Review : Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗜 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝘂𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲, 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗮𝗿.

• Release date : April 3rd 2018
• Publishing house : Ace books
• Series : Book of the Ancestor
• Pages : 415
• Book 3 : Holy Sister

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Spoilers ahead

If you want to read my review for the first book, head here

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Characters :

Nona Grey : Nona was a great character in the first book and she lives up to it here ! I loved the relationship between her and the demon (Keot) she got from killing Raymel. It was dynamic, troubled and so on. As a demon, the only thing Keot wants is to kill people and he whispers nasty ideas into her ear to force her to kill. He can also take control of her body if some conditions are met which could prove devastating if he’s left unchecked. But as the story progresses, I think that they begin to tolerate each other and Nona even starts to regret his absence. I was quite sad when Keot « sacrificed » himself to let Nona and her friends flee.

Spend too long watching the long game and the short game will kill you.

Abess Glass : I think Abess Glass’ point of view was a very welcome one ! Whereas Nona is more hot-headed, Abess Glass is calm and wise. It was a good respite from the maelström of action during Nona’s chapters. Even if her chapters were still nerve-wracking as I was eager to know what was going to happen to her as I thought she was going to get killed.

Story :

The first few pages helped me out to remember what had happened in the first book as I had read the first volume almost a year ago !

We pick up Nona’s adventures right after what happened in Red Sister. Then, there is an ellipsis of two years during which Nona enters Mystic Class !

The greatest threat to any faith is not other faiths or beliefs but the corruption and division of its own message

In this new class, Nona has to deal with another bully and her friends : Joeli, a rich girl part of the aristocracy. She stops at nothing to see Nona expelled from the Covent as it would surely mean her death because of the grudge some people had against her in book 1. The Covent in itself is also targetted by the Inquisition who sent several members to pry into their lives and try to undermine Abess Glass’ authority. Apart from being bullied, beaten and so on, Nona and her friends have been trying to get to the place where their friend, Hessa, died to protect the shipheart from Yisht. They discovered some cool underground passages but navigating them is hard and dangerous. But Nona makes one big mistake which sees her expelled from the covent to fend off for herself. Hopefully, several of her friends and teachers go after her to protect her from the family she annoyed.

But war is coming as the artificial moon has been losing its power and other nations are looking for somewhere to live as the ice is slowing destroying their territory.

« The greatest threat to any faith is not other faiths or beliefs but the corruption and division of its own message. »

Concerning the pace of the book,, let’s say that there is two parts in this book : Nona in the Covent and Nona in the wild/Sherzal’s palace/Tetragode. The first part was calmer, we were just following Nona’s ruthless school life while the second part was non-stop action.

Friendship has a very important place in this book. Nona and her friends all stand up for other. Even some of the teachers have built strong ties with the novices and are willing to die to protect them. I was even more surprised about Zole. I didn’t think she would recognise Nona as her friend and I was glad that she thought so !

Those novices are my friends and I would die for them. I would face a terror for them that I haven’t the courage to stand against on my own behalf.

Mark Lawrence ends up his book with a cliffhanger which made me want to read Holy Sister almost immediately ! His prose enabled me to depict each scene vividly and that’s one of the things I like about Mark Lawrence.