely commentary on the importance of believing in a cause and fighting for it, but also about never putting one or two leaders above the cause itself. Through the characters’ thoughts and actions, we see how the strength of a resistance is in remaining loyal to all the people, in trying to build a community and figuring out ways to live, not just survive. 

There is also something we read or see a lot in media, about how love is a weakness that distracts you from your path and the author dismantles this perspective beautifully, showing how love in its different forms - romantic, platonic, sisterhood, found family - is a source of unimaginable strength and it gives us much more reason to survive and fight and succeed. 

We get the whole story through Carmen’s POV and I loved getting to know her more deeply. She is very conflicted after her experiences from the first book, unsure if she believes in the resistance anymore - particularly its leadership which seems to have changed direction and started using its people as disposable pawns - and is also worried how she can reconcile her faith in the cause with her love for Dani. Even though the story takes place in just a few days, we see Carmen go through a gamut of emotions, think and realize what is important to her, and though she does act impulsively at times which made me want to chide her, she ultimately does what she truly believes in her heart without ever compromising on her principles or giving up her love. I especially admired her belief that the cause and the people for whom they are fighting are the most important thing, not the leaders. 

It almost felt like Dani was only present for a very short time in the book (it’s probably half) and most of their time together was spent in trying to run and survive and fight. But I’m glad that they got to talk about their feelings, understand what is important to each of them and then support each other unconditionally in their final stand. 

We get to know a few more resistance members better this time and it was actually nice to see Sota again. He really is a sweet boy and true believer. I also liked how decisive and strong a leader Alex was, with some excellent support from Jasmin. I really liked the author stressing on the importance and power of sisterhood, especially towards the end when they were all tested. The final chapter really was the epitome and realization of what they were fighting for. 

To conclude, this book is as exciting and intense as I wanted it to be and I rushed through it because I couldn’t put it down. If you like your YA fantasies to be full of a group of women trying to fight and lead a resistance against an oppressive government, along with a beautiful love story, then this duology is perfect for you. It is fast paced, it is eye opening, it will make you question your own beliefs and finally leave you feeling hope. As someone who prefers more clear cut endings, the climax here felt a little dissatisfactory to me because it was too open ended and just leaves us hoping that the characters end up achieving what they set out to do without ever getting to know the results.

Jennifer

We Unleash the Merciless Storm is a fast-paced and heart-wrenching conclusion of the We Set the Dark on Fire duology. This book picks up from the cliffhanger left from the first book, and is narrated from the Segunda Carmen's perspective. I think there are several major improvements made to the sequel coming from a different character's lens. These improvements will be discussed in the paragraphs below.

+ Characterisation (main characters): The biggest improvement in this book is Carmen's character arc. I found her moral ambiguity quite fascinating. On how she had to use calculations to tread carefully between La Voz and Dani. While I don't agree with all of her stances, I nevertheless thought her headspace was well fleshed out. I think the solid character arc also allowed me to understand Dani's personality better as the emotional tension was filtered through Carmen's lens in a way that feels realistic. I think Tehlor Kay Meija did a great job portraying the relationship.

+ Writing: I really enjoyed the writing style. It's emotionally engaging and pretty straight-forward to get into. I particularly loved the way the author used figurative languages and mythology references to convey the characters' emotional headspace. I think the use of these literary devices have more profound impact then in the first book.

+ Themes: While I was reading the book primarily for enjoyment, I enjoyed what We Unleash the Merciless Storm tries to convey about making the choices even when it's difficult in the given circumstances. That these choices are difficult because they have serious repercussions, but what would it take to make these difficult decisions? I thought these themes were explored well through Carmen's internal tension of choosing between La Voz and Dani.

+ Pacing: I quite liked the pacing for this novel. It's fast, thrilling, and full of tension that makes it a page-turning material. I think the build-ups are better justified.

However, I still feel like several aspects of the novel felt unsatisfying and incomplete as a final book of a series. Due to these deficiencies, this book didn't emotionally hit me as hard as I'd expected to.

- Characterisation (secondary characters): I thought the secondary characters e.g, Mateo, aren't as well fleshed out so I wasn't really invested in reading about them. 

- Worldbuilding: I have mixed experience with the worldbuilding. While Carmen's narrative filled up some missing holes in the worldbuilding regarding to the role of Segunda, I still find the overall worldbuilding pretty vague. I know that it's Latinx-inspired but there aren't enough details for me to picture distinctive qualities in this world. 

Despite my concerns, We Unleash the Merciless Storm is nevertheless a satisfying and emotionally engaging read. It excels at its diverse Latinx representation and well fleshed out LGBT+ relationship. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who's looking for a character-driven diverse read.

N.B. Full list of content warnings can be found in The Storygraph page

(3.5 stars out of 5)

Katie

What a sharp drop from the first book.

I feel like this series would have been better as one longer standalone than a duology. All the tension from the first book, which mostly stemmed from Dani and Carmen's relationship, was GONE because they didn't reunite until the 50% mark! And even after that, it just somehow felt like there were absolutely no stakes. I don't know exactly how, since by all accounts it should have been a nail-biter, but I didn't feel anything. It was like I was watching the story unfold from the very top balcony of a theater. With a pole in the way.

I think the writing itself was just as lovely as ever. Tehlor Kay Mejia certainly has a way with words and can make everything flow nicely. But when you look at the story, and particularly the pacing, underneath those words, you may end up disappointed.

Arwa El

I absolutely loved the first book, like, reading it one night loved it because I simply couldn‘t stop and the story absorbed every bits and pieces of me. The second one was probably the most boring read in the past two years. It takes Carmen 99 pages to stop crying about Dani and ACTUALLY doing something. 99 pages where she keeps repeating herself and going on and off about the same thing. Every single action in this book is so predictable and you already know by page 150 who is going to be a traitor and who won‘t. I still can‘t believe I actually finished it.

Chelsea Breher

Right in the feels, I need book three right now! 

Again it took a little while to get into it, a slow start. But it picked up and I refell in love with the characters!

Tania Joana da Silva Monteiro

I was very disappointed with this book. The first one had so much potential and a great pace. This, however, was so repetitive, sometimes I wanted to skip ahead (I didn't do it because I don't like to do it in general, but the urge was there). It felt like nothing happened for so long, only the same thing being told in different ways and it was too much. Then when the big moments happened, they were not explored, not given more time to let them happen. It didn't need to be this long imo. It was a filler book. Still, I am hopeful for the next installment.

Annabelle Kortum

Lilly Snyder

Kaitlin

Esmé Desertiaux

luli

Hannah C

Sophie Akerman

In this nail-biting sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia's critically acclaimed fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, La Voz operative Carmen is forced to choose between the girl she loves and the success of the rebellion she's devoted her life to. Perfect for fans of The Handmaid's Tale and Anna-Marie McLemore. Being a part of the resistance group La Voz is an act of devotion and desperation. On the other side of Medio's border wall, the oppressed class fights for freedom and liberty, sacrificing what little they have to become defenders of the cause. Carmen Santos is one of La Voz's best soldiers. She spent years undercover, but now, with her identity exposed and the island on the brink of a civil war, Carmen returns to the only real home she's ever known: La Voz's headquarters. There she must reckon with her beloved leader, who is under the influence of an aggressive new recruit, and with the devastating news that her true love might be the target of an assassination plot. Will Carmen break with her community and save the girl who stole her heart--or fully embrace the ruthless rebel she was always meant to be? --Booklist (starred review)

We Unleash the Merciless Storm

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