3.5 out of 5 stars 
 "The Merciless" follows the story of Sofia, who has recently moved to a new high school and quickly becomes friendly with both an outsider (Brooklyn) and a group of popular girls (Riley, Alexis, and Grace.) Riley thinks that Brooklyn is possessed by Satan, so she decides that Sofia and the popular girls need to exorcise the demon out of Brooklyn. Yeah. 
 I went into this book with high hopes, yet I was ultimately kind of disappointed. I love a creepy horror story (I'm a massive Stephen King fan), but I found the juxtaposition of the simplistic writing style and the horror-filled plot line to be a bit strange. This novel is classified as YA, but the prose seemed to be middle-grade and the topics were very adult-oriented. It was strange. 
 All in all, I wasn't entirely impressed, but I also wasn't completely let down. I don't think I'll be re-reading it at any point in time.