I don't know why but I keep giving this authors books a chance even though I never end up rating them higher than 3 stars. This ones cover drew me in and I was hoping for a dark fantasy story and it just didn't deliver for me.

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This has been on my TBR pile for so long, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I really enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters change throughout the story was a great character development. The plot was great and kept my attention. I'm glad I got the chance to read this and will be on the lookout for more in the future!

“There’s an old Sea Witch saying that goes: If we kill all the monsters, mankind will take their place. Do you think that’s true, Frey?”

Frey and the other Boneless Mercies are basically mercenaries who travel around and get paid to kill people (usually) as an act of kindness, or mercy, to put them out of their suffering. Frey and her companions are unhappy with their lives currently and want something else. When a rumor of a dangerous monster makes itself known, the band of women decide to change their lot in life and take on an unknown monster that everyone else fears.

Basically, this was an epic questing story where some girls are heading towards an epic glory (or death) and find themselves doing random side tasks along the way. I will say that the pacing was a little off, at times meandering and other times confusing with past encounters thrown in, so if you let your mind wander at all you might not be able to keep up. Heck, I stayed focused and it was still hard to completely understand at times. For example, we get a memory of how some of the characters met, followed by passing out of drugs, followed by a group dream hallucination, and then day, but it was never really clear cut what was going on since transitions are iffy at best. Don't get me wrong, I found this fairly interesting, but it was still all over the place delivery-wise.

I did really enjoy the band of girls, more a made family then what basically was coworkers. I also liked that this was a standalone complete story that gave me a satisfying enough conclusion. I can see this being a great read for anyone who likes fantasy quests, strong women who have each other's backs, death and murder (be it merciful or vengeful) and a Norse mythology vibe.

I just couldn't get into this book and was left with a blah feeling at the end. The world-building was decent but I felt like it took a long time to understand the type of world we were being dropped into. I don't think this is odd with fantasy books but normally once the world is built it makes the work to get there worth it and I didn't feel this, this time. At times the book moved extremely slow and then at other times it felt rushed. I also felt like we missed a lot of the action. I did like that it was a mostly all-female cast of characters, with strong personalities. I also like the idea of a feminist retelling of Beowulf but I didn't even draw that connection for myself.

Please oh please give me more books about badass girls who support each other, take no crap, and don't argue about petty things. In an atmospheric, creepy book? Yes, please.

This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, there were some things I disliked, and overall, I just didn't feel strongly enough about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

I have not had the time or interest to get through this book, unfortunately. I requested based on the author and would love to get to it eventually.

The Boneless Mercies was very interesting and kept me interested to keep me reading. If you think interests it you then you should totally pick it up. I love the dynamic of the group.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher and netgalley. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Boneless Mercies

Author: April Genevieve Tuckolke

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Publication Date: October 2, 2018

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Pages: 384

Recommended Age: 15+ (violence and gore)

Synopsis: A dark standalone YA fantasy about a band of mercenary girls in search of female glory.

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are the Boneless Mercies—girls hired to kill quickly, quietly, and mercifully. But Frey is weary of the death trade and, having been raised on the heroic sagas of her people, dreams of a bigger life.

When she hears of an unstoppable monster ravaging a nearby town, Frey decides this is the Mercies' one chance out. The fame and fortune of bringing down such a beast would ensure a new future for all the Mercies. In fact, her actions may change the story arc of women everywhere.

Review: For the most part this was a good book. The plot was interesting and the writing was amazing. It was a fairly good Beowulf retelling.

However, I did think that the characters weren't well developed in this book and the world building was lacking. The fighting was also really simplistic and I wish the book challenged it's characters.

Verdict: A decent retelling.

I am still very much interested in reading and reviewing THE BONELESS MERCIES by April Genevieve Tucholke at some future date. I was unable to read the electronic copy provided by NetGalley prior to it being archived.

If you are a fan of Beowulf, then you may enjoy this feminist take on this age old tale, as reimagined in The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke. Four teenage girls and one boy goes on a journey to defeat a terrible monster but along the way cause mayhem and more. If you don’t like killing in your novels then you may want to avoid this book. I liked the authors’ take on Scandinavian lore and history. The Deathless Mercies is a new aspect for me that was refreshing even if their work was quite dark. The characters were interesting but I would have like to know some of the side characters better. There are slow parts that I struggled through to get to the ultimate battle which was what I was really looking forward to reading.

A group of four teenage girls known as the Boneless Mercies are growing bored with their way of life. They are growing weary of taking the lives of those to sick or tired to go on. Frey wants glory which is not something a Boneless Mercies does. They live only for the task they provide to the public. Frey wants to do something more meaningful in her life and the other Mercies are just as happy to tag along. When Frey learns of a terrible monster that cannot be stopped she believes this is just the task that the Mercies need for glory. Frey is not entirely convinced they will be successful but they will die trying to defeat this monster.

Frey is the narrator of The Boneless Mercies. She is conflicted about her path. She doesn’t believe all that she was taught. There are several times along her journey that Frey realizes that she’s being used and instead of being mad about it she believes that she is setting another journey in motion. Frey has a male companion in Trigve. He is not a Boneless Mercy but he travels with them as a healer. The relationship between Frey and Trigve is confusing and complicated.

I really liked Frey’s companions Ovie, Runa and Juniper. I would have loved to delve into their personalities a little deeper, even though Runa was perhaps the most vocal with her quick temper and outright protestations. Ovie is quiet and reserved but she has no problem stepping up when she needs too. She seemed the most childlike but she was in fact the oldest of the group. Then there is Juniper, the Sea Witch. As the magical one in the group, she uses her gifts to help along the journey to defeat a crazy monster and defend her witches against a powerful foe. I really loved these ladies and I really liked how each of them were completely different in their personalities.

The story is quite dark like the original. In this story, you’ve got teenagers killing people of all ages. Although they don’t take any enjoyment in it. I felt the story took a while to pick up steam and then when they finally decide to go on the journey it takes up a good 85% of the book before they finally get to the final battle. Things did happen on the journey but it seemed like it was mostly filled with talking so there really wasn’t much action.

Overall, I really liked the setting and the characters. I didn’t really like how slow the novel felt as I was reading it. I really liked how the monster was portrayed in the end. I felt like there was a theme of how everyone can be monstrous in their own ways and in any shape or size. If you like stories on the dark side, definitely pick this up.

Excellent fantasy YA with a compelling plot. I purchased this title for our library based on my reading of this galley. (Review is short because it's been a substantial period of time since I read this book, but I wanted to give feedback and thanks.)

I was late reading this book - but I am kicking myself that I didn't majorly prioritize it! This is a great YA fantasy standalone novel. Since it's now published, I've recommended it to so many teen patrons at my library and all of their feedback has been positive also. This has become my favorite book by this author!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book (even if I didn't read it in time for publishing).

Loved reading this! I wasn't sure what to expect, but this book is so much more than I first thought! So good!

This was a frustrating book. I actually really liked the plays on Norse mythology and the systems of magic established, but I needed more to get into it. I love that it's a standalone -- I'm so sick of series that don't need to be more than one book -- but the plot felt very rushed, I didn't have enough time with any of the characters to really feel invested in their struggles (though I liked them all and wanted to get to know them better!), and the history of this society was just sort of brushed aside. I was also really interested in the Witch War plotline (Mother Hush vs. the Cut-Queen) but the fascinating themes in that particular subplot were just... dropped. So much potential.

Set in an alternate Scandinavia, The Boneless Mercies has been touted as a gender-swapped quest fantasy loosely based on Beowulf. But given it’s a loose reinterpretation and the original may not be familiar to many YA readers, let’s leave that aside, because The Boneless Mercies exists very much as its own unique narrative, set in its own unique world and with its own intriguing cast of female characters. Beowulf was very much a man’s story—its female characters were either monsters or trophies. But here, Tucholke ensures that her female characters are everything: heroes, killers, witches, leaders, lovers, warriors. And yes, even beasts.


Young women who belong nowhere else band together to form the Boneless Mercies, a group who are hired for mercy killing—whether it be for a terminally ill loved one, or an abusive partner, or even, at times, an assisted suicide. The women travel across Vorseland, living off whatever little they can make, often sleeping rough and never a part of mainstream society. But they are a tightly knit, supportive group, who fall asleep together in heaps like puppies, share whatever food they have, divide their work equally, easily. It’s a strange life, and it’s the one they know but not the one they want anymore.

The story is told in the first person by Frey, the leader and most ambitious of the Mercies. She often makes references to the heroic Vorse sagas of her childhood, stories she’s heard and is enamoured by. It’s clear that she desires to be more than a mercy killer, is bored of the lives the Mercies lead, and aspires to more adventure, more action, more life than the death trade offers. Though her mentor had insisted “only fools want to be great. Only fools seek glory,” Frey cannot settle for the sad, slow nomadic life of the Mercies, proclaiming that though she maybe just another nameless Mercy girl, her “blood [sings] of glory.” She admits that she enjoys dealing out death to those who deserve it most, though the young women are not meant to enjoy the mercy killings they commit: “but the daughter-beaters, the wife-beaters, the ones who were cruel to animals, the ones who were brutal and selfish and hard … I liked killing them. I took pleasure in it.”


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And so the Mercies, driven by Frey, decide to set aside their death trade and hunt out the monster of Blue Vee, a massive fearsome beast that has been ravaging the area, so that they may earn the reward offered and use it to live whatever new lives they want to now lead. On their way to the valley where the Blue Vee beast has almost entirely destroyed a jarldom, the Mercies must navigate a few other obstacles, arm themselves with weapons greater than their small mercy daggers, and gather as much information as they can to help their hunt. From being silent death dealers upon request, they must become the aggressive warriors and hunters they never have been before. In doing so, they also find out who they are, and what they truly want.

What slows down this story on occasion is the fact that many parts of the plot feel like a set up for a bigger arc, something to be taken up again in another book. That, of course, is how epic multi-book fantasies work, but in this case it just feels a little stilted. One subplot that requires the Mercies to complete a smaller quest before they can attempt to hunt down the Blue Vee beast is clearly part of a larger story that exists outside of this book but comes across here as entirely unsatisfying. It feels rushed, much too easily accomplished and vaguely unsatisfactory. It does, however, leave the reader wanting to know more, which is probably the point. A subplot including a cult like coven lead by a child queen who self flagellates to garner her magic is a terrifying idea, and one that may have deserved a little more page time.

Frey’s voice is steady and lyrical, as befitting a Norse epic. It can be a little too stoic at times, which is surprising for a 17-year-old (though perhaps not a “Vorse” teen who confesses that she is not a crier?), but then again, these young women are wise beyond their years. The Boneless Mercies has a strong microcosmos at play, the world building is succinct and earthy, not so vast or sprawling that a reader may lose sight of the landscape entirely. This is a lovingly written epic with heart, one that does not remove the human element from the heroic. Frey and her girl gang are fierce, ambitious and know that to have purpose is everything. They know that “nothing is simple … Not quests, not heroes, not beasts, not glory,” but that won’t stop them.

This is a retelling of the classic monster tales however in this story the bad ass heros are women. They're incredible and fearsome. Im in love with it.

I deeply enjoyed this book. The characters were wonderfully developed, and the worldbuilding was so very intricately done. Everything I read made me want to read more.

What an atmospheric and stunning YA fantasy! The Boneless Mercies feels familiar like a fairytale, but completely fresh. The dark tone and allusions to Beowulf were absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend this one.

Either I've forgotten all about Beowulf or this book is very fast and loose with it's definition of retelling. It's too short for what it's trying to accomplish. Additionally, I've learned that April Genevieve Tucholke's writing style is not for me because I'm left wondering what is going on for much of her works, including this one.