Forged By Pain

A violent coup leaves one survivor from the old regime, a young princess forced to endure torture unimaginable for the four years following. The author pulls no punches, showcasing not only some scenes of actual torture but a realistic look at the aftermath of being a victim to it. I like my harder to read fiction, but I do still need some glimmer of light to be enjoyable. Darkly visceral, the black humor of the princess keeps Forged By Pain on the right side of too much.

Names hold a strong place in the narrative, from the princess proclaiming herself “Rat” to the crippled man meant to be her abuser that she names “Pretty.” Not just irony, it highlights the trajectory of the characters and plot. Rat's self-awareness even in her madness makes her an intriguing character, one impossible not to sympathize with despite her growing obsession with revenge. She doesn't want to be called by her old name, instead taking ownership of her new self. It's harder to break what's already been broken.

The cast of characters and their interactions with Rat, either in support of or violently against, made Forged By Pain hard to put down. I became invested, and perhaps morbidly fascinated as well, in the machinations of a tortured, complex mind bent on making people pay. Here too, Bilos achieves a good balance exploring more than just negative emotions. Dialogue and description are also very strong throughout the novel.

While there is much to love about Forged By Pain, a few issues on the technical side kept this from being a higher rating for me. Errors, mostly with homophones, can distract from the otherwise flowing narrative. Formatting issues around paragraph breaks started picking up in the last portions when immersion is needed the most. There is also a plot thread that doesn't seem to fit into the rest of the story.

Readers looking for a dark fantasy with a solid revenge plot will be sure to enjoy this novel. Rat, Pretty, and the rest of the motley cast are well worth the emotional journey.