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God of Mercy is set in Ichulu, an Igbo village. Their adherence to tradition has allowed them to evade the influences of colonialism and globalization. But the village is reckoning with changes, including a war between gods signaled by Ijeoma, a girl who can fly. As tensions grow between Ichulu and its neighboring colonized villages, Ijeoma is forced into exile. She is imprisoned by a Christian church. Suffering through isolation, she comes to understand the truth of merciful love. God of Mercy is a novel about wrestling with gods, confronting demons, and understanding one’s true purpose.
Welcome to Read This Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that should absolutely be put at the top of your TBR pile. Recommended books will vary across genre and age category and include shiny new books, older books you may have missed, and some classics I suggest finally getting around to. Make space for another pile of books on your floor! Also, check out our new podcast Adaptation Nation, all about TV and film adaptations of your favorite books!
Today’s pick is a book that came out last year that combines some of my favorite things: poisonous plants, Greek mythology, a creepy mansion, and a magical Black girl.
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Our protagonist is Briseis, a literal magical Black girl. She lives in Brooklyn with her two adoptive Moms who own a flower shop. Since a young age, Briseis has had an affinity for plants. More than an affinity, actually. She straight up has magical plant powers. She can grow an entire rose bush from a single pistil, but she doesn’t know a lot about her powers and because she tries so much to restrain herself, it often makes her tired and dizzy any time she uses it. If she is out and doesn’t keep her powers shoved down, trees will lean toward her and plants she walks by reach for her. Only her moms, who she calls Mom and Mo, know about her power but they don’t know much either. Because Briseis keeps her powers restrained, she also has no idea of everything she is capable of. Early on in the book she starts to discover something that I’m not going to give away because it had me on the edge of my seat.
As you can imagine, having such powers is really distracting. She’s grown apart from the only couple of friends she has and her high school grades are not good. On top of that, the rent is going up on the building where their apartment and flower shop is and money is already tight. Coincidentally, an estate attorney shows up saying that Briseis has been left a huge home and everything in it and the many acres it is on. She has been left all this by her birth mother’s sister, Circe, who has died.
Briseis and her moms decide to go check out this mysterious home in this tiny town hours outside the city. They figure it might be the answer to their financial problems and also, out in the middle of nowhere, maybe Briseis can give her powers a stretch. Big creepy home in a small town they’ve never been to? Recipe for weirdness for sure. She makes somes unexpected friends. She finds a secret garden which only has more secrets. The house, too, is full of secrets to be discovered.
I could not put down this book and fair warning, it ends in a cliffhanger and the sequel, This Wicked Fate, is supposed to be out in June of 2022.
That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
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