I read this many moons ago but there is something that’s calling me to reread the His Fair Assassin trilogy. Robin LaFevers’s Grave Mercy is a historical fiction young adult fantasy novel rife with political tensions. In a time when women had no autonomy, Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, a convent where the sisters serve an old god. Here she learns that the Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Are you intrigued?

If you’re a fan of Kristin Cashore’s Graceling realm, then you will find great similarities with character development, female characters and immense enjoyment in this world. There are deadly assassin nuns, shifting political landscapes during a time in which France was still divided and an action-packed introduction that hooks you in. There are some incredible descriptions and Ismae isn’t the worst protagonist (though she certainly forgets that she can do far more than just use her femininity to get information – not to mention she’s a skilled killer and should have no trouble dealing to anyone that tries to get in her way or attempts to get too close).

The key term I would like to remind you all of is that this is YA. The politics is mild though on the heavier or darker side than most YA books, but it isn’t as complex as it could be. The action, and book as a whole, has milder language and description in regards to death than I have read in other YAs (the dark fantasy sub genre tends to be more descriptive in its horror and violence). Moreover, the romance is a little heavy-handed and the relationship development is minimal given how immediate their attraction to each other is. We also have a rather interesting dilemma to address with this book and many historical fictions and that is word choice.

It can be really difficult as a historical fiction writer to set your stories in a different time because how we use language changes regularly. Not only that, but phrases and ways of talking and thinking evolve with each decade. How someone sees the world and sees others changes as the social norms change. Language can be very hard to get right with a contemporary book, so imagine the weight of such a task when your book is set fifty years ago, or a century ago, or, as with this series, roughly six hundred years ago. There are poor word choices, out-of-place phrases and of course this is not how dialogue or monologue would have been used back then. We haven’t even touched upon the geographical impact on language and words yet, so that’s a whole other layer to this issue. But before you start to nitpick historical fiction books, especially YA historical fiction, ask yourself this – would I want to read it if it was linguistically correct? Doesn’t that create a divide between the characters and the reader because, after all, the reader didn’t grow up in 15th century France and Brittany?

Let me know what you think about linguistics in historical fiction books and if it is something that can ruin a book for you.