‘The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy’

I must admit, I gather a lot of new-to-me books and authors based on a good cover and a good book jacket spiel. This is how I got into ACOTAR, how I discovered Emily Wilde, and goes all the way back to the discovery of Pride and Prejudice when I was a pre-teen. I am rarely disappointed. A few months ago I purchased a book on the basis of front cover and jacket blurb. I had never heard of it before. Within a few hours a friend had commented on Instagram that she loved the book. Which is how I found myself reading The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen less than 24 hours after I purchased it. This has not been common for me—I tend to hoard—but it is becoming something I am doing with frequency and I am interested to look over my reading habits of the past year with that in mind. What I didn’t know until I was a few chapters in was that The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is a light fantasy reworking of The Shop Around the Corner with several significant homages to the ’90s classic version You’ve Got Mail. Quite frankly if you enjoyed that movie without being obsessed with it, and don’t mind a bit of fantasy, then you will adore this book.

Hart Ralston is a Marshal tasked with patrolling the wilds of Tanria, specifically for strange beings called drudges that seem to inhabit bodies at will. Tanria is the once home/prison of the old gods, created as a geographical bubble and host to all manner of wilds and creatures, just not dragons, as Hart often tells people. Marshalling does not have to be a lonely job, but Hart makes it one. Recently assigned a new partner, he struggles with the memories of his last, and how to move forward. Mercy Birdsall is hardly ever alone, but is just as lonely. She’s been keeping her father’s business Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat, waiting for her brother to finish college and take over. Spoiler alert – he doesn’t want to. Hart is one of her most bothersome and frequent clients. Everyone wants to believe they know what Mercy is thinking, but no one ever really asks her.

After a particularly exasperating encounter with Mercy, Hart pours himself out in a letter addressed simply to “A Friend.” Much to his surprise, and the work of magical beings who were once messengers to the gods, called nimkilim, a letter comes back in return, and an anonymous friendship is born. Yes, folks, we all know what’s coming here. The dangers from Tanria grow along with this relationship, and the family dynamics that come into play from both sides, threaten to unbalance everything. The nimkilim are perhaps one of my favorite running aspects in this book; their personalities and species are just so diverse and entertaining.

The owl stood on the welcome mat as he did every morning, six days a week, his white feathers garbed in a particularly dapper emerald waistcoat and silk trousers, an ensemble that seemed remarkably out of place in a dusty border town like Eternity.

It’s romance, it’s demigods, it’s enemies to lovers, it’s Sci-Fi. There are talking rabbits and owls that drink and deliver the mail. There is an amphibious transportation network. And there is coconut cake. It’s a complete mash up of so many things I have enjoyed separately over the years, and somehow it works and leaves me wanting more! To top it all off, Mercy is curvaceous, and Hart works out how to feel all of his feelings. Thank goodness The Undermining of Twyla and Frank is coming out this year from the same universe. This forthcoming title has been described as “When Harry Met Sally, but with dragons!” and I have no words to describe how excited that makes me. Twyla and Frank are mentioned a handful of times in the first book, with one extended scene involving them quite a bit, but I would not have pegged them as the focus of a sequel and I am curious to see where it goes.

The worldbuilding is exceptionally good, and while the character interactions of Hart and Mercy read much like an everyday relationship, the fantastical is present in everything.

It had been a long time since Hart had viewed the landscape of Tanria with anything resembling wonder. Now he gazed at the bizarrely symmetrical triangles of mountains in the distance and the sweeping pink hills rolling before them. He listened to the lavalike burbling of an ambrosial brook and the jarring trill of birds and the comical burps of animals that lived and died only in this strange land – an off-kilter world created by imprisoned gods with nothing better to do.

Hart is a Demigod who does not know who his father is; Mercy has a special knack for sending people off to The Salt Sea. All of the relationships presented in this book are real and tangible. The family dynamic of the Birdsalls is so well played out you can imagine Thanksgiving dinner at their house, interrupted by Hart and a dead body, of course. The introduction of a side romance between Hart’s new partner Pen and Mercy’s brother Zeddie is delightful, and this really is no spoiler, because you can tell it’s going to happen as soon as you meet the two of them. And I definitely will need a third book about them, with a fourth about Mercy’s sister – though that would preferably be a prequel given how her story line plays out.

One of my favorite aspects of this story was the role of undertaking in their society. There is a whole world and subculture around Funerary services. Everybody is required to have a funeral service in place in preparation for their demise, and wears a key around their neck assigning themselves to one of the undertakers. While this is mostly because of the threat of the drudges, there is a whole religion in the background of this society that has faded but still peeks through. For the funeral there is special cloth, salt, incantations, and a trip across The Salt Sea where you are welcomed by one of the gods of death into the world beyond. It is utterly fascinating.

This book came out in 2022, The Undermining of Twyla and Frank comes out on July 2, 2024, and I hope that we won’t have to wait long for a third volume. This is a nice cozy, light fantasy, light romance, bit of smut but not too much, all round good read.