Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR, 384 pp.
Published October 2, 2018
DISCLAIMER: I received a free physical ARC of this title from the publisher for review consideration. This did not inform or influence my opinion in any way.
Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are the Boneless Mercies—girls hired to kill quickly, quietly, and mercifully. But Frey is weary of the death trade and, having been raised on the heroic sagas of her people, dreams of a bigger life.
When she hears of an unstoppable monster ravaging a nearby town, Frey decides this is the Mercies' one chance out. The fame and fortune of bringing down such a beast would ensure a new future for all the Mercies. In fact, her actions may change the story arc of women everywhere.
Full of fierce girls, bloodlust, tenuous alliances, and unapologetic quests for glory, this elegantly spun tale challenges the power of storytelling—and who gets to be the storyteller.
I didn't like reading Beowulf in school. Our class had to struggle through reading portions of it in an older English dialect and the only substantive reason I remember having it on the curriculum in the first place was because it was old. Not that compelling, right? In The Boneless Mercies, April Genevieve Tucholke completely reinvigorates the familiar story of a strong man slaying scary beasts and transforms one of the oldest surviving long stories in the English language into a battle cry for the young women who read it. If you're a fan of fantasy, you're sure to enjoy this fresh and compelling tale.
You may LIKE this if...you already enjoy the modern fables of Angela Carter, Catherynne Valente, and Naomi Novik.
What all of these authors have in common is the ability to reinvent a fairy tale, simultaneously reshaping it for a modern audience while keeping the thematic heart intact. Tucholke strips the first, and most familiar, section of Beowulf down to its marrow and rebuilds it in a wholly unique fashion. She stays true to the ideals of loyalty and honor that run throughout the original poem, not just revisiting the warrior's code of conduct, but also bringing the powerful, unspoken bonds of women in a patriarchal world to the forefront. By doing so, Tucholke has taken an adventuresome tale and transmogrified it into a compelling fable about the experiences that unite all women, even when their paths diverge.
You may LOVE this if...you've been waiting for a historical fantasy where the feminist elements don't feel anachronistic.
Too often I run into the same problem with fantasies using a historically-inspired setting: over and over again, it's emphasized as a "man's world" while a female protagonist espouses twenty-first century views, yet she's rarely seen as anything more than quirky. Tucholke deftly avoids this anachronism in two major ways. First, all (save one) of the main characters are women; from the start this builds a feeling of community where ideas and dreams can foster beyond the reach of those in power. The Mercies also match their words to actions, allowing little or no time for the judgement of their more progressive expectations before proving that they are the equals of men.
This may happen more smoothly in a society where the prioritization of ability over gender feels more plausible (although I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of that assumption), and the relatively small scope of Frey and her Mercies' hopes also keeps their journey intimate. They don't need to changes the lives of all women, everywhere. They can only hope to better their own, and those of the women they encounter along the way. Although it isn't as sweeping as world-wide revolution, by the end, readers cannot doubt the gravity and value of bettering even just one person's life.
You may REALLY, REALLY LOVE this if...more than 'strong female characters', you've been craving fantasy with strong relationships between all sorts of women.
Whether it's a political drama, gangster intrigues, or straight-up action extravaganza, we've all seen two men exchange The Look. The one that says despite standing on opposite sides of a conflict, they recognize and respect their status as equals. Well, in The Boneless Mercies, we get The Look between two women! More than once!! Far beyond a few meaningful glances, all of the women have substantive, realistic relationships with one another, even if they only last for a few days of travel together. Particularly impressive are the interactions between Frey and the main villains she must conquer, both of whom are also women. Not only are the antagonists revealed as far more than mere monsters to slay, they forge connections based on the powerfully simple commonalities shared among all women, even as they fight to survive. The parallels between Frey's victories over these foes at the end of the first and second sections of the novel are compelling and raised a host of goosebumps as I drew out the closing pages.
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