Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Merciless
    Unavailable
    The Merciless
    Unavailable
    The Merciless
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Merciless

    Written by Danielle Vega

    Narrated by Amy Rubinate

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she's here. No one can hear her scream.

    A terrifying tale in the tradition of Carrie and The Exorcist.

    Sofia Flores knows she shouldn't have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn't realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.

    Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn-but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can't go against the other girls…unless she wants to be next….

    For mature audiences only.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJun 12, 2014
    ISBN9781491518427
    Unavailable
    The Merciless
    Author

    Danielle Vega

    Danielle Vega spent her childhood hiding under the covers while her mother retold tales from the pages of Stephen King novels. As an adult, she can count on one hand the number of times in her life she's been truly afraid. Danielle has won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction, including a 2009 Pushcart Prize nomination for her short story "Drive." She lives in Brooklyn and works in the digital marketing department at a major publishing company.

    Related to The Merciless

    Related audiobooks

    YA Social Themes For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Space Between Us

      Oct 9, 2019

      The Space Between Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      I Confronted My School Bullies

      Jul 3, 2019

      I Confronted My School Bullies
      6 min read

    • Article

      Penny

      Jul 2, 2020

      Penny
      6 min read

    • Article

      Foxes

      Jun 15, 2019

      What’s worth happening happens in deep woods. Or so my daughter tells me. Her plotlines: In the deep woods someone is chasing, someone else is getting hacked. Hatchets are lifted, brought downdowndown. Men stutter blood onto snow. A cast of animals—s

      17 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      A Perfect Match

      Apr 5, 2021

      It’s my sister’s fault that I’m standing outside a hair salon on the Saturday of my anniversary, too scared to go in. I’m not sure I was this nervous on my actual wedding day. Androulla had been bugging me for months that my look needed “updating” an

      7 min read

    • Article

      Mr. Rogers Changed My Life

      Aug 27, 2021

      Mr. Rogers Changed My Life
      3 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reads

      Dec 30, 2019

      Summer Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Present Tense

      Sep 4, 2018

      Present Tense
      10 min read

    • Article

      I Have Spent A Lifetime Poring Over The Intimate Details Of Stars’ And Strangers’ Lives Via Social Media. It’s Time To Stop

      May 13, 2023

      It takes two weeks to fall in love with my new neighbour, Tanya. I am nine and she is three years my senior. Tanya is a wildly creative and prodigal musician; I watch her do her scales and exam pieces on the clarinet, flute and piano most nights. She

      15 min read

    • Article

      Search and Destroy

      Oct 24, 2017

      My daughter has bugs living in her hair. It is my job to kill them. The post Search and Destroy appeared first on Guernica.

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Temporary Arrangement

      Oct 2, 2023

      A Temporary Arrangement
      19 min read

    • Article

      Diary of My Leg Hair

      Dec 8, 2022

      Diary of My Leg Hair
      21 min read

    • Article

      The Disaster Store

      Mar 18, 2019

      The Disaster Store
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Freshening

      Sep 15, 2018

      My cashier’s black hair was beautiful. Though not unlike mine, it was shinier and thicker, and hung glamorously down to her waist. It looked strong, too, like Christopher Reeve’s in the Superman movies. A strand of Superman’s silvery hair could hold

      21 min read

    • Article

      Finding Peace—and Briefly, Freedom—at My Grandfather’s Funeral

      Oct 11, 2019

      “Saying goodbye with the people who loved him—and me—I remember that I am not the tomb that imprisons me.”

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Pain Jar

      Dec 3, 2020

      The Pain Jar
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dear Frankie

      Aug 1, 2021

      Dear Frankie
      19 min read

    • Article

      Seedlings

      May 6, 2021

      Seedlings
      9 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Wilding

      Nov 3, 2022

      Wilding
      8 min read

    • Article

      I Used to Give Men Mercy

      Feb 12, 2018

      I Used to Give Men Mercy
      12 min read

    • Article

      Announcing the Winners Of Our 100-WORD CONTEST

      Jul 17, 2021

      Eager to try your hand at the 100-word genre? Submit your best work – fiction or nonfiction – in just 100 words in our second annual 100-Word Contest, returning this fall. Bookmark writermag.com/contests for more information. BY ALICIA LUNA Today, I

      5 min read

    • Article

      Klara

      May 21, 2020

      Klara
      28 min read

    Reviews for The Merciless

    3.5/5

    124 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Creepy, graphic story of a tortuous exorcism attempt by teenage girls.
    • 4/5
      It has been several years since I read anything by Diana Palmer, but after reading Merciless I am thinking I need to catch up on what she has written.This story revolves around Jon Blackhawk and his assistant Joceline. Jon is a thirty year old FBI agent whose mother wants to help him find a wife, something he is dead set against. Joceline has been Jon's assistant for several years, and while they have a good work relationship, she is determined to keep her work life and personal life separate. She has always been known as a very conservative person, but a few years back she had a son,Markie, and has always kept her son away from the office, only sharing the fact that Markie's father was killed in war before the two could get married. She is keeping a secret though, one that will change several lives. When one of Jon's enemies starts making threats against not only him and his family but Joceline and Markie as well, he wants to protect them by taking them to his ranch, and while there Jon and Joceline's feelings heat up! Can they figure out who is making the threats, and what happens when people around Jon start figuring out Joceline's secret?This story was romance, drama, and mystery rolled into one. While I liked the characters, Joceline was a struggling single mother, whose secret really was very easy to figure out, and I was a bit surprised it took the secondary characters so long to get it. I felt that the attitude that Cammie had about Joceline being a single parent was repeated way to often, and was quite outdated as well. While I did enjoy the banter between Joceline and Jon, the bit about her not making coffee was another line that was really overused.Those few complaints aside, I found myself reading this book thru in one sitting, I always love a good romance, and the mystery and suspense of not knowing what might happen next made for an interesting story. The author does a great job of wrapping the book up nicely at the end.The author also provides the first chapter of her next book titled "Wyoming Tough," due out in Nov.2011, and if the first chapter is any indication it going to be a great book, one that I can't wait to read!Overall if your looking for an entertaining read that will hold your attention for a few hours and are a fan of romance with a happily ever after ending then you just might enjoy this one.
    • 5/5
      I must say this first: WOW! Where on earth have I been that I haven't read a Diana Palmer novel before?! I guess I must have been in a cave, but now I'm out and am SO happy to have read this novel. When I chose it to review, I couldn't wait to jump into it. Boy, was I glad I did, too! Merciless is a wonderfully written novel, and Palmer's characters jump at the reader and hook them into the heart of the story with them. The reader is instantly pulled in and taken on the whirl wind of action, romance and suspense; riding along for the duration. Merciless follows Jon Blackhawk and Joceline Perry. Jon is a 30 year old senior FBI agent and his secretary Joceline is a single mom of a 4 year old little boy with medical issues. And, she harbors a secret. One that could forever change lives around her. Jon is targeted by someone he had arrested...or so he thinks. When clues start arising to the truth of his enemies, will Joceline and Jon be able to solve the mystery? And confess their true feelings for each? Or will secrets, and one mean mama, keep them apart? Each page turn brought new twists and turns, and I couldn't put the book down. I loved the western cowboy feel, the hunky FBI agent, the mysterious suspense and the romance! I highly recommend this a 5 star MUST read for every one who loves suspense, and romance, and those hunky good looking Texans! I am definitely going back to read Dangerous, Jon's brother's story! And, I look forward to being a devoted fan of Ms. Palmer's and reading all her past and future works!
    • 3/5
      Can you keep a secret? Are you willing to lie in order to maintain that secret? Joceline Perry must do just that in order to protect her secrets in Merciless by Diana Palmer.Joceline works as an administrative assistant at the FBI and is a single mom. Her boss is Jon Blackhawk, an FBI agent, lawyer, and handsome and wealthy young man. Jon knows that he'd be lost without Joceline's assistance and their work relationship is a strange dance in comraderie and teasing. Joceline does her best to protect Jon from his mother's matchmaking and keep him on schedule and well-informed on his cases. Things are going reasonably well for both until a bad guy is released on bail. This is unfortunate because this particular bad guy was arrested for participating in the murder of Jon's sister-in-law and niece a few years ago. Of course the bad guy has threated Jon's life and now Jon winds up being shot. Of course the bad guy threatens Jon's family and co-workers so Joceline and her son must be protected. And of course, nothing remains a secret forever.Regrettably I must be a little "merciless" about Merciless. The story was somewhat formulaic and nothing that happened was really a surprise. I didn't like the wealthy boss and penniless and subservient but hardworking worker scheme and felt it was overdone (perhaps my cynicism is showing). Having said that...if you prefer a light, romantic HEA quick read then Merciless may work for you.
    • 3/5
      the endding lost me. Also, if you just meet someone you would not let them in your secret pack until a few weeks, let alone let them join you to "save" someone. I wanted to read the other 3 books but the endding wasn't for me personally.
    • 3/5
      This book was fast-paced and easy to read. I'd describe it as Mean Girls meets The Craft and The Exorcist. I didn't necessarily love the writing style, but I enjoyed that it read like a teen horror flick. It was lacking thorough exposition but it kept me interested all the way until the end. I immediately wanted to read the second book when I finished.
    • 2/5
      It's literally just a B-rate horror. It's been done, it's been better. It misunderstands satanism and witchcraft and none of the characters are interesting.
    • 1/5
      Don’t waste your time with this one. A never ending sequence of ridiculous, cliché events. No one has any common sense and the characters flip flop from being a ‘bad guy’ to a victim basically every other chapter. This was painful to finish.
    • 5/5
      I don’t know how to describe my feelings for this book I hated it but also loved it. Its crazy and creepy.
    • 1/5
      The ending was the only thing I found remotely interesting
    • 2/5
      The story is weak, the characters are cliche. Not scary, more torture scenes that are pretty unnecessary. Characters are not likeable. Had heard good things, but this was just bad. Glad it was only 6 hours of my time. Narrator wasn't bad, though.
    • 1/5
      *eyeroll* Welp, besides this book having the most ineffective "protagonist" and not being scary at all, the girls in this book have zero agency beyond fighting over a boy and crucifying the poor and non-whites as devils. I can't with this book. And I've never felt the need to preach any political mumbo jumbo in a dang book review before but this is just... garbage. Lol
    • 4/5
      Loved the book my first danielle vega and now i need more!!! The narration could get more work
    • 2/5
      * spoilers *Sofia Flores moves to a new school in hopes of a new start. Her old school was full of people who just love to ridicule her. When Riley's overly religious, popular group accepts her, Sofia couldn't be happier. They drink together, have sleepovers, and seem genuinely nice. Brooklyn is nice too, but Riley's group hates her for some reason. They used to be friends and had some sort of falling out. Brooklyn is everything Riley and her group isn't, but it isn't until Sofia sees Riley's boyfriend with Brooklyn. She's just being a good friend. She ever expected Riley to tie Brooklyn up in the basement and try to exorcise her. Now Sofia is torn between siding with her friends and their religious fanaticism or saving Brooklyn from who knows what torture awaits her.Sofia right from the beginning is kind of desperate for acceptance. She faced humiliation at every turn at her old school and she just wants a new start where she can be happy. Riley, Grace, and Alexis accept her right away. She gets the high school experience she has always wanted: sleepovers, illicit drinking, and real girlfriends to pour her heart out to. They also happen to be weirdly religious. More on that later. Brooklyn is also an interesting friend. She takes her to get piercing and tattoos, not caring what the more conventional girls think (even though they drink and have no real room to throw stones). One day, Sofia sees Brooklyn all over Riley's sort of boyfriend. She feels more loyalty to Riley's group, so she tells Riley about it. She had no idea that their next sleepover would include Brooklyn tied up and bleeding in a vacant house with all the exits locked or nailed shut.The excuse for Brooklyn's imprisonment is that a demon is inside her, making her do horrible things. Four girls who play lip service to religion and with no connection to the church, no guidance, and no knowledge are going to exorcise the demon out of her. Riley is the toxic queen bee of the mean girls group and wastes no time going all Hostel on that poor girl. Brooklyn is stabbed with knives, burned with matches, and almost drowned in a tub among other horrific things. Who knew teenage girls coud be so vicious? Riley is obviously the ringleader and delights in the pain she inflicts. The other girls are not quite so gleeful, but follow nonetheless. It's a sick game of follow the leader and the only one conflicted is Sofia who infuriatingly does next to nothing to stop her through most of the novel. Riley employs classic bullying techniques to keep everyone in line: threaten opponents with the same treatment, say opponents are possessed by demons as well, and cut off all exits in the house. This situation is the classic example of the majority witch-hunting the minority who is different whether it's because of religion or dress or any other random thing.The very ending is complete and utter bullshit. Apparently, Brooklyn really is possessed by demons. Just ignore that Riley is obviously a total socio/psychopath who doesn't think twice about victimizing someone for something pretty minor, threatening her friends, and bullying anyone who gets in her way. The ending is supremely stupid and says that Riley was right to do all these awful things. It seriously disgusts me and I will never read anything by Danielle Vega ever again. Up until the very end, the story was a rather interesting look into mean girls to the extreme. One other flaw is that there's simply no suspense. It's the book version of the Saw films. No build up or actual creepiness. Just descriptions of torture which does not make good horror.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Whatever you read about this book could not possibly prepare you for the violence and creepiness of this book- and I mean that in the best way possible. The Merciless follows the new girl in town, Sofia, who befriends a few girls on her first day of school. In this group is Brooklyn, the loner, and then Riley and her posse of Alexis and Grace, your teen Bible study/popular girls group.

      Sofia is shy and trying to fit in, while all the other girls are trying her out as a new friend. Sofia gets wrapped up in a spy-like operation for Riley and then all hell breaks loose (no pun intended). When Riley decides that Brooklyn is evil and needs an exorcism, the book becomes a madhouse of fire, knives, stabbing, drowning and an overall terrifying experience for Sofia.

      I am not even sure where to start on this one, so how about the most obvious – the cover. The pretty pink cover with an upside down pentagram is a marvelous expression of what is to come inside the book. A mix of religion, good and evil, and pop-princesses gone bad; it was the creepy I wanted out of this book. Danielle Vega did a wonderful job pulling the reader in with this plot, Sofia seems like a normal shy girl and you are really pulling for her to make friends and enjoy her new home. Little by little things seem off in the story and then BOOM!!!!! All the creepy.

      Vega’s descriptions were the best and worst part of this read, at one point she is explaining the sound of ripping ones nails off with a knife (gross right?! You have NO idea HOW gross?), this gave me shivers and I had to put the book down for a moment while I tried not to get sick. BUT that being said… this was an amazing book! There is a crazy twist ending that I was NOT expecting even after being forewarned by the synopsis. If you are a fan of violence, horror, and the heebie-jeebies … you should read this.
    • 4/5
      It's not every day that I pick up a book that makes me squirm. I have a pretty tough stomach for creepiness and violence and all that good stuff. I love shows like Dexter, have been known to watch horror movies alone in the dark, and one of my fave films when I was in high school was The Craft. (Still love it, BTW.) THE MERCILESS by Danielle Vega made me a little barfy. And I think it was good barfy, if there's such a thing. It's a send-up to Mean Girls taken to an extreme, with a side of Bible thumping and a little exorcism for flavor.Sofia is the new girl in town, and, since her mother is in the military, she's been the new girl a lot. Her past few experiences as the new girl have been pretty terrible, actually. She's used to being mercilessly bullied. And she's expecting about the same here, in this sweet southern suburb, until the queen bee Riley and her posse of popular girls take her under their collective wing. Sofia has also befriended outcast Brooklyn. And with all these new friends on her side, she thinks she's got it pretty sweet. But Riley has a serious hate-on for Brooklyn, who apparently used to be part of the cool crowd. She's changed -- so much that Riley has become convinced that she's possessed. And Riley's obsessed with Brooklyn is about to lead Sofia and her new friends down a dark, terrifying path. A path that leads to an abandoned house that once was their girlie hangout and has now become the place where Riley & Co. plan to exorcize "demons" from Brooklyn by any means necessary. And Sofia will have to either prove her loyalty or end up the next one tied up in the basement. THE MERCILESS is probably one of the most scary YA novels I've read in a while. It's not scary in the way that Nancy Holder is scary, or the way that Lois Duncan is scary. This is scary in the way that Stephen King at his goriest is scary . This is CARRIE on Steroids. Heathers meets Hostel. No punches are pulled. Nothing happens "off screen," and the reader isn't spared details. If you're looking to have your blood curdled anytime soon, this is the book for you.
    • 2/5
      This book should of been published in the 1950s. I would only purchase this book if you like the Jacobsville series and really, really want to read every book. It almost seems like the book was written long, long ago and the names were changed so it could be published as part of the series. Boring.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The Blackhawk brothers thought that the case of Kilraven's 1st wife and daughter murder was done with. But it turns out that there was other person their that night. They target the hole family to be killed. This book is a real good read.
    • 2/5
      Jon Blackhawk's not ready for marriage, despite his mother's efforts to set him up with the perfect mate. The only woman who successfully catches his attention is his assistant, but Joceline Perry, young, unmarried with a small boy to take care of, is no threat to his bachelor status. Or is she?Silly me, I bought this. Only to find another rehashed plot. Young infatuation leads to a one-night stand resulting in a baby. With childhood asthma. Circumstances don't allow for the mother to tell the father, resulting in huge misunderstandings when the star-crossed pair meet years later. Of course, he's in law enforcement. She's clever, but struggling.... Of course there's a happily ever after, but other than a bit of clever dialogue and different names, there's not much to distinguish this one. Borrow, don't buy.
    • 2/5
      As you know, I have been on a romance novel kick as of late. I have read some good ones. Sadly, this is not one of them. The story centers on Jon, a Native American FBI agent, and Joceline, a feisty, sharp tongued single mom as his secretary.I’ll cut right to the chase: here are the bad parts. Jon is boring. I completely disliked him (and that was before I found out he was a 30 year-old virgin. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand abstinence. Fact is I respect it. What I can’t understand is his how clueless he is when it comes the act of sex, especially during the losing the virginity scene. Granted, I don’t know too many virgins, especially in their late 20s so I may be off the mark but I’m pretty sure the dude does not yell “It’s coming! It’s coming!” It’s? Ooooooo-kay. Apparently, he hasn’t masturbated either. (Now, come on. What guy hasn’t masturbated at least once? He’s 30 fer Pete’s sake. Did he skip right over puberty and his adolescent years? I apologize, I digress.) He is completely married to his job, is bossy and has a moral compass that seems to be tuned to jackass. The thriller/mystery that forms the backbone of this novel is mediocre at best. There was plenty of back-story but it reads more like the second book in a series. There was too much about what happened in the past and not enough substance to hold this storyline together. As far as I can see, this is a standalone novel. Also, there were way too many characters. Who killed who, who was related to who, etc. I like having a notebook handy when I read for jotting down passages that move me, not to create a diagram because I can’t keep the characters straight. Lastly, the dialogue is elementary. It’s as if each character is reading from a script and not saying what would come naturally.Enough with the bad, onto the good. Among all those characters, there was one that I adored: Our anti-hero Rourke, the South African hired to protect the fair Joceline. Now that was chemistry! I loved the scenes between those two. You could feel the genuine dislike simmering on attraction Joceline felt for Rourke. And you knew how Rourke felt hands down. It came across the page in each word Ms. Palmer used. I could have read 1000 pages of him trying to convince her to take a chance on him. There was a real attraction there. Sadly Ms. Palmer missed the mark with this. They had all the making of a classic romance novel super couple. Unfortunately, their romance will exist only in my imagination.I also enjoyed Joceline immensely. She was a fantastic dame in distress who knew how to take care of herself. She took responsibility for decisions she made in her life and did the best she could. She was a great mother to her son, a great worker for Jon, and she was quick witted, sharp and funny. I won’t begrudge her the choice she made in pining for Jon, I guess the long haired thing works for some.I’m not exactly mad I read this novel, I just wish that as my first foray into Diana Palmer’s novels was something better than this one. If this will become a series, I will definitely read the next one, especially if it is about Rourke. As far as her other novels, I will read her again though next time some of her earlier work. Hopefully the second time will be the charm.
    • 3/5
      Two co-workers who find love in the midst of trouble. (And some secrets revealed in the process.)Better than the last book by Palmer (after which I was sure I'd never read another book by her again) but still had some issues with it. I had a hard time being attracted to a hero who is constantly talking about playing games online, etc. (It was a little much IMO.) And I still felt like, as in her past books, some of the dialogue b/w the main characters was unrealistic. So my advice would be, if you are a Palmer fan or if you are just out of books & looking for something to read, this will work. If you are looking for a book you just love/unpredictable or a new author, maybe not the book for you to start with.
    • 4/5
      He's an FBI agent; she's his executive assistant (don't ask her to make the coffee). He is rich; she is just getting by. She has an illegitimate son; he's the father but doesn't know it. They are trying to track down the killer of his brother's first wife and child. A little repetitious which may be fixed before the final book is done but the usual Palmer romance with nice bantering between the guy and the girl.