Misericorde – Book Review

Genre: Post-apocalyptic fantasy

Content warnings: Descriptions of torture, sexual assault

Misericorde Plot Summary

The angel Tzadkiel believes that mercy still exists in humankind. He’s been allowed 100 years to prove his theory, or else the final horseman of the apocalypse, Death, will be allowed free reign on Earth. However, captured and tortured by The Protectorate, it’s hard to imagine a place less likely to provide evidence of mercy than The Bastion. With his century almost up, can a humble scullery maid restore Tzadkiel’s faith in humanity, and save him from his unhappy circumstances?

My Thoughts

I was sent a copy of Misericorde for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

Misericorde is the first book of the Mercy series, by Cynthia A. Morgan. It’s a post-apocalyptic fantasy, revolving around two main characters. Tzadkiel is an archangel, on Earth in physical form to determine whether or not there’s anything worth saving of humanity. He’s only been allowed 100 years to prove that there’s a shred of mercy remaining among the human race. Lourdes is a scullery maid in The Bastion, where she survives on scraps scavenged from the leftovers of feasts for more important people.

Those are our two protagonists, however the third-person perspective sometimes shifts over to Lévesque. The captain who was responsible for capturing Tzadkiel, and now oversees his torture.

The story jumps around a little in terms of timeline, we get some minor flashbacks to cover Tzakiel’s capture before his storyline catches up with Lourdes. We also see some background on what happened when the first horseman, Pestilence, travelled the Earth.

Misericorde is a slow-moving story

The writing is very detail-oriented, so it takes a long time to move through a scene. I liked the sense of immersion this provided, although I could have done with a faster pace at points. The changes in perspective also feel like they slow things down at points. There were a few times, particularly in the first third of the book, where plot developments or solutions to problems were set out but not followed up on for what felt like ages.

The pace wasn’t an issue for the most part, and it definitely picked up towards the end of the book. Although I did feel like not much had happened by the time we actually got to the end! There were also some things that, in contrast to most of the plot points, come completely out of nowhere. One of these is a startling rape scene. While not all that graphic, it doesn’t have a lot of lead-in, and definitely took me aback when I was reading.

Characterisation in the story

I liked the main characters well enough while reading. None of them feel like they have a lot of layers to uncover, although it could be that there’s greater exploration of some of them later in the series. Lourdes is nice, her impulsive niceness being basically her defining characteristic, which makes her well suited for Tzadkiel. The angel has, we learn quite early, the ability to prevent himself from being tortured at any point if he so desires. But because he’s determined to see his mission through to the end, he holds back, tolerating the pain and indignity day after day. It’s an interesting decision, and one that we see him struggle with periodically throughout the story.

Some of the supporting characters seem a little inconsistent in their characterisations. Specifically, in the things we’re told they do or do not approve of, or the level of empathy we see them exhibiting for the main characters.

Misericorde is a little short on world-building for my liking

Fantasy is one of my favourite genres. There are a lot of reasons for that, but high on the list is the world building. I love getting to explore a new universe in my fiction, learning the rules that govern it, the way daily life plays out for its inhabitants. Considering how much detail we got in Misericorde, I came out with surprisingly little understanding of how the world works.

There are some sections that talk about the downfall of humanity, and the effect the first three horsemen have had on the world. It paints a picture of a world ravaged by climate change and pandemics, which unfortunately doesn’t feel quite as distant from real life as it used to! We get some sense of how life goes in The Bastion, but not a lot to contextualise it within the wider setting of the story. The idea of escaping is out of the question, Lourdes makes that clear from early on, which perhaps is why she doesn’t bother thinking about what things are like beyond these walls? It bothered me a little, though.

To sum up…

Misericorde is a dark fantasy with a hopeful heart, and in between the horrific descriptions of violence there are some very sweet moments. I’d have liked to see more character depth and world building, but if you want a fantasy story in which basically kind characters have to survive some horrible challenges, this is a detail-rich story to immerse yourself in.

Check out Cynthia A. Morgan’s Amazon page here!