The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 352

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's UK 

Released: 4th of October 2018 

They called us the Mercies, or sometimes the Boneless Mercies. They said we were shadows, ghosts, and if you touched our skin we dissolved into smoke ... 

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.

Frey has no family, no home, no fortune, and yet her blood sings a song of glory. So when she hears of a monster slaughtering men, women, and children in a northern jarldom, she decides this the Mercies’ one chance to change their fate.

But glory comes at a price …

What I Have to Say 

For me this was Skyrim in book form. Or at least Skyrim the way I play it. Tough Nordic Girls battered into warriors by years of harsh winters and fending for themselves. April Genevieve Tucholke's writing drew me so deeply into Frey's world that it felt like I was part of the sisterhood. And it was a beautiful sisterhood. I could have read about these four girls fighting to make something of themselves beyond where their fate had led them all day. 

This for me is the perfect Feminist book. It didn't have the background of so many of the books around where women are subjugated through rape only. Books that try to empower women and show them fighting back while still reducing them to just their bodies. In The Boneless Mercies, the only mentions of rape are alluded to pleasure houses and it shows the few options there are for women without actually showing the violence that is used against them. Coming to the story at the end of the struggle. When the Mercies make the decision to fight for more was the perfect way to show the struggles of women without showing the violence. 

Every word of this book was perfect: the ending and fighting the monster, the Cut-throat-queen,the empowerment of women through the entire book. There wasn't anything I didn't like. It was beautiful and made me feel like a warrior just reading it. 

This is supposedly a standalone, but the ending certainly left it open for more. If I never get to see another story from the Mercies and this world, I will be very disappointed. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this copy for review.