The other thing I found incredibly touching about their relationship is the degree to which communication plays such a significant role. Given that Undertaking also teases the foundations of a greater mythology, with Old and New Gods alike having partly shaped Tanria into what it is by the time we encounter it, I couldn’t help but think that Bannen has only just scratched the surface of the stories that can be told; sequel potential abounds here. You have some very relatable family scenes, a boisterous new sidekick/apprentice who pushes all of Hart’s grumpy buttons, a ridiculously funny scene-stealing talking rabbit! Naturally, it’s when she’s the most rundown that she just has to cross paths with her personal nemesis, Hart Ralston, a marshal who finds himself at the undertaker’s place more often than not thanks to the bodies he’s responsible for dropping off there.

Despite my qualms expressed above, I was still swept up by Mercy and Hart’s relationship when Megan Bannen wasn’t trying to fit them into marketing bullet points. I would say most were just noise, either for some attempts at humour, or for added conflict, and I only really actually enjoyed two (Alma and Pen) and, of course, the dog. I love how the story brings together two people who are struggling with loneliness and getting outside of their comfort zone. Thrust any combination of tropes, plot elements, and character types into the hands of ten different authors, and the journey to true love across the resulting books will be delightfully varied.For example, while the writing was mostly great and very intelligent, it could be a little cringy at times. When he met Mercy years ago, he was struck by her beauty but being the broken man/godling that he was, he totally screwed up their first meeting and managed to insult Mercy's life's work in just a few minutes and set them on a path of cold distain for years. Add this to the really cool magical world this is set in, and you’ve got yourself a pretty solid book. Hart is a six foot nine marshal that stabs zombies and drags their rotting corpses to Mercy, an undertaker who salts her dead and sings incantations over them before respectfully setting them off to their final destination.

The drawbacks to the world building for me come with the negative references to the old gods and the Unknown God, which I interpret as commentary on actual beliefs and cultural systems. The premise of Bannen’s The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy sounds fun—with two enemies mistakenly falling in love with each other anonymously while hating one another to each other’s face—even though it is highly derivative and formulaic. Enough is explained as you move through the book that you understand the basic contours of the world. I’ve never read one of Bannen’s books before, though I started The Bird and the Blade and have not yet finished it.

The writing was right up my alley, except for some parts here and there that I skimmed - don't ask me why, I couldn't even explain why my attention floundered at times. In her spare time, she apparently enjoys collecting graduate degrees from various Kansas universities. From Mercy’s rambunctiously loving if not always entirely helpful family to the extremely camp magic owl who delivers the mail.

Death plays an outsized role in the story, given the somewhat tragic zombies and Mercy's job as an undertaker—but it's handled with empathy and respect, and I came away from the book feeling pleasantly existential. First, the romance: again, on paper all the elements were there, but in practice they didn't come together--which is a shame, because it really was poised to be such a great romance. Hart is profoundly lonely, and struggling with grief, but he is also brave and committed to do the right things. I think anyone who's a fan of the light fantasy rom-com vibe that seem popular in witchy books at the moment would like this one.

Without the walls the two threw up between one another, Mercy and Hart get to know one another intimately as strangers, which in turn helps their romance blossom in the real world, once they discover each other, of course. He’s so hard on himself and so self-deprecating that you can’t help but want for his life to change so he experiences at least an inkling of happiness. They sit at two ends of a job process and are forced to interact with one another regularly, much to their dismay. Another blessing is that I deeply enjoyed all three of these ARCs even if they weren't all 5 ⭐ reads.