Tittle           : The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Author        : Megan Bannen

Pub Date    : August 23, 2022

Pages          : 336

My Rating   : ★★★★★

The Summary

Hart, a marshal, is in charge of policing Tanria's odd and mystical wilderness. Hart's job is punishing, and all he has is time to reflect on his loneliness.

Mercy is never given a quiet minute. She has been working alone to keep Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sourpusses like Hart, who always seems to pop up when she least expects it.

Hart finds himself writing a letter to "A Friend" after yet another frustrating encounter with Mercy. He receives an anonymous letter in response, much to his astonishment, and a shaky connection begins.

If only Hart was aware that Mercy, the person who irritates him the most, has been receiving his soul. The unlikely correspondents also get closer as the threat from Tanria gets bigger. But will their budding romance endure the fateful realization that their pen buddies are each other's greatest nightmares?

My Review

Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of zombies, but fortunately, I completely connected with this book within the first few pages and knew I'd love it the moment I met the main protagonists. Mercy and Hart were wholly original, wholly unforgettable, and wholly lovable despite their imperfections.

I predict that people will have differing opinions of this book because it has components that appeal to various tastes while still catering to a very specific taste.

In addition to thinking about the emergence of cozy fantasy and romcom fantasy and how arbitrary genre norms are partly eased in works like these, I did appreciate the aforementioned points as I read the book. And I think that's a good thing. The idea of the book, in my opinion, is to be an odd outlier that stands apart from both romance and fantasy, therefore it is pointless to read a book like this and expect it to handle those genres in the way those genres are frequently handled. It makes me think of the novel Strangeling.

The writing is engaging and pleasant. The characters are quirky, unsettling, yet endearing. Along with intelligent banter, humorous mishaps, otherworldly figures, and many other significant themes, the story also features an action-packed tale of love, loss, heartache, expectations, family strife, mystique, chemistry, and desire.

Overall, this novel was incredibly unexpected and innovative. There were many excellent passages, many funny and odd people, and a conclusion.

My ratings score:

★★★★★ Fantastic! Made me go through a lot of emotions & the entire book is incredibly beautifully done! 

★★★★ Memorable! Despite its shortcomings, this book was incredible and taught us a lot. 

★★★ Good work! Nothing particularly remarkable, but still nice.

★★ Meh... Mediocre with great room for improvement.

★ Extremely Poor.