Notes from: Grave Mercy
Robin LaFevers
Overall rating: 5/5 stars!
Due to my undying curiosity, I asked LaFevers on my personal Twitter about Gavriel Duval’s age and to let you all know he’s “24-ish” while Ismae is 17.
“Good intentions are only lies the weak tell
themselves. I will not be caged.”
Grave Mercy has about 500 (+more) pages,
give or take. My reading pace doesn’t matter on how many pages it has but on
the content of the plot and Grave Mercy took me almost the longest to read it
because it is just filled with all these heavy politics, religion and history
and some terms thrown here and there that I just had to do a bit of research to
understand it further.
By
saying that, I rate Grave Mercy a five out of five stars because of many
factors of the novel. One is that I truly admire the amount of research Ms.
LaFevers has applied to her first Young Adult genre novel. The plot itself, I
find is something beautifully new. Secondly, the plot progression: the readers
witness word per word the maturing of Ismae. The story begins when she’s
fourteen then she’s taken by the convent that serves St. Mortain (don’t worry,
this isn’t spoilery—it’s actually found on the book jacket cover) and then by
chapter five or six we are fast-forwarded three years later. My sympathy fell
on Ismae on the very first chapters. It makes her understandable in the matter
why she so easily gained strong faith for the convent of St. Mortain. You
couldn’t blame her, joining the convent was something she could think of to pay
her gratitude to the people who have saved her lives. However, the beautiful
plot growth shows that her undying faith bows to the wrong people. Also, the
story progression is admirable because we also see the bond between her and
Gavriel Duval grow stronger each time, rather than a Romeo and Juliet gig of I
love you overnight, therefore I will take my life for you (especially because
the story is set in the time, somewhat, of Romeo and Juliet).
I
also appreciated the fact that Gavriel Duval isn’t the “hottest” boy in the
story.
Also,
after finishing Grave Mercy, I laughed to myself because I was so surprised how
many times I felt tears on my eyes and I actually wept like a heartbroken
teenager that my mom had to ask me what’s wrong for about an hour or two
(slight spoiler, sorry… but it is hinted
on the book jacket!)
“Remember,
true faith never comes without anguish”
Although the novel is mostly a
serious tone kind of story, I found myself laughing frequently because I just
love, love, love the chemistry between Duval and Ismae and having to witness
each chapter the growth of their relationship really tugged at my heartstrings,
therefore, it wasn’t difficult to have Duval and Ismae close to my heart.
“Hurry
back down to Hervé when you are done, eh?”
Just reading that line again makes me
laugh hysterically and make my stomach filled with an insane amount of
butterflies.
“What is my fair assassin
so afraid of?”
‘My
Fair Assassin’ the series’ title is probably the one that captured my interest
as I was book shopping. I loved it so much I changed my personal URL on Tumblr
to that. Harhar. So irrelevant. But c’mon, who doesn’t find that such a nice
line?
Happy
Reading Everybody!
ATTENTION: DO NOT READ FURTHER UNLESS YOU
ARE WILLING TO SEE SPOILERS.
Below is a list of my
favorite moments/notes in the book with its page number.
Notes + Quotations with page numbers:
Page 20 – A whisper of emotion crosses
her face, a memory of some pain I can only guess at. “That is the nature of our service” she says “unquestioning faith. Can you do that?”
Page 31 – Good intentions are only lies the weak tell themselves. I will not be
caged.
Page 68 – Remember, true faith never comes without anguish
Page 86 – Hurry back down to Hervé when you are done, eh?
Page 145 – Gavriel Duval is one of the
late Duke’s bastard-- Half brother to the duchess.
Page 166 – TEARJERKER. Nocturne, Ismae’s
horse, dies.
Page 179 – What is my fair assassin so afraid of? I wonder
Page 259-261 – Duval and Ismae play
lovers. (fan-girl scream)
Page 296 – Ismae admits to have fallen
for Duval
Page 337 – Ismae and Duval KISS J
Page 366 – Mortain, saint/god of Death’s
love story told. – I really, really loved this!
Page 442 – The desires of the convent have collided with the path of my heart
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