Grave Mercy: Book Review

I read this book because I thought it had a cool cover and a cool premise.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Description: Ismae is the result of an affair between her mother and Death. Ismae, despised by her mortal father, is put into an abusive arranged marriage, but then saved by a convent of nuns who are also daughters of Death. The nuns train her to be an assassin who serves the purposes of saint Mortain (Death). Now, she is a hand maiden of Death, killing those who threaten Death's plans for the throne.

Review: Sounds like a great thesis right? Handmaiden of death; awesome. Except, this book was hard to get through. The first part of the book seemed intriguing when Ismae got to the convent and I found out she was going to be trained to kill and poison. And then, the author skipped over what could have been one of the most interesting parts of the story, assassin school and jumped right to post training. Ismae has a conflicting personality and her motives are not always clear. She thinks one thing, but does another and it is confusing. Additionally, many of the characters that are presented are not fully developed so it was hard to care about any of the characters because they just don't get enough scene time. The whole thing seemed rushed, as if the author was trying to get this giant plot line into one book when it really should have been split into three books. It felt like I was cheated out of important scenes and character development because it was forced into one book. It was a good idea, but poorly executed.

Rating: 2 Stars