The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke | A Review

This book follows Frey, a Boneless Mercie. These are women who will mercy-kill those reaching the ends of their lives whether through age, sickness or injury. She works alongside Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa and they live a simple life. That is until Frey hears of a monster killing men, women and children, and decides to listen to the call to glory that has been in her heart for so many years and kill the beast.

This book is absolutely beautiful, I felt every word in my soul and really felt a connection to all the places and people that we visited. At the beginning of the book I did find myself wishing that we had more time with the Mercies actually being Mercies, but as the book went on I enjoyed the path that it took. If anything, I would’ve loved this book to be longer. The time spent in each location felt a little rushed and I would’ve loved to spend more time learning more about each culture that was introduced in each new location.

I’ve since heard that this is a retelling of Beowulf, which may explain the shortness with which we experienced each location. Although the original epic poem is a long one, it doesn’t leave much time to dwell on each event, and I assume the decision for shortness was Tucholke emulating the fast paced feeling of the original story.

The book is so atmospheric and captivating. I found myself struggling to put it down and I enjoyed every second of the book (something that doesn’t happen too often because I have the attention span of a gnat). I really hope her other books are as beautiful and enchanting as this one, if so I can’t wait to read more from her in the future. Such a beautiful story!

Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton, a review

Book 2 of this series is keeping up the massively high standards set by book one! (Check out my review of Rebel of the Sands here) Yet again I took my time going through this book, but it’s definitely not me slogging through, it’s more that I need to take time to absorb every single one of Alywn Hamilton’s words, each word she writes seems to be there with intent and meaning. Her writing is just so beautiful and I truly have the desire to read absolutely everything she has ever published and ever will publish.

I really enjoyed the time we spent in the palace within this book, it added another dimension to the events of the world and really gives the reader more of an insight as to why people act the way they do. The dynamics of this group inside of the Sultan’s walls was so different from that outside and really added great perspective.

The political side of this war was also more developed in this book, and it meshed so well with the world building and how Alwyn Hamilton showed us the groups of people outside of who we had interacted with in the first book. It gave more insight as to why people were acting in certain ways, and to how the Sultan was looking to manipulate others to achieve his aims.

Overall this is yet another gorgeous book within this series and is something that I one million percent recommend to anybody wanting to read a great fantasy book. Again the writing is absolutely beautiful and it leaves me in awe.

Please tell me you’ve started this series? Do you agree about the beautiful prose that the story is written in? Let me know!

The Universe Versus Alex Woods

I’m going to be honest, I picked this book up purely for the cover. The synopsis was okay but nothing massively intriguing to me at the time, but this cover! I saw this book, and another one by Gavin Extence called The Empathy Problem, in a secondhand bookshop and my friend bought them both for me. I literally couldn’t leave them behind because they were both so beautiful! I have yet to read The Empathy Problem but I’m really looking forward to it now!

So, beautiful cover aside, what is the book actually about? We follow a young boy, Alex Wood, who was hit on the head by a meteorite as a child and is being raised by an eccentric fortune-telling mother. He meets an old man, Mr. Peterson, and they become an unlikely duo and come to care for each other. When Mr. Peterson has an unusual predicament, Alex helps him out and this results in them driving to Europe… If you want to know more you’ll have to read the book! As I think anything else spoils the essence of the plot.

The thing about this book is that the plot isn’t necessarily the main driving force. It’s an interesting and intriguing storyline, however, the main focus of the book is really Alex and his interactions and relationships. The writing is so beautiful, and slips easily into the mind and sticks there, making you think.

This book is so beautiful and one that I wish I heard more people talking about, an amazing coming of age novel which tackles so many different issues and I look forward to re-reading it in the future, along with other novels from Gavin Extence. 100% 5/5*****