A review by aotales
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

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