Book Review // Grave Mercy

 
Title: Grave Mercy

Author: Robin LaFevers

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Republished: 2nd October 2018

Pages: 576 [Kindle edition]

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Before I share with you my very short review of Grave Mercy, I have an embarrassing confession to make: I requested Grave Mercy on Netgalley two years ago and even if the book had already been published six years before, I could not be more excited when my request was accepted. I mean, how could I not be excited about a story that features assassin nuns? Nevertheless, the months went by and sadly I could no longer download the book. After seeing it on Scribd, I decided it was time to finally read Grave Mercy.

Grave Mercy ended up being a roller coaster, with many ups and downs. When I flipped the first pages, I was immediately caught up by this world of assassin nuns that serve St. Mortain, the God of Death. But then, as the story went by, the plot started dragging and it became repetitive - Ismae looking for marks to kill and Duval attempts to stop political machinations that would endanger his sister's reign.

Moreover, Ismae revealed herself to be a fanatic. She wanted nothing more than to kill in the name of her God! Every time she saw a new courtier, she could only think about how much she wanted to stab and slice him with her daggers. Yes, "him" because only men could be traitors... And, because of such, Ismae ended up coming across a man-hater (even if she developed feelings for Duval from the first moment she saw him).

I can't blame her for disliking men after how her father and her husband treated her, but it seldom crossed Ismae's mind that women could be as dangerous as men and that they could also be traitors. As a woman trained to kill by nuns, Ismae disregarded other women's potential to evildoing. Also, for someone trained to be deceitful and cunning, Ismae was clumsy. I mean, every time she killed a man marked by Mortain, she was seen and/or left a trail of blood behind that could lead to her.

Nevertheless, more than halfway through, the story started to pick up and Ismae finally questioned the convent and its ways. The moment she started thinking by herself, Ismae revealed all of her potential. I just wish this had happened sooner. Due to Ismae's character development, the ending was actually a little bit epic. Just a little bit because I was expecting a showdown that I never had.

Anyway, even if I had all these issues with Grave Mercy (fine, I had issues with Ismae and the convent), I do want to read the next book in the series because I need to know how the war will end and who will prevail. Also, Sybella, the protagonist of the second book, seems such an amazing character. For some odd reason, I love tortured souls.

Ps.: I still don't understand how Ismae didn't see right away who was behind everything!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher/author for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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