Review: Fury (Mercy series #4) by Rebecca Lim

Fury is the latest book in the Mercy series by Rebecca Lim, hot on the heels of Exile and Muse. Released on March 29th, it's the final book in what has been a hugely popular YA series. It was sent to me by Harper Collins in exchange for a honest review and while I spotted a lot of flaws, I can't fault the superb prose and description.

Plot summary - Hell hath no fury like an angel scorned…

Heartbreak. Vengeance. Truth. Betrayal.

Everything that has happened to Mercy over millennia has made her who she is. Now she and The Eight wage open war with Luc and his demons, and the earth is their battlefield.

Ryan’s love for Mercy is more powerful than ever, her guiding light in the hour of darkness. But the very love that sustains her, now places Ryan in mortal danger.

Two worlds collide as Mercy approaches her ultimate breathtaking choice.

Hell hath no fury like Mercy …

So, for readers who haven't read the first three in the series, Mercy was betrayed by her ex-lover Lucifer and cast down from Heaven, like the other angels who disobeyed God. To protect her, the other archangels kept her hidden on Earth by allowing her to inhabit the bodies of unsuspecting human women. In Fury however, Mercy has her own body back and can finally let the boy she loves, Ryan, see her for herself. Unfortunately, Lucifer (Luc) needs her to wreak the devastation on Earth he craves, and will stop at nothing to get her back.

If I were to plot my opinion of this book on a graph, it would look pretty much like one of those road signs indicating a hilly area. I really, really enjoyed it to begin with. The opening scene is intense - you're dropped right into the action as Mercy tries desperately to flee from the demons and the atmosphere of sheer panic almost jumps from the page. I just loved it.

Then the story continued and it was more than acceptable, if a little slow. It's actually got wonderful prose, and I don't mean 'for a YA book.' Rebecca Lim is obviously very talented at putting together beautiful works of fiction. The descriptions of Italy and Paris are vivid and the dialogue is natural and unstilted. It's just written very, very well.

But by the last third of the book... God, how I loathed it. Honestly and truly, I've never been so offended by the awfulness of a book. It's the characters that did it, I think. You know how everybody has that one person that they really, really hate beyond the depths of all reason? Their partner's ex-girlfriend, a particularly condescending boss, that crazy woman who's always on the bus? Well Mercy herself does it for me, fictional or not. She's just awful.

The angsty melodrama is beyond all understanding. I'm not sure they had a single conversation that didn't involve wringing hands and sobbing. Mercy wants Ryan to leave her and go live a normal life because she's just not worth it and he'd be better without her. Ryan wants to tag along and pretty much just sulks because she's all magical and sparkly and he's... well, not. It gets really, really old after a while - the same conversation repeated a thousand times. I got so mad at their constant crying and bitching that my hands were literally making little claw shapes as I read.

I don't really see why the romance was necessary. The story could have been just perfect without it - Luc would still have been seeking Mercy while she continued to hide in the bodies of human women, plotting to overthrow him. Their relationship just dominates the book - the angels vs demons side seems to be merely a sub-plot to the romance. It's just so over-done.

The thing that really got me was that the entire situation with Luc trying to take over the world could have been avoided by Mercy just going back to Heaven. It's stupidly simple. This isn't even a major revelation - it's just how it is, which is accepted from the beginning. It's not even A Thing. But she won't because it's not fair. She'd rather stay on Earth, thank you very much.  It makes no sense. Her own stupidity and stubbornness over the fate of the world. Obviously.

Throughout Fury, the other archangels are constantly telling Mercy that Ryan needs to go home because he's going to get in the way and get hurt. But he's always there. Why is he there!? He has absolutely no use and does nothing. At some points, his sister and her boyfriend tag along too and apparently the angels think this is just fine. Why!? What use can they possibly have in a war between angels and demons? NONE! Go home.

It's also the most-anticlimactic ending I've ever read and, once again, it could have happened at any point during any of the four books and the whole thing would be over. So that's the second way I've pointed out that would have solved the entire problem. It just doesn't seem like the last book in a series - there's no clear objective, no build-up to a final battle... they just kind of slowly blip from point to point with no clear compass.

I know, I'm sorry. I really am. I sound so ungrateful and whiny, and I've actually been trying not to. I think it irritated me so much because it started out so well - I loved the whole mythology aspects. It managed to use the angel concept effectively without really being a religious book which was clever, especially the way the original Bible stories were slightly twisted to fit. But unfortunately the huge plot holes and characters I really just wanted to stab in the face absolutely ruined it for me.

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