Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Grey Sister

As I first started reading, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get into this one as much as I did with Red Sister and I would end up disappointed. Despite the introduction summarizing the important events of the previous book (which is a thing I think every series should do), I started off feeling a little disoriented and disconnected. There were apparently some things that happened at the end of book one that did not get mentioned in book one but have a massive effect on Nona now, and there was also a two-year time jump to contend with.

Luckily, the feeling passed, and within half an hour of starting the book I was fully drawn back into Nona’s world.

If you don’t already know that Underestimated Protagonist is Absurdly Powerful is one of my favorite tropes, you must be new. Also, that’s a solid half of the reason why I love this series – because Nona is full of rage, the rage gives her power, and she is the Most Absurdly Powerful person in terms of raw ability to inflict injury and death. The fact that she’s tiny and about fifteen years old is a bonus. In this book she’s finally started to admit she has friends, and I love her and I love her friend group. Even Zole, who was mostly a minor antagonist in book one, is starting to become an enjoyable character.

Nona is also not the only point-of-view character, either. Most of the story is hers, but there are plenty of diversions to cover Abbess Glass and what’s going on with her. Nona’s parts were definitely my favorite (because let’s be honest, I love my furious and violent daughter), but Abbess Glass’s parts were short and interesting enough to keep me engaged until the story went back to Nona.

This book introduces several new antagonists:

Nona’s new reluctant headmate, who keeps right on the line of entirely-antagonist and maybe-we’ll-become-friends-along-the-way
Joeli, a novice in Nona’s new class who is a classic mean girl but infinitely more frustrating because she keeps telling lies about Nona and getting believed
Sherzal, the emperor’s sister, who doesn’t show up in person until the end but is doing a lot of politics stuff that affects the plot

Now that Raymel Tacsis is dead, the rest of the Tacsis family has taken up the “torture Nona to death” goal, so she’s still contending with them, just different family members now. And there’s also the Noi-Guin assassins, who aren’t exactly new antagonists but get a lot more active in this book.

And can we take a moment to appreciate that 98% of everything that has happened so far in this series is because nobles couldn’t stand the idea of a nobleman facing consequences for attempted murder? Because if they hadn’t had such an issue with a nobleman facing consequences, Abbess Glass might not have taken Nona at all, and there probably would be many fewer dead nobles by this point. Just saying.

This series is great. It’s full of magic, a dying world with a rich history that’s completely relevant to the plot, a cool religion that is thoroughly included because this book is about nuns, politics that isn’t boring mainly because Abbess Glass is five steps ahead of everyone else, a great cast of characters who are interesting in their own ways, and Nona, who brings in action-packed violence and is very, very good at killing. One scene in this book actually got my adrenaline pumping. It’s action-packed and thrilling and manages to make nun lessons just as interesting as fighting an assassin organization. I am very excited about book three.

Content Warnings

kylieqrada's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Everything I loved about the first book plus the added intrigue of Keot?!?!?!? I am absolutely hooked.

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