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inkandplasma 's review for:
The Mercies
by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Full review on my blog: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2019/09/04/review-the-mercies/
Even after all this, Maren thinks, Ursa believes herself to have power over him. Witch-hunter or no, Absalom is, after all, still only a man.
Rating: 4 stars
The Mercies is inspired by a historical event, the Vardø storm of 1617 where a terrible storm sank ten ships and killed forty men- the majority of Vardø's male population. This storm ultimately led to one of the biggest witch-trials in Scandinavia, and the first major witch-trial in Norway under the new laws of witchcraft and sorcery.
The Mercies pretty much broke my heart, but I knew that was going to happen from the start. This book doesn't give you any allusions that you're going to get a happy, glorious ending, and what else would you expect? It's the 1600s, and we're talking about witch-hunters and sapphic characters. I was pretty sure I was getting an unhappy ending from the start but I still let myself get overly attached to the women in this story, and hoped somehow that they'd overcome the injustices of history and create a happily ever after. I finished the book, and I'm now genuinely kicking myself that I've read this book in September, and now I've got to wait until February before more people read it and I can talk about it with everyone I know.
I don't tend to read historical fiction, but character driven fiction is my bread and butter, and Kiran Millwood Hargrave has created a masterful character piece here, worth picking up no matter what genre you tend to read.
Even after all this, Maren thinks, Ursa believes herself to have power over him. Witch-hunter or no, Absalom is, after all, still only a man.
Rating: 4 stars
The Mercies is inspired by a historical event, the Vardø storm of 1617 where a terrible storm sank ten ships and killed forty men- the majority of Vardø's male population. This storm ultimately led to one of the biggest witch-trials in Scandinavia, and the first major witch-trial in Norway under the new laws of witchcraft and sorcery.
The Mercies pretty much broke my heart, but I knew that was going to happen from the start. This book doesn't give you any allusions that you're going to get a happy, glorious ending, and what else would you expect? It's the 1600s, and we're talking about witch-hunters and sapphic characters. I was pretty sure I was getting an unhappy ending from the start but I still let myself get overly attached to the women in this story, and hoped somehow that they'd overcome the injustices of history and create a happily ever after. I finished the book, and I'm now genuinely kicking myself that I've read this book in September, and now I've got to wait until February before more people read it and I can talk about it with everyone I know.
I don't tend to read historical fiction, but character driven fiction is my bread and butter, and Kiran Millwood Hargrave has created a masterful character piece here, worth picking up no matter what genre you tend to read.