Review: The Boneless Mercies, by April Genevieve Tucholke

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies – death-traders, hired to kill quickly, quietly and mercifully. It is a job for women, and women only. Men will not do this sad, dark work.

There are so many women in this book. There are very few men in this book at all. It’s glorious. It’s been a week since I read it and I recall two. Two men whose importance to the story is almost entirely tied to their emotional significance to the protagonist. Is this what being a man feels like?

The Boneless Mercies is a heroic saga focusing on a band of young women who travel a vaguely medieval eastern european continent as mercy-killers for hire. On the off chance you aren’t already leaving to go pick up a copy, I will do my best to explain why you should.

First - this is not a kissing book. This is not a book ‘about women’ where there is as much or more time devoted to how she feels about some guy as there is to the actual plot. In fact, while Frey does eventually do some kissing, the book is more than half over by the time she even thinks about it. Instead, she thinks about her quest, and her companions, and how her quest might be affecting her companions. There is a lot of entirely platonic compassion and love and I dig it.

Second, the tone of this book is GLORIOUS. Reading it felt like floating, if that makes any sense. Picking up this book is like walking into an old growth forest, hearing the complete lack of machinery, knowing you are the only person for miles. It truly captures the poetry of traditional fairytales and epics. Like breathing night air. I loved it.

Third, and this is a little big repeating, but the women in this book! They are all different, they are all complex, they all have different stories and motivations and they’re all fleshed out and deep and have skills and flaws and gosh I just love them all so much. Juniper, in particular, is my favourite.

The Boneless Mercies is a standalone novel, and it suits it, it is one heroic tale from beginning to end, but it is the kind of standalone where I wish I had another twenty chapters to tell me about how they lived the rest of their lives in comfort and safety, so that I could know for sure that my girls were okay.


Read this book if you loved:

• Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo (or if you would have loved the Grisha trilogy, if not for that love triangle...)
• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
• Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
• Women.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.