A review by wardenred
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Don’t you think it’s weird, the way you two instantly hated each other? What demigod in his right mind wouldn’t fall for you?”
“Who said Hart Ralston is in his right mind?”

Such a quirky and charming read! This is very much an enemies-to-lovers story full of banter that starts of somewhat vicious, so it's probably not going to be everyone's cup of tea. I was personally immediately intrigued by the animosity between Hart and Mercy and wanted to get to the root of it, as well as see what it would take for them to mellow toward each other. In both regards, the story didn't disappoint.

The plot is pretty close to the movie You've Got Mail, so I guess it's a good thing that it's been ages since I last saw it. Even so, a lot of the turns the plot took made me recall entire scenes from that movie. So in that regard, if you're familiar with You've Got Mail, you're likely to find the book predictable. However, the characters and the setting make it feel really fresh. 

The setting in particular absolutely enthralled me. I did have a minor problem with how disclosing information about it was handled. For the first few chapters, the author didn't really explain anything, just immersed the reader into the setting by having characters reference various details that are completely natural for them and trusting the reader to put the puzzle together. I loved that! It's my favorite approach to fantasy world when done right, and it was done so right here. I was enjoying piecing together all the information about zombies and demigods and the world in general. 

Unfortunately, a few chapters in, it felt like the author second-guessed herself and hurried to include a conversation that explained and clarified multiple points, leaving little room for mystery. It wasn't exactly a case of "As you know, Bob," and the infodump-y dialogue was justified in-fiction. But it still felt vaguely disappointing. Especially since later on, the same thing kept happening later in the book: the author would introduce some concepts and setting aspects, let the reader start figuring them out, then jump in with a detailed explanation. I wish she stuck to the first approach consistently.

All the characters felt alive and fun to hang out with. I enjoyed the contrast between the two leads' arcs. Hart's is more of an inner journey: making peace with his past, coming to terms with being a demigod, opening up to the world. Mercy's arc is focused on the external events, such as keeping her family business afloat and dealing with her family members who want the best for her but have trouble hearing her when she tells them what she wants. They're both able to catalyze important changes for each other, but they don't step in to solve each other's problems. Rather, each of them inadvertently helps the other become the better version of themselves able to tackle these challenges successfuly. That made for a great dynamic both for the relationship and the plot.

The one aspect of their romance I didn't enjoy was the third act break-up. I get it, I get it, testing the relationship around this point of the book is an important genre convention. However, why go for the break-up route? It felt rather contrived in this scenario, and Mercy seemed to be majorly overreacting, almost out of character. Besides, since the disagreement happened right when Hart's internal conflict reached its peak, it would seem like a great idea to do the same thing with the Mercy-centric external conflict and have that be part of the relationship test, for more "compare and contrast" between the two arcs. So in that sense, the break-up also felt like a missed opportunity.

Despite these flaws in how the romance and the worldbuilding were handled, this was absolutely an enjoyable experience. There's lots of humor here and lots of interesting interpersonal relationships. I liked how queernorm this setting is, with two gay couples among the important secondary characters. The mentor and apprentice relationship between Hart and Duckers was among the highlights of the story for me, as well as Zeddie's journey to figuring out his calling. I was also rather impressed by the prose: it flowed well and was generally immensely readable, but I'm also left feeling like I've learned a bunch of new/lesser used words.
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