As I was reading, I could imagine the cinematic treatment of this book where Ismae takes out her targets in slow motion with daggers and swords flashing, hair whipping around and the soft fabric of skirts and dresses flowing with grace.Īnd of course, there has to be some romance involved. It’s still dark by the time Ismae is trained as an assassin, but now it’s fun. The writing in Grave Mercy is sharp and beautiful. If it’s not monsters and nightmare creatures, it’s dim dystopian futures, or plain old depression and teen angst. But lots of teen writing has dark tendencies today. See? Domestic violence, unwanted pregnancy and a late Middle Ages view of women. Robin LaFevers goes on to weave a novel of court intrigue in 15th century Brittany where the women of the convent work to keep the Duchess Anne in power and to preserve the Breton way of life. Mortain where – get this – she is trained to be a handmaiden of the god of death one of a slew of female assassins trained to kill bad men.

Robin LaFeversīut then the town priest whisks Ismae off to the Abbess of the convent of St. Angry and abusive, he calls for a priest to decry her as an abomination. Now it’s her wedding night and her coarse, turnip-farming husband sees her body the nuptial bed and recognizes the scarring as the mark of the daughter of St. Ismae Rienne has grown up with a scar from the poison her mother used to try to get rid of her in the tomb. It’s set in 1485 in English-speaking Brittany, which is in western France. When I first started to read the new young adult novel Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin by Robin Lafevers, I thought “Man, this is dark”. Here is our review by Wil Barbour, our Inventory Manager for BookKids and the Teen Section: And I’m not the only one on staff who did.

Grave mercy series in order