The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
disclaimer: this is a rant review because I thought this book was shite.
I think the most glaring issue with this book is that it was overstuffed with so many elements that jarred against one another. The tone was all over the place, flitting from witty rom-com vibes to high-stakes existential fantasy and back again. It felt like the author wrote two proposals for this book deal. One, a classic You’ve Got Mail-inspired romance set in a mortuary, and the other a star-crossed lovers tragedy set in a zombie-infested fantasy world. Maybe the publisher was like:
hmm… they’re both a bit lacklustre on their own buuut if you were to combine them, it could be kind of a vibe???
Maybe that’s what happened and that’s how we got here, or maybe there was just an editor’s strike at the publishing house.
I’m struggling to think of who I would recommend this book to. I think romance readers would find the sheer number of tropes unnecessary and detrimental to the main characters’ chemistry. However, I think the shoddy world-building and under-explained lore would frustrate fantasy readers even more. As a reader of both genres, I found this fantasy world impossible to grasp and the characters’ romance hard to invest in.
There were, of course, a handful of elements that I did like. Bannen’s writing excelled while depicting the (adorable) side characters, and in the more intimate, dialogue heavy scenes of the book. The exchanges between Mercy and her family felt very authentic, making me feel all warm and cosy. I also found myself crying during one of penultimate scenes of the book which was entirely the work of Bannen’s incredible, heartfelt writing.
One star for the cover (absolutely stunning) and half a star for the last few chapters (the side characters carried the ending).
Thank you so so much to Orbit for not sending me an ARC meaning I had to buy this with my own spendoolies.
Please check out Mina Reads’ summer wrap-up video for a great (and way more articulate) take on this book!
