Reviews

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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aotales's review against another edition

4.0

Undoubtedly, a most beautifully written story by a supremely talented writer, The Mercies is a quietly captivating novel wrote with such an incredible sense of knowledge of the time period, a decadent, languid sentence structure, and the ability to capture an atmosphere without falling into overtly purple prose. A sense of immediacy and quietly palpable tension is expertly crafted with the passing of every page as you continue to know and root for these characters, but all the time knowing of their ultimate doom. The characters are fantastically vivid, the atmosphere is lushly created, the writing is superb, but it is the emotional gut punch that will leave you reeling. I know it has for me. Did the abhorrent, brutal, nausea-inducing scenes need to happen? … yeah, I think they did. It brought forth an honesty and depth to the story that would’ve truly suffered for the lack of it … but did it make it an exceptionally hard read? Hell, yes. If you can stomach it, this read will mesmerize and haunt you … but if you are a sensitive reader I’d highly recommend seeking out the content warnings.

Content warnings: sexual violence, forced marriage, extreme brutality, spousal abuse, sexual violence and torture of a child, torture, execution through burning and hanging.

Full Review Here: https://www.aotales.com/content/review-the-mercies

alinica_'s review against another edition

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4.0

3.75✨

euangepp's review against another edition

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3.5

Very tender descriptions and a well executed story about a harrowing historical event. The end felt a bit like throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. Would have loved to find out what happens after the book ends.

1madesun's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a really interesting read that had a new to me setting of a time period I’m usually familiar with. It gave me a lord of the flies vibes but with women; trapped on an island with no male influence (because of the time) fighting to maintain order but losing out to chaos and outside influences.