The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sophia Flores

I was not thoroughly impressed with this sequel to the original Merciless. The book highly focused on Sofia Flores battling her inner evil, except this evil came across as the stereotypical teenage envy. I won't reveal any spoilers, but Sofia's struggle between good and bad didn't seem like it involved angels and demons. From the first page to the end of the book, the conflicts were mostly internal. There was a psychological distance between the reader and Sofia. I found it difficult to relate to this character compared to her in the first book. The story ended with even more questions than the end of the first book. The author even indirectly quoted what would happen in the next book through Sofia's thoughts. This book wasn't nearly as thrilling and horrifying as the first book.

There is sequel to this book coming out soon, but it will about Brooklyn instead of Sophia. So, this leaves us to question if this next book will be a prequel to the first book the Merciless or an actual continuation of the series. Either way, there are too many unanswered questions to even further the series along. Vega had a one hit wonder with the Merciless, so she needs to write a book even better than that one to keep the audience reading her books.