Wow. This book is pure magic—lush, immersive, and utterly intoxicating. Iriset is a stunningly complex anti-heroine, torn between ambition and vulnerability which just makes her journey feel all the more real! The magic system is breathtakingly unique--which is something I feel Gratton excels at--woven seamlessly into such a rich world! With its intricate storytelling, stunning representation, and heart-wrenching love stories, this is a book that lingers—and leaves you desperate for more.

Unfortunately, this one was not for me. I felt like I was in a constant state of a confusion and did not enjoy the characters at all. Also seemed like a YA book? Which is fine, just wasn't what i was looking for.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC! I LOVED this book and I am so excited for everyone to read this. I'm rating this 4.5 stars, rounded up.

My two favorite reads so far this year have been The Spear Cuts Through Water and These Burning Stars. Take the incredible world-building of The Spear Cuts Through Water (and even elements of the structure that dips into various POVs) and combine it with the morally gray, ambitiously motivated characters of These Burning Stars, and you’ll get the fat, sexy book baby that is The Mercy Makers.

The story follows Iriset, daughter of a crime boss and genius designer creating magical disguises and other illegal inventions. When her father is captured and sentenced to death, Iriset seizes an opportunity to get in close with the ruling family and attempt to manipulate them to save her father. But this is just the beginning: the arrival of a foreign princess betrothed to the emperor sets off a chain of events that pull Iriset deeper and deeper into a political world that she might want to destroy entirely.

This is one of those novels that is so surprising in its twists and turns that you have to tread carefully in reviewing it because there is so much that could be spoiled. The world-building is beautifully done, and you really just have to throw yourself into it and learn the magic as you read; explaining my favorite parts here would, in my opinion, be as much a spoiler as a plot point. But I love that this doesn’t just follow the cookie cutter “evil empire vs scrappy rebellion” scheme that has become so repetitive in a lot of fantasy novels. Iriset isn’t leading a revolution: she’s up close and personal with the makers of empire themselves, and while it’s always easy to identify and criticize what people do wrong, it’s much less simple to formulate what they should all be doing instead. The Mercy Makers also really excelled in its character development. None of these characters are good people, but there is so much nuance in both their actions and the world around them that you find them sympathetic and understandable even while they are behaving atrociously.

I will admit, this is absolutely the smuttiest fantasy book I’ve ever read, and that’s where I’m docking half a star. I don’t like gratuitous sex scenes in books: erotica and steamy romances exist for that. It’s fine for it to be sexy and have sex scenes — that’s part of the political intrigue, and Iriset’s behavior during sex does help define her — but several pages of graphic intercourse doesn’t need to be interrupting the plot.

——
Is it queer? Emphatically, YES. Iriset is blatantly bisexual, and there are a number of interesting takes on gender and gender roles as well (for example, the two ruling positions are decided by the order of birth of royal children, so even though one of them has the word “Mistress” in the title, that position can be and has been held by men). There is also a character with unique in-world pronouns, which I love to see.

Is it diverse? Yes, there are various racial and ethnic divides between the people. The ruling party, which contains a strain of religiously-motivated racial superiority, is not white. However, neither are the people they have conquered, and these are complex and fully developed characters. Complicated anti-hero/sympathetic villain roles should not be reserved for white people, and I like that we have other ethnicities in power here.

How long did it take? I spent around 15 hours reading this, though I was very definitely reading on the slow side (even for me!) for this one.

I m really excited for book 2 next year
Tessa did construct a very intriguin universe here that makes you catched
Lately reading chaos & flame i know her writing on fantasy books are incredible
Its not a secret i am a lover of YA fantasy so i think i can see this book elements did fit on this category very well
So i definetely recomend this one for those persons that are new to her books

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Wow. I have some complicated feelings about this book. This is book is not an easy read, it’s a commitment.

In the beginning it was hard to read and slow to understand due to the narrators way of speaking . It’s as if it was written in a different language that is very familiar to our own but just dissimilar enough that it is hard to understand. Similar to how old English is very different from modern English. There are so many words and phrases used in an unfamiliar way and the narrator gives us no immediate explanation of the meaning of them. It feels like reading Shakespeare.

I almost put this book down because it felt like a chore to read, but the world was so well built, and beautifully written, that I felt I needed to push on and give it a fair chance.

This very inclusive story exists in a very religious world with a lot of commentary on social issues very relevant to our own.

The back half of the book picked up speed quickly and ended in a bit of a cliffhanger. After reaching the 50%mark I couldn’t put it down. I am very glad I decided to push through, and can’t wait to see what happens in the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit/Hachette for the free advanced copy of this book. All opinions written here are mine alone.

Wow!
I came into this book with no expectations, just curiosity and a faith in the quality of books from Orbit. (I am always finding new favorites from this publisher!) I was so blown away. This book was delicious and winding and beautiful. The magic system was so unique, and the writing was so tantalizing and sensual that I really felt drawn in. Iriset was a beautiful main character, with internal turmoil that felt so real I had to put down the book sometimes because I was so nervous or upset for her! I loved that she was confident in her abilities but also willing to accept her own limitations. The love stories Gratton weaves through Irisets relationships felt so real and heartwrenching.

The only drawbacks (which may change with future editions) were that at times I felt like things were over-explained. The reader wasn't consistently left to her own devices, some parts of the book felt like a riddle unfolding, and others felt like I was reading a textbook (albeit an interesting one!). I think that some of the world building could be more show not tell, but I still lovedddd it.

This book was amazing, and I cannot wait to read the sequel! Thank you NetGalley, Orbit, and Tessa Gratton!

The Mercy Makers is such a fun ride! It's truly a unique story and I loved the writing style of this one. Looking forward to what comes next!

This book was wild ride.
An intense deep dive into a unique world with layers upon layers of political intrigue, history, religion, gender, and lore.
At first I wasn't sure about this book at all. It took some serious dedication and slow-paced reading to decipher and comprehend the entire universe of this book.
HOWEVER! Once I was able to wrap my head around everything and fully be immersed in the politics and mystery I was spellbound.

If you love political, high fantasy with diverse and interesting plot and characters this is a must read.

I can't wait to continue the the story!

Thank you to Netgallery for the advance readers copy for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The cover and the description really pull you in. But I felt that it was very in depth with no glossary or character guide to make things easier.

I ended up DNF this book due to my having to reread parts of it multiple times to make sure I connected the dots right.

All in all, it was a beautiful story, I just don't think I was at a point where I could give it my complete concentration and love.

The Mercy Makers is fantastic! I loved the writing and found it really easy to get into the story. Can't wait for more!

DNF pretty early on. This is really unfortunate for me because I was so looking forward to this but it was just not doing it for me. Tessa Gratton's writing style is just not for me, and I can't even pinpoint why. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it just rubbed me the wrong way for reasons that are entirely my fault. It made it really hard to continue reading and exploring the plot and characters to their fullest because I was so distracted by the prose. I will maybe try to pick this up after it's release if I'm hearing raving review for now I'm putting it down for good, which makes me sad.

THIS BOOK. The magic that this book weaves (pun intended) is something I don't think I can begin to describe. So many aspects of this had my mind spinning.

Iriset made such a great anti-hero. I continuously found myself torn between rooting for her and being frustrated with her actions. I also LOVED the feeling of intimacy and sensuality that ran through the veins of the story. I don't think I've read a book (that wasn't overtly going for smut vibes) that made me feel those connections so purely.

Another huge shout-out to the representation and diversity in this book!! There's so much of it I don't even think I can summarize it, but it was expertly woven in a way that felt so seamless.

The only drawback when reading this was that some of the world-building felt like I was given too much to stomach all in one chunk. It really felt like I had to chew through some of it, but then once I finished the book and went back to re-read those parts, everything fell together and made so much more sense.

All of that being said, my heart shattered that the book ended and I'm begging for the next one ASAP!!!!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit for the chance to read this ARC!

I really did enjoy this book, Tessa Graton has a great way of making her writing very atmospheric but at the same time, I kept having trouble keeping people and places straight, it felt like jumping into a second novel with no background info.

Unfortunately not to my liking as a reader. I really wanted to like this more. However, I struggled to connect with the characters and story

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an Advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Iriset is a magical genius with an alter ego, Silk, who uses her magical weaving skills to cure diseases, heal people, and make the world a better place.... illegally. This story is incredibly detailed and fantastical with a super unique and cool magic system. There's tons of world building and details to make this a very interesting and complex story.

The reason this book isn't rated higher is because it needs a glossary. Nor having a basic glossary and character list made this book a chore. It kind of felt like starting a tv show a few seasons in. You're dropped in the middle of the world with no understanding of the gender system, and some of the pronouns. There aren't really context clues for a couple chapters, so you need to go back to double check a few things. There are also a lot of characters and some of them have complicated names, titles, and nicknames. And there are some words and phrases that aren't commonly used in English like using ans, and anself, that can add to a bit of a slower pace.

Overall I spent a lot of time going back and forth and trying to figure out parts of the world and that took away from my ability to enjoy the story. I usually read at night when I'm relaxing and this is a read during the day with a notebook and some sticky notes kind of book.

I think this entire story would be amazing if there were a glossary with a list of the less commonly used words, a list of the pronouns and the gender system, and if not a list of characters, a list of titles and what they mean so that I can just flip back and check and get back to enjoying the story.

3/5

The Mercy Makers is a fantasy novel for the detail-obsessed —the readers that like to pour over the history and lore of a world and drown in its intricacies. Orienting a world in which magic is strictly regulated, Gratton introduces us to Iriset, a powerful wielder of magic and an undercover criminal. In the aftermath of her fathers arrest and his execution sentence, Iriset infiltrates the emperor's court to attempt to save his life, confronting the roots of this flawed system and the limitations to her magic. Now this is a wonderfully complex novel. Gratton throws readers into the inner workings of this empire and the notions of human architecture, which Iriset wields in secret under her alter ego, Silk, to provide gender affirming care and other life affirming services. The level of detail present in The Mercy Makers is awe inspiring, deeply rooted in the magic system and the history of this empire. It took me a second to orient myself to this one. Its unique point of view meant more work upfront for the reader to fully immerse themselves in this fantasy world. Yet there is a reward for those that choose to disentangle its outer shell to uncover the secrets within, and I feel it’s more than worth the initial effort. This book is an iridescent jewel with multiple faces uncovered the deeper one wades into its pages. The court politics and ever shifting alliances ramp up the tension while Gratton subtly weaves romance, intrigue, and betrayal together. The Mercy Makers is a beautiful book, with evocative prose and compelling quests into religion and identity. While this is definitely for a specific kind of fantasy reader, I hope it finds its way to them in its forthcoming release.

Just brilliant. This universe and it's characters are vividly detailed with well written characters and a compelling story. Silk, as she is known in her underworld persona, has been arrested as her father's criminal empire is raided. She is a special kind of magic user, using force to create and alter the world and the people in it. She cures cancers, alters bodies and create facial masks to hide the identity of her father's thieves. Her empire is ruled by two siblings The Seal and the Mistress. They keep the world safe, rule over the societies religion and forbid the alteration or creation of life even when it would save lives. In this oppressive society she is offered a place as a handmaiden to the mistress. This only way out will end up changing her life forever. She will find her emotions, passion for force magics and even love wound around the palace mechanizations. Will she spur rebellion?, seek her own loves and passions, escape or capitulate? And what of her father, fated to be executed, can she save him as well. This book is non stop movement, beautiful imagery and full of characters who appeal and whose emotions and motivations draw the reader in and leave them wanting more. I look forward to the next novel in this series with great impatience.

I have to agree with other reviews here. This book was not an easy read. It made me feel stupid. I don’t like it having to go back and reread things several times to try and figure out what’s going on. It really takes me out of the book. I want a book that’s easy to escape into. I will say this book is going to be for some people
Who like really wordy and complicated fantasies, it just wasn’t for me.

If you’re looking for a casual read, this is not the book for you. The third person writing is dense and intricate, demanding your full attention. Blink, and you’ll miss something important. I had to reread the first six chapters just to wrap my head around the world building, magic systems, and unique terms. Chapter 8 is where things really began to click for me.

The world building is vivid, though the explanations of the magic systems could use a little more clarity. At times, it feels like the author is less telling a story and more so engineering a puzzle. Layering details so intricately that I was left scrambling to keep up. Some explanations came so late I felt like I had overlooked something. A quarter of the way through the book, I found myself relying on a sticky note to keep track of the growing list of characters, magic systems, and every growing list of specialized terms.

This book is heavy on religious and philosophical themes, specifically apostasy. Iriset challenges faith and tradition by using forbidden magic, a direct defiance of the Goddess’s domain. This creates constant tension between innovation and doctrine. Blurring the lines between science, faith, and transformation.

The writing style is a mix of old English and high fantasy academia. great for some, but at times it had my brain quietly checking out. An example of this is the Author’s preference for use of “anself” instead of “oneself”, which adds to the world’s distinct feel. But It could also be that I’m genuinely just too dumb for this book. As reading it sometimes felt like trying to assemble furniture with no instructions. Just pure guesswork and a growing sense of defeat.

As Michael Scott once said, “I am Beyoncé always”. But in this case I feel more like Kelly, confused and way out of my depth.

Thank you to NetGally and Orbit for an ARC!