Review: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
Ismae escapes a brutal arranged marriage to find sanctuary at the convent of St. Mortain, where the nuns are not exactly nuns and the daughters of Death are trained as assassins. Sent to the Breton court as the supposed mistress of Duval, the duchess’s bastard half-brother, Ismae is supposed to root out a traitor. What she finds is a much messier political situation than her superiors led her to expect. Grave Mercy is the first of the His Fair Assassin trilogy by Robin LaFevers, set in fifteenth-century Brittany.
I cannot tell you how much I liked this book. The premise sounds like a fourteen-year-old’s daydream, assassin nuns!, and instead what LaFevers delivers is a careful, period-grounded political novel about a tiny duchy trying not to get swallowed by France. The historical detail is dense without being tedious, the court intrigue is actually intriguing rather than vibes-based, and Ismae’s evolution from blunt instrument of the convent to a young woman with her own moral judgment is paced beautifully.
The romance with Duval works because LaFevers does not rush it. They bicker, they negotiate, they build trust over real chapters of shared work. There are no fated-mate shortcuts. By the time the genuinely emotional scenes arrive, I cared.
Complaints? The middle stretch leans heavy on court politics, and if courtly maneuvering bores you, you’ll feel it. The convent’s theology is also a touch hand-wavey; LaFevers wants to have it both ways with the saints-as-old-gods setup, and I’d have welcomed a sharper commitment one way or the other.
But these are minor. Grave Mercy is a YA fantasy that respects its readers’ patience, and that is rarer than it should be.
For who? Fans of Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief, Naomi Novik, and historical fiction crossover readers. Skip if you need fast-paced action.
I read this in one weekend and immediately ordered Dark Triumph. Recommended.