Grave mercy
Record details
- ISBN: 054762834X
- ISBN: 9780547628349
- ISBN: 9780547628349
- ISBN: 054762834X
- ISBN: 9780547628349 (hardcover)
- ISBN: 054762834X (hardcover)
- ISBN: 9780544022492 (paperback)
- ISBN: 0544022491 (paperback)
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Physical Description:
549 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
print - Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2012.
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny. |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Young adult fiction. Young adult fiction. |
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Available copies
- 34 of 35 copies available at Bibliomation.
- 1 of 1 copy available at Southbury Public Library. (Show preferred library)
Holds
- 0 current holds with 35 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hagaman Memorial Library - East Haven | YA LAFEVERS (Text) | 31953130880696 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Hall Memorial Library - Ellington | YA LAFEVERS, ROBIN HIS FAIR BK 1 (historical fiction) (Text) | 34037129278992 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Janet Carlson Calvert Library - Franklin | YA F LAF (Text) | 33345000216283 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Jonathan Trumbull Library - Lebanon | YA FIC LAF His Fair Assassin Bk.1 (Text) | 33430000895219 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Kent Library Association - Kent | Y LAF (Text) | 33410120857281 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Kent Memorial Library - Suffield | YA FICTION LAFEVERS (Text) | 32518141934250 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Killingly Library | YA/F LaF (Text) | 34040130388214 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Lyman Memorial High School | FIC LAF (Text) | 33431124545037 | Fiction | Available | - |
Mark Twain Library Association - Redding | YA LaF (Text) | 33620121670406 | Teen Fiction | Available | - |
Milford Public Library | LAFEVERS Robin (Text) | 34013076968190 | Young Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Electronic resources
School Library Journal Review
Grave Mercy
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Gr 9 Up-Ismae's mother tried to kill her while she was still in the womb and her village believes that she is the child of Death. After escaping an arranged marriage, she finds sanctuary in the convent of St. Mortain where she will be protected. The sisters serve the old gods and believe Ismae is blessed by the God of Death to be his handmaiden. Over the next several years, Ismae is trained to be a fighter, a killer, and a seductress. During Ismae's most important assignment, she is sent to the high court of Brittany to do her god's bidding-but she's not prepared. Although she has the ability to kill a person in many ways, when she discovers that those she is told to kill do not display the mark of death and those she thought she could trust are telling lies, she questions everything around her, even her heart. Will Ismae know who to trust? Is she really the daughter of Death? Robin LaFevers' fantasy (Houghton Harcourt, 2012), the first in a planned series, is set in a world where gods interact with people and use them as their tools. Erin Moon is a brilliant narrator, giving the characters distinct voices and drawing listeners into the intrigue. A good addition to high school and public library collections.-Elizabeth L. Kenyon, Merrillville High School, IN (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
BookList Review
Grave Mercy
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
*Starred Review* In the late fifteenth century, Mortain, the god of death, has sired Ismae to be his handmaiden. She will carry out his wishes by working through the Convent, where she has found refuge from a brutal father and husband. After learning the Convent's wily warfare and womanly arts, and being apprenticed to Sister Serafina (poisons mistress and Convent healer), 17-year-old Ismae is sent to the high court of Brittany, ostensibly as the cousin (aka mistress) of the Breton noble Duval but, in truth, she is there as a spy. Her tacit assignment is to protect the young duchess by assassinating Duval if he proves to be a traitor, a charge made more difficult because of the couple's attraction to each other. LaFevers has written a dark, sophisticated novel true to the fairy-tale conventions of castles, high courts, and good versus evil, and spiced with poison potions; violent (and sometimes merciful) assassinations; subtle seductions; and gentle, perfect love. With characters that will inspire the imagination, a plot that nods to history while defying accuracy, and a love story that promises more in the second book, this is sure to attract feminist readers and romantics alike. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With a $100,000 marketing campaign, including national print, online, and social-media outreach; a video trailer; and a vintage T-shirt promotion, the publisher is pushing LaFevers' novel in a big way.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Times Review
Grave Mercy
New York Times
April 8, 2012
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company
GETTING bundled off to a nunnery is rarely a prelude to adventure. But St. Mortain is no ordinary convent. The sisters there train young women to be assassins, "handmaidens to the god of death." The reverend mother puts it bluntly: "We kill people." In "Grave Mercy," the first book in a planned trilogy by Robin LaFevers, the convent's newest initiate, Ismae Rienne, 17, has a worldview shaped by abusive men: stone-throwing boys, groping teenagers and a violent father who married her off to a pig farmer for three silver coins. Pledging loyalty to St. Mortain, Ismae reflects: "I weigh the choice that is no choice at all. To be removed from the world of men and trained to kill them, or to be handed to one like a sheep." The nuns tell Ismae she is special, one of death's own daughters, with an inborn immunity to poison. They teach her to brew lethal concoctions while schooling her in history, anatomy, horsemanship and the "womanly arts." They equip her with an arsenal of killer accessories, from a garrote tucked in a fancy bracelet to a stiletto that hides in a stocking. The nuns then send Ismae out into a fictionalized version of 15th-century Europe with an assignment: go undercover at the high court of Brittany, where "Game of Thrones"-style intrigue is stirring, and await orders to kill. Yes, like Katniss in "The Hunger Games" and Katsa in "Graceling," Ismae is a female assassin. But what if Ismae has traded one kind of servitude - a forced marriage - for another? What if some of the people she's ordered to kill don't deserve to die? Worse, what if she falls in love with one of her targets? Despite Ismae's ugly past and her preoccupation with murder, "Grave Mercy" isn't heavy reading. It's darkly funny, a fantasy based on the rough contours of history, one that develops into an adventuresome - albeit predictable - romance. Ismae's deadpan wit allows LaFevers some of her best lines. "I do not care for needlework . . . unless it involves the base of the skull," the young assassin explains. On her blossoming romance, she later remarks, "I comfort myself with the knowledge that if Duval "ever feels smothered by me, it will be because I am holding a pillow over his face and commending his soul to Mortain." Humor and crisp writing keep "Grave Mercy," which stretches past 500 pages, from dragging, even though some of the longer scenes at the royal court feel slow compared with life at the convent. "Get thee back to the nunnery!" readers may be tempted to cry. Even as "Grave Mercy" charts Ismae's progress toward self-possession and maturity, it occasionally stumbles. Late in the story, Ismae learns that Gavriel Duval, the man she loves, is dying from a toxin in his bloodstream. She also discovers that she has an extraordinary power: the ability to cure poisoning through physical contact. She's never had sex before, but initiates it to save his life after finding him barely conscious and ready to die. (Though a literary curtain falls over the act itself.) This intertwining of sex with duty is an odd plot choice, one that feels out of sync with the fully realized person Ismae is becoming. And who is that woman? Someone who can question authority, act with integrity and take independent ownership of her life. In a lucid moment, Duval explains the role well. "I know that what our saints want is not always made clear to us," he tells her. "Sometimes, it is their wish for us to flail and struggle and come to our own choices, not accept ones that have been made for us." Jessica Bruder is the author of "Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man."
Publishers Weekly Review
Grave Mercy
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Middle-grade author LaFevers (the Theodosia books) makes an outstanding foray into historical romance with an enthralling recreation of 15th-century Brittany. At its center is 17-year-old Ismae, a badly scarred peasant girl who, fleeing her thuggish husband, is taken in by the convent of St. Mortain, whose patron saint is the ancient, pre-Christian god of death. Believed to be Death's literal daughter, blessed (or cursed) with powerful gifts, Ismae is trained as an assassin, highly competent with all weapons and poisons. After two successful missions, she is dispatched to the court of Anne of Brittany to keep track of Duval, the duchess's handsome and tempestuous illegitimate older brother. Reluctantly, she falls in love with him, knowing full well that she may someday be called upon to end his life. Rich in historical detail, well-realized characters, political machinations, and enticingly prickly scenes between Ismae and Duval, LaFevers's complex tale incorporates magic both sparingly and subtly. This powerful first volume of the His Fair Assassin series should attract many readers. Ages 14-up. Agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Horn Book Review
Grave Mercy
The Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
The results of her mother's failed abortion caused Ismae to be born with scars that show her true father, one of Brittany's "old gods": Mortain, the god of Death himself. When Ismae is spirited away from a marriage that promises only abuse, she lands up at St. Mortain's convent, where she trains to become an assassin -- the true vocation of a daughter of Death. When the abbess assigns her a job at the court of the Duchess of Brittany -- protecting the beleaguered young duchess, but also keeping an eye on dashing, possibly treacherous Gabriel Duval -- Ismae is thrown into a life far beyond her peasant upbringing. Needless to say, she negotiates secret passages, glam gowns, court intrigue, and cross-class love with success. This light romantic fantasy, set in an alternate, fictional, quasi-late medieval Brittany, has all the elements of fanciful historical romance with the added frisson of a heroine who's an assassin. Written in the present tense and with a turn of phrase that segues unabashedly from semi-archaic British ("bestir") to contemporary American ("fallback position"), this might well appeal to fans of Libba Bray's Rebel Angels books. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.