I received an advanced reading copy of this book via Netgalley.
 

I went into this one with high expectations but ultimately was disappointed. The Witcher meets Squid Game is an interesting pitch, and The Serpent Called Mercy does attempt to deliver a fantasy full of monsters, ambition, and the grit of urban underworlds. Unfortunately, what sounds like an exciting blend of intrigue and violence instead becomes a frustratingly uneven read, where ambitious themes and promising ideas are undermined by poor execution, thin world-building, and a central message that I found frustrating at best and naive and short-sighted at worst. 

The story alternates between cozy, domestic moments in tearooms around the city of Setgad and arena combat against horrible monsters brought in from outside the city, a juxtaposition that could have been compelling if handled deftly. The problem is that neither aspect fully lands. The action sequences especially fell very flat for me. These should be the beating heart of the novel but most of them consist of the protagonists sitting on platforms above the monsters they're meant to be fighting, talking through their plans in complete calm until Lythlet puzzles out the solution - usually by making use of something she's learned about said monster from a book. It put me in mind of someone reading a Dungeons & Dragons monster manual entry about a bear and then expecting to be able to win a fight against one. 

The cozy elements of the book fare a little better, but even then they're undermined by tonal inconsistencies. One fairly major subplot revolves around child sex trafficking and the sexual abuse of children, and the references to it are introduced with the subtlety of a brick. Characters mention it in passing without ever really reflecting on the true horror of it, and it's incredibly jarring when set against the cozier, warmer moments. And even those cozy moments are set against a backdrop of abject poverty and spiralling debt that's never really explored. The result is a story that feels unsure of what it wants to be - soft, comforting wish fulfillment fantasy or dark, gritty drama that explores the evils of unchecked capitalism. 

The book also struggles with charaterisation. Lythlet, our protagonist, is positioned as an intelligent, capable heroine, but her immediate mastery of every skill and situation robs the story of tension and her character of any sense of growth. In her first arena battle she manages to do something that hasn't been done by anybody in decades, unlocking a well of ancient magic that grants her the power to rewrite time itself for 8 seconds. This is barely ever mentioned again, and it feels like this should have been the climax of her time in the arena rather than something that happens casually once or twice and is then forgotten. Her only flaws seem to be that she struggles to understand social cues, and that she has a stutter - but the stutter is mentioned a handful of times in the opening chapters and then forgotten entirely. 

This is a symptom of a common problem in the book. Things are mentioned and plotlines are seeded only to never turn up again. A major subplot throughout the novel is the existence of a shady vigilante character called the Phantom, who has been stealing from the rich of the city and is a wanted criminal. Lythlet starts to be drawn into a web of conspiracy theories about the Phantom's existence, and it seems clear that this will be an important element in the final act. Then it's forgotten entirely, with no payoff whatsoever. 

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the book is its political naivety. The story’s central message seems to be that oppressive systems, whether they involve abusive employers, mob bosses, or the structural corruption of the city, can be defeated just as easily with a stern talking-to as with violent action or revolution. It places a strange and uncritical faith in the rule of law, despite its depiction of a city riddled with crime and inequality. In the current political climate, where systemic injustice often demands more than polite appeals to decency, this message feels incredibly naive. There's certainly a place for this sort of soft wish fulfilment, but perhaps not in a novel dealing with violent mob bosses and child sex slaves. 

This is a long list of complaints, but it's not all bad. Every time I felt like abandoning the book something would come along that kept me gripped - some revelation about the world, or a detail that I thought was interesting and wanted to see explored more. When it works well the juxtaposition of cozy fantasy and gritty underworld violence is really good. It's just a shame that the focus of the novel seems misplaced, and that it's so inconsistent. I'm also unsure who this is for. It's pitched as an adult fantasy novel but it reads much more like YA or NA, and I think that had I known that were the case I likely would have skipped it. As it is, I think it's too inconsistent for me to be able to recommend it.