This book is really remarkably similar to Jay Kristoff’s ‘Nevernight.’ (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…)
In that book, an orphan girl joins the religious order of the Red Church to be trained as a deadly assassin, and we follow her progress, learn about the painful secrets of her past, and see her deal with the more quotidian issues of coexisting with her colleagues as she works to attain an elite status in her religious order.
In THIS book, an orphan girl joins the religious order of the Sweet Mercy Convent to be trained as a deadly assassin known as the Red Sister, and we follow her progress, learn about the painful secrets of her past, and see her deal with the more quotidian issues of coexisting with her colleagues as she works to attain an elite status in her religious order.
Of course, there are differences. The main one is in tone. Nevernight was much funnier; this one uses a more classic epic fantasy style. I still think that a fan of one would like the other – although you may not wish to read them too closely to one another to avoid a sense of deja vu. I know many of the tropes are common to the genre, but the extent of the similarities is really quite a coincidence.
I personally like this kind of story; so I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it – although I do think it could have used a few more assassinations and a bit less ‘school story.’
Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own.
readingtrance 