Tag: sarah reviews

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…

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Publication Date: April 4th, 2017

Date Started: January 5th, 2019

Date Finished: January 21st, 2010

Recommended By: @thoughtsontomes

Acquired: Audiobook from Audible.com

Content Warnings: Racism, violence, child and animal abuse, Stockholm Syndrome

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Good: The world in which this book takes place was really inventive, and it was interesting learning bits and pieces about it throughout the entire book, rather than in massive infodumps. I also really have to commend the characterization in Red Sister. For one thing, the cast is almost entirely women, and unlike other fantasy books by men, I thought it was very well-done and realistic–there are no moments in which I thought the female characters were oversexualized, cliche, or in other ways cringeworthy. In fact, a major part of the book features the main character’s conflict against a man who sadistically enjoys hurting girls. There is only one scene in which outright misogyny is expressed, and it was by a character we’re meant to dislike. Not only did Lawrence write women well, he also wrote children well. Given that the protagonist was only 9-11 years old in the book, she never read as though she were obscenely mature for that age. Battle-hardened and traumatized, yes, but her logic and behavior all made sense for that age, as did the logic and behavior of her peers. Though I admit it feels as though it’s two separate books packed into one, the pacing was tight and I was content enough to experience the world with Nona that I didn’t mind how long the book was. 

The Bad: Given that the book is about a convent of assassin nuns, there’s very little in the way of assassination that happens. It still wasn’t entirely clear to me what the nuns are training for, other than perhaps supporting the Chosen One. It’s badass, what they do, but the reasoning behind it remains vague as of the end of this book. Perhaps it’s explained in future books a little more clearly. I’ll also say here that this book is not drive by plot. It’s very episodic, which I was only really okay with because the characters and world carried the story on their own. If you’re coming in looking for an overarching plot, though, this isn’t the book where you’ll find that. 

Representation: This book does all right as far as representation goes, but only in certain areas. None of the main characters in this book are people of color, at least until Zole and Yisht appear. As members of the Ice Tribes, Zole and Yisht are very clearly coded as Inuit or otherwise Arctic indigenous people, and the way they’re discussed in the text makes me uncomfortable at times, because they’re frequently Othered and mistrusted. There are people of color in supporting roles, but they don’t appear often. Disability, however, is represented in a variety of ways, with a very important character having a deformed leg; another missing a hand; one being deaf (or nearly so); and so on. How well these varied disabilities are presented is not my place to say, but overall it was good to see them on the page. Finally, there’s some queerness that shows up, with Sisters Apple and Kettle being in a relationship and Nona admitting to having a crush on a fellow novice. Given Nona’s age, though, this doesn’t manifest on the page, though it might in future books. 

Favorite Line: “A book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one. Treat them with respect.”