This book has been added on to my favourites list, I have pre-ordered a physical copy and I cannot wait for book 2!!

Prior to listening to/reading this book, I did look up reviews and honestly - they were pretty harsh. After finishing the book, I can understand why this book might not be for everyone - especially if you go into it with the wrong expectations.

So, to start I'd like to state; This book is ADULT Fantasy - I'm talking on a level of Priory of the Orange Tree (by Samantha Shannon).

This book is dense, has an array of characters and does not hold your hand throughout the story. The magic system is intricate and complex, as is the religious themes - but it all comes together the further into the book you get. Plus like 3-4 pepper spice!

I admit that this has a slow start BUT it didn't deter me and I was properly hooked from around the 20% mark. One thing that truly impressed me (that was unexpected) was all of the LGBTQ+ rep; both in sexuality and gender!

As for the audiobook in general; the Narrator, Emily Lawrence, was PHENOMENAL!! As was the production; it was so well executed! Lawrence compliments the story so well, really bringing it to life!

Thank you Net Galley, the Publisher Orbit/Hachette Audio and the Author Tessa Gratton for the arc copy in exchange for a review

i feel like all i do it preface my reviews now, but the early reviews for this make me feel insane so - 2 things really quickly: 1) tessa is one of my favorite authors, and no one can write the way she makes me feel with her writing, so maybe i am a little subconsciously biased and 2) i do think that you will enjoy this story more if you have already read night shine and moon dark smile, but this story stands on its own and is the start of something new!

okay, insanity rationalizing aside, i really did love this and i found it so unique. architects in this world weave magic that involves creating alteration on the human body, and it is very illegal in this world that is dictated by those who worship certain gods. our main character, iriset, finds herself at the mercy of those who rule, because her father has been taken captive, yet she has learned a thing or two from working under her father while he was a crime lord with a very powerful system who still believes this magic shouldn’t be outlawed. iriset soon finds herself at the heart of this empire, working as a handmaiden to the princess, because they want to keep her close. but maybe being close is what she wanted all along, especially when the prince, and his bride in waiting, have caught her attention in all the ways. and maybe rebellion is the only answer, whether it’s forced or chosen.

i do recognize that it does have dense writing, and you really have to patiently wait for the dots to start connecting, and that the plot can feel slow while you are waiting. and that was truly my complaint, too, up until you hit that 50% mark and then i was inhaling every page like i didn’t trust my next breath. you want angst? you want yearning? oh my god, i am shaking just typing this.

another reason why tessa is one of my favorite authors of all time, is that i am obsessed with the way she discusses gender and sexuality (and fluidity that they can be) in her stories. to me, this really felt like the pansexuality anthem i desperately needed to read this pride. And i just respect (and loved) everything about gender and sexuality within these pages.

i really also loved seeing iriset being who the world has forced, and continues to force, her to be. all these different interactions, and how there is beauty in that, even when recognizing how hard and unfair it is. also, a common thread i have really been easily seeing in all my favorite books these last few years, is the central plot of “empire” and how the word always unapologetically destroys.

i loved this, i recognize it is slow, but i still loved it. and I respect it, so very much, and i am so happy it is out in the world! and if you have similar reading tastes to me, i highly recommend it. and i absolutely cannot wait to feel really insane when i get the honor of starting book two!

trigger + content warnings: war, spiders / insects, talk of animal death, prison, captivity, brief mention of the word rape, cancer mentions, talk of cults, misgendering (in a negative light), racism, slavery, talk of labor camps + refugee camps, talk of mass murder, executions / murder, death, anxiety, blackmail, loss of loved one (father), talk of cycles and pregnancy, a lot of sexual content (this is a horny book lol)

Ugh I'm so sorry but I had to DNF this one. It was such an intruiging premise and I love so much of what Gratton was trying to do. However there were a few problems that led me to DNF. I struggled with the religion and the worldbuilding too- I would get confused and lost on things about the religion or the different god/goddesses. The magic system was a little difficult to understand too, but I was getting closer to understanding it. I think what became hard was when I started losing interest about 30-40% in. So yes, it was difficult to follow and understand, but the pacing was the real straw that broke the camel's back for me.

There were so many cool things about this novel, so I wish it hard worked for me. I really enjoyed the new system of magic, the different ways of thinking about gender, pronouns, relationships, and more, and the general idea of the plot. I wish this one had worked for me!

This was a bit of a tough read. The pacing is really slow, and I kept waiting for it to pick up, but it just never did. Another issue I had was that it felt like so much of the world building information was just dropped into the book without any explanation. Perhaps things were just moving so slow that I didn’t fully pick up on the explanation, but I just don’t remember a lot of the information about the culture, and the beliefs of the people in the book being explained. Usually it doesn’t take me very long to get invested in the story and the characters themselves, but this book just didn’t click with me and neither did the characters. I will say I found some of the sci-fi elements fascinating, and they were incredibly unique, I haven’t read anything like that before. I did really enjoy those parts of the story, I was just sad the rest of it fell so flat. There were a few pretty spicy scenes in the book, and I thought they felt a bit forced and like it didn’t really fit in with the rest of the story. I’m not normally one who dislikes spice, but it just didn’t seem to fit in this book. Overall, I think it was a good book, and I enjoyed how unique some of the ideas in it were, I just wish I would have connected with it a bit better.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.

oh i tried so hard to push through with this. the premise seemed super interesting, but i think this book needed a lot more editing than it got because…. holy shit there’s too much going on. there’s so many goddamn characters i already can’t keep track. the worldbuilding is thrown at you in the most egregious infodump instance ive ever seen in a book. like one chapter was solely just exposition about the past. and because there’s so much in this world that doesn’t match real life, so much is having to be explained to the point im lost. seriously this book just felt like exposition dumping and for me being 17% through, that’s not a great feeling. because there’s so much worldbuilding and so many characters and Way Too Much Going On too quickly to let readers acclimate to this new world, i couldn’t really tell you what the hell is going on. sure i can tell you people aren’t supposed to do human architecture, and that the mc is going to try and save her father, and there’s four states, but anything about the characters or current plot or history or how the city works? i couldn’t tell you. i defo Was Told, but too much information was just thrown at me. it would be pointless for me to try and continue listening to this when all the set-up went over my head.
i really feel like this book in audio formatting isn’t the best. no shade to the narrator, she did a great job! but i think with the sheer amount of things you have to remember, being able to go back and reference previous text for this story would be crucial.
i wish i could’ve gotten through this but ive actually never been as lost as i have whilst listening to this.

(Advance Listening Copy (ALC) courtesy of NetGalley and Hachette Audio.)

Rating: 3⭐

Gratton always delivers excellent world-building and The Mercy Makers is no different. The magic system, in particular, is incredible: complex and mysterious, but revealed in ways just tantalizing enough to hook the reader and leave them hungry to learn more. The story also does some nuanced and thoughtful things politically.

Because those aspects of the story are as deep and immersive as they are, I can't give the story less than 3⭐. Unfortunately, I can't give it more, either.

The narrative lingers far too long, and by the time we finally reach the end, the emotional momentum is gone. Most of the interesting, sympathetic characters have been killed off, leaving us with a main character who doesn’t seem to know what she wants.

There’s also a thread of sexual energy running through the book that starts off compelling but gradually drains of all flavor and weight. The novel had the makings of a romantasy, but the MC’s unfocused romantic and sexual interests (which themselves felt artificial in a way I couldn't pinpoint) meant that there wasn't the payoff you see in other stories with romantasy-vibes.

The story ends on a mini-cliffhanger, but by then, I'd checked out emotionally. With no attachment to the surviving characters, I won’t be continuing the series.

🎧 AUDIO-SPECIFIC:
The audiobook was solid. While the narration didn’t stand out in a major way, it carried the story effectively. Nothing distracting, nothing exceptional, just a steady, clean delivery that suited the tone.

TL;DR:
Incredibly intricate world-building, magic system, and political intrigue—but the pacing issues, character choices, and narrative stumbles leave a sour aftertaste.

I was super into the premise of this story; but: I don't think this one's for me...I STRUGGLED with the initial few chapters. This writing is DENSE...and took me forever to get into the flow. Luckily I was also gifted an ALC of the audiobook which REALLY helped. For this book I'd DEFINITELY recommend the audiobook format for sure! 

The Mercy Makers is a loooong con (emphasis on long) in which Silk (aka The Kitten, aka Iriset ne Isador) works her way into the ruling family to bring them down from the inside in order to save her father who has been imprisoned. 

The magic system within this world was very interesting and I enjoyed it very much in which there are strands that the architects use to create visuals and therefore masks/disguises within the world. The world building felt like a shock to me: either because of the superfluous descriptions, the info-dump style early on, or my just lack of "high fantasy" experience that it felt like work in the initial 25-30% of the book. 

The audio production itself of this book was great: the voice of the narrator, Emily Lawrence, was so easy to listen to and I appreciated her distinct enough voices for other characters. Lawrence's cadence and register fit perfectly with the vibe of a con-artist in a ruling-class setting. 

TL;DR: this book felt like a mix of The Mask of Mirrors (long cons) mixed with magic of Discovery of Witches (magic system built on weaving/threads of magic), and it would be for you if you want a slower paced, higher fantasy that still includes spice.

The Mercy Makers is a very queer fantasy that has strong religious and political elements, court intrigue, and a distinct magic system that is based around human architecture. I enjoyed how the magic and religion are interwoven into their lives. There is a lot in the novel that is very unique and I don’t think I have ever read anything quite like it. Everything is elaborately plotted and sometimes the details of each scene felt like they were taking over the story, so even though the atmosphere is lushly described the beginning can feel overwhelming. I feel like I would have found it easier if I was reading a physical copy, but I think the narrator, Emily Lawrence did a great job in helping to bring everything to life and I was invested from the start.

Iriset is the daughter of a crime lord and uses the guise of Silk, her underworld alter ego to help her fathers criminal enterprise. Iriset is a genius at architecture, especially the outlawed human architecture, which the empire has labeled apostasy. She regularly blurs the lines between faith, science, and transformation. The current empire is ruled by the brother and sister duo composed of Lyric as the Vertex Seal and his sister Amaranth, the Mooneater’s mistress. When her father is caught and sentenced to be executed, Iriset is also imprisoned, but is taken by the Emperor's sister as a handmaiden. Because Iriset challenges their faith and traditions by using apostasy, she is in direct violation of the Goddess Ahartè and her teachings. This creates tension between Iriset and Lyric because Iriset believes in the innovation of apostasy and what it can do for people and their world, while Lyric believes that it is a dangerous path that leads to corruption and the dissolution of their beliefs. It's hard getting into more of the story without spoiling anything because there is so much going on with rebellions, betrayals, and dangerous secrets galore. It was also a lot more sexual than I was expecting.

I think my favourite part of the book is the character development throughout. None of the characters can be categorised as being good or bad, there is so much nuance to their actions and the world they live in. It's hard not to feel sympathy for them, and understand even when they're not making the best decisions. Iriset is incredibly smart, talented, and just a bit ruthless, which stops her from being overwhelmed by the force that is Amaranth. Amaranth herself is strong and smart, using her political savvy to move others around like pieces on a chess board. Both women are fully realised and are able to exist in the same world without one overshadowing the other or being pitted against each other as a lot of women are in fantasy.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Mercy Makers and am so sad that I now have to wait such a long time for the next book.

I enjoyed The Mercy Makers a lot! It started off a little slow, but I got sucked in pretty quick thanks to the interesting magic going on in this story! I love learning about magic systems as the story goes/as the character learns more about their abilities. I also quite enjoyed the twists and turns - I stopped what I was doing entirely a couple of times because I was surprised and just needed to focus all my attention on the audiobook. Speaking of, the audiobook was fantastic! I really think Emily Lawrence did a great job bringing the characters to life, and she was so easy to listen to! I binged this almost entirely in 1 day, I didn't want to put it down and clearly recommend the audio. That being said, I could see how some might need to read along with the book due to the level of detail. I'm excited for book 2!

CW: sexual content, death of a parent, murder, racism, violence, terminal illness.

A big thank you to Hachette Audio, Orbit Books and NetGalley for the ALC. All opinions are my own.

The city that is the setting for author Tessa Gratton's latest novel was created when a moon fell to earth and left a massive crater. There is another moon, inhabited by a goddess, who watches over the city. The world used to be full of magic, called architecture, and practitioners experimented, healing, changing, and even creating beings of beauty and monstrosity.

A religion called Silence sprang up around this second, moon goddess, Aharté, which posits that all is as Aharté wills it, and any change to nature is wrong, and illegal. So, the engineered beings were seen as a step too far, and labelled apostasy and outlawed. The current empire, ruled by a sister and brother, the former a priestess, the latter the emperor, is orthodox in its belief in Silence, continuing to outlaw architecture for all but themselves and the wealthy. Architecture can be used for some things, but the rulers do not support architecture use on humans for things such as pregnancy or diseases or broken bones, or the transformation of a body in the case of body dysphoria. Also, everyone sports a mask to prevent the theft of their likenesses,

Under the guise of Silk, Iriset, a genius human architect, is absorbed in the thrill of her craft, and it's this constant striving that brings about her criminal father's capture and execution verdict, and her imprisonment. No one realizes that she is the legendary Silk, and she is brought into Amaranth's, the Priestess, household, where Iriset begins to understand the inherent conservatism of the ruling class, who benefit from non-human architecture, but prevent the vast and diverse population they rule over from similar advantages.

Iriset is determined to rescue her father prior to his execution, and gets to know Amaranth's inner circle, including a princess from another kingdom who is contracted to marry Lyric, Amaranthe's brother. While Amaranth has a more relaxed view of her religion, Lyric is a fundamentalist, and though he and Iriset have interesting discussions, he is not interested in expanding the boundaries of his faith or laws of the land.

When a shocking and sudden death occurs, this difference in the siblings comes to fore and Iriset finds herself in a difficult position, and one full of inner conflict. Iriset must maintain a fiction while finding herself unwillingly liking Amaranth and Lyric and wanting to remain in their cloistered world, even while still working towards freeing her father, and ultimately bringing the empire down.

Iriset is such a different kind of protagonist. She not only is self absorbed in the pursuit of her craft, but is terrific at it, and horny as heck, without any one of these attributes being a real detriment.

Gratton's world is complex, lush, breathtakingly beautiful, and full of inequality. The writing is dense, and the author provides a LOT of background on the world, its conventions and beliefs and practices. I sometimes got a little lost in it all, but thankfully the plot tightens up once the shocking situation occurs.

I want back and forth between the text and audio, and liked how voice actor Emily Lawrence inhabited Iriset, and Singix. Amaranth is nicely cold and ruthless, while Lyric comes off as reasonable, until he isn't.

I loved how unapologetic Iriset is about what she wants and likes and does and the world is fascinating. I would have given this a full 4 stars, except for how long the story takes to suddenly focus.

3.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley, Orbit Books and Hachette Audio for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This book starts off with such intense world building. Be prepared to learn a lot in a short period of time. I don't think this is a critique so much as a forewarning to be prepared to drink through a firehose about the realm you are about to enter. I wanted to get that out of the way first and foremost because that was something that hit me hardest and I found myself needing to reread several pages to ensure I understood what was going on.

Iriset is the daughter of a criminal underworld boss and few people know she has a secret identity as well. So when her father's lair is being raided, her sanctuary is unsafe and she and her partner/ bodyguard must burn out the nest to prevent the secrets from being exposed. However, Iriset is captured though not under the guise she is trying to hide, but is thrown in prison for being her father's daughter and for potentially having more information than she's letting on.

When a wealthy and affluent woman decides to spring her from prison and bring her under their wing, she sees an opening to perhaps bring down everything they have built from the inside. It's quite a good book and very intricate in the story being woven, but I do think it does itself a disservice by having so many moving parts and so much going on. For the first in a series, I think we could have still crafted an impactful story that would encourage readers to want to reach for the second, but it's not only think but cumbersome at times. I give it 4* because I do think it was a very interesting premise and the overall worldbuilding was good. I just wish we hadn't tried to put so much into one book because it was a bit hard to understand what was happening at times.

DNF at 25%: Unfortunately, this book was a huge miss for me. The concept itself is interesting: the daughter of a crime lord practices forbidden magic, and when her father is caught, the super hot princess of the kingdom (sister to the emperor) takes her as a handmaiden. The forbidden magic allows her to make alterations to the body, from doing fun things like giving people wings to fly to honestly important things like basically give fantasy gender-affirming care. The protagonist, Iriset, infiltrates the noble circles through becoming a handmaiden to save her father and possibly bring down the empire in part by making the emperor and his sister fall in love with her, but she starts to fall for them too. The whole thing is intended to have a feeling of sexual tension, intense politics, cool magic, interesting worldbuilding, etc.

However, where this book really fails is the writing. Tessa Gratton's prose is, in my opinion, not great on a sentence to sentence level, and her ability to communicate information is really lacking. In the former, dialogue scenes and even internal narration scenes often lack subtext on a thematic or emotional level—characters will say or think what they're feeling for the convenience of the reader and to an extent, themes are talked about rather directly on the page. I stopped reading not too long after a section where Iriset shouts "the nature of the empire is to consume!" You can get away with a line like that at particularly impactful payoff moments like a climax, but not just randomly in a scene that's meant to be building tension early in the narrative! And not on the regular like Gratton uses it. Moreover, a lot of scenes in the book are just dumping exposition about gods and magic and other things directly to the reader; there is not a huge amount of effort made here to communicate things well or interestingly, just to communicate them at all and keep going.

Honestly, the book had a lot of potential, but was written in such a disappointing way that I couldn't continue. I wish it was written better, because it really does have a premise and setup that I love, and I can appreciate that the characters themselves were pretty interesting even if the writing was not great.

The Mercy Makers is a breathtaking tapestry of magic, power, and sacrifice that gripped me from the first page. Tessa Gratton’s prose is lyrical and razor-sharp, weaving a story that feels both mythic and deeply human. The worldbuilding is rich and immersive, filled with gods, queens, and rebels, but it’s the emotional depth of the characters that truly stands out. Every choice carries weight, and the tension between vengeance and compassion pulses through every chapter. Bold, haunting, and beautifully told, this is the kind of fantasy that lingers long after the final page.

3,25/5 stars.

I really enjoyed listening to this as a audiobook. The only thing I felt was missing was a glossary of words mentioned in the story. Because imo there wasn't one I was a bit confused and lost at times but other than that it was easy to follow.

I quite liked the narrator. Her voice was soothing and I could've listened to her voice even if she was reading a shopping list. It was also well produced, nothing to complain here.

I really liked Iriset, the FMC. It's cool how she can create different magical disguises. I also liked the MMC. Their chemistry was amazing and this was surprisingly spicy, which I enjoyed. And by the end I liked the story a lot. Hopefully book 2 comes soon so I can read and/or listen to that too.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ALC.

I think this book is for a very specific audience. I really enjoyed it. I started with the audiobook, and glad I did or I might have DNF'd it. The writing style is really cool and very poetic. It's very descriptive, and the names can be a hard to pronounce.

The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job. I wasn't truly hooked into the story until 40-47% in when the plot really takes off. I think if this specific plot device happened earlier in the story, it might be more catching, but I wasn't truly hooked until this part.

I finished reading this book with the ebook. Having ADHD, I was definitely lost at some points, but went back and hybrid read with my eyes and ears and had a fantastic time.
I want Iriset to have the world. I think she's a very complicated and brilliant character, and I couldn't help but want her to tear down the world.

DNF at 8%

I was really intrigued by the premise and hoped I would love this book, but it just didn’t grip me unfortunately.

I did enjoy the narration.

The Mercy Makers is one of the most unique books I've read. The reader is kind of thrown into the world at the start and forced to learn as they go. This is a book that you need to take your time with and not rush to get through or else you'll miss out of important info. There is heavy worldbuilding in the beginning, which is to be expected since it is a fantasy book.. The magic system was fascinating and unlike any I've come across before.

What I liked most about this book was the author's writing style. I think that's what made the book most unique to me and kept me reading. I did a combination of reading the ebook and listening to the audiobook. The narrator did an amazing job on the audiobook and bringing the story to life. I'm glad that I had both the ebook and audiobook. There were times I needed to go back and reference a previous chapter and, while possible on the audiobook, it is a lot easier with the ebook.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the author's writing and am looking forward to the next book in the series!

I so badly wanted to like this book, especially after getting started with it and realizing the general blurb was misleading. This book releases during Pride month, and it has so much trans and non-binary rep that I'm shocked it wasn't included in, if not most of, the blurb. Unfortunately, I struggled to get into this book. It felt like we were thrust into book 2 of a series and were supposed to already know the main character and the world as well as its rules. The main character just felt flat, and I was so uninterested in the minor characters, let alone the main character's father, who was supposed to be in peril, but we had absolutely no attachment to him. I ended up not finishing this one because there just wasn't enough to pull me into the first half.
The audio/narration, however, was excellent. The narrator did their best to make the story interesting.

DNF @ 10%

Thank you to Hachette Audio & NetGalley for the chance to review this book.

Is it me, am I the problem?

The premise of this book had me intrigued but I found the execution confusing. The magic system is brought up regularly enough that it should unravel as smooth as silk (pun intended) - instead it loops around itself and weaves a web (also intended) but instead of a spider calling me 'some pig', I'm left here questioning my own reading comprehension.

It's a shame because the magic system - from what I could decipher - actually sounds complex and unique and I am a sucker for a new magic system but at least give me the information I need to follow along and fall into it.

The other thing that was confusing was the depictions of gender in the story - and again, maybe I missed some clues along the way (the book is written in a way where the author is saying a lot but also not, you know?). The FMC refers to people she meets as femme / masc forward and then assigns them gendered language based on that presentation. i.e. a femme forward character is now she/her.

I feel like there was intention to discuss gender fluidity and deconstructing gender stereotypes (or maybe I'm reading too much into it??) but it kind of loses all meaning when so far they've assigned all masc forwards he/him and all femme forwards she/her (and hasn't been corrected to say otherwise). There has only been one character that uses gender neutral pronouns so far but the FMC still commented on how they were masc forward which felt unnecessary.

Overall, I think there are some interesting premises wrapped up in prose that is purpled for purple's sake but I'm 34 years old and 19 hours is too much of my life to waste to try and figure it out.

I enjoyed the audiobook narrator - her cadence and tone were pleasant, even at 2x speed.

Oke so in the end I really enjoyed this one but you really have to invest some time because at first this is really confusing and maybe even quite a bit of info dumping. But if you just go with it and get through the first bit there is quite a good, interesting story.

Audiobook wise, I really like the narration. Even with all the info dumping the narrator really got me through it.