The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke-- A book about bad-ass warrior girls

The Boneless Mercies

When a crew of Boneless Mercies (a tribe that travels their lands being paid to kill people to end their suffering) tire of the death trade, they decide to give it up to try to earn the bounty on a beast that is tormenting Blue Vee.

They journey through harsh landscape towards a mission that no man has been able to conquer.  After this, they'll either be renowned heroes or dead.

I don't read Fantasy-- ever really. Just wanted you to know that because it probably makes my review less reliable??  I don't know what interested me about this particular Fantasy.  Maybe it was because it's a standalone?  Maybe it was because the synopsis says it's "A dark standalone YA fantasy about a band of mercenary girls in search of female glory."??  Either way, it wound up being the first Fantasy book I've read this year.

I definitely think I am going to write a post describing to everyone my reading process with this book.  Because I don't read a ton of Fantasy, it's hard for me to wrap my head around having to learn about a new world.  When I read Contemporary, I just have to worry about what the characters are up to-- I understand how 20-21st Century planet Earth works.  In Fantasy, I have to spend a lot of the beginnings of the books THINKING and UNDERSTANDING-- and apparently, I've become lazy when it comes to braining.

So, because of all that stuff, and because of the way this book starts, I almost DNF'd.  The beginning is SLOW and not because I'm not a Fantasy-pro.  I feel like most people will find the beginning of this a tad boring.  It takes a while before the general action picks up & waiting for that had me thinking I wouldn't be able to finish this book.

I'm happy to say I stuck it out and this book got good!!!  It's total girl-power, boss-bitch stuff.  There's a gang of 4 females (and one dude, but he knows his role) who decide to journey to fight a beast and there is ZERO question that they wouldn't be able to do it because they're women.

I definitely got into this book and the friendship in the group had me totally attached to all the characters.  It also had me TERRIFIED because I was so attached to these characters!!  I didn't want anything bad to happen to any of them!!

The storytelling in this book is what really got me.  I knew the author was good at telling a tale-- it was sort of one of my complaints about Wink Poppy Midnight, it felt too much like a fairy tale to be real.  But here it TOTALLY worked.  This feels like a real fairy tale... if there was a fairy tale about bad-ass warrior girls on a journey to slay a beast and save their world.

OVERALL: Cheers to my first Fantasy book in FOREVERRRRR.  Once this story got going, I really liked the storytelling and the way this group was a family to each other.  If you like adventure and mythology/fairy tales/folklore, this should totally go on your TBR!

Date Published: 10/2/2018
How I got this book: Thanks to Macmillan for providing me with an advanced copy to read and honestly review
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating: 3.5/5

Character: Runa
Book: Sadie by Courtney Summers

• I feel the same pain in Runa that Sadie projects.  I also feel like she would relate to Sadie's fearless journey.