The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Lots of love with some light zombies and a thought provoking look at death and grief.

This was a delight. It reminded me of a Miyazaki movie in the best way, while also being a little steampunk and a little western. The world Bannen created feels new and old at the same time. The characters are likeable. The setting is unique.

My only complaint is that I would have loved more description. It has a lot of that thing in fantasy/sci fi novels where you take a familiar object and adapt it to fit the world you're building while it still serves the same function, but without descriptions of what that's supposed to look like I had a really hard time picturing things. My brain jumped all over the place trying to decide what people, places, and objects looked like only to have to start over 50 pages later when we got another small detail. Everything ended up just sort of fuzzy around the edges for me.

But the heart of the story is pretty solid and by the end tears were shed. I enjoyed it from the start but by the halfway point I was truly hooked.