Mercy
Catherine Miller
3/5
Set a couple of decades after humans first arrived on a distant planet, the survivors of the crash have been reduced to living in squalor at a camp provided generously by the Arterians. Prim was sick of living in said camp and offered herself as a wife to an Arterian, most laughed at her but Rykkon saw an opportunity. As the village outcast, he would have remained alone for the rest of his life. With Prim, he could have a family.
It had a lot of awkward moments, and I really feel like it could have benefited from Prim's POV. It made her feel like more of a side character rather than the other half of the romance. Rykkon was a cool character, but it was difficult when we were looking at the events only from his limited viewpoint. It was weird because it was supposed to be about both of their quests to fit in somewhere and yet we're only getting his opinion. It also kind of made Prim feel callous, I understand her life was extremely rough but she just felt so unfeeling.
I also felt as though it dragged at times. I really liked the first two hundred pages, it was interesting to see them both acclimating to this new life and I felt like the central themes of belonging resonate outside of science-fiction. Then it got boring and then I felt like nothing was fully resolved, and if it was it was done in the last twenty pages. A fun premise for science-fiction, like Avatar, but not enough world-building.
It just barely hit three stars for me, it had it's sweet moments but could have been better. If I had gotten Prim's POV I think I would have understood things a lot better. As it is, it wasn't deep enough for me to love it.
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