Review - Frail Human Heart by Zoë Marriott

Today, I finally wrote my first book review for a very long time. I may be a little biased as the author is one of my absolute favourites, but, anyway, here are a few of my thoughts on the last book in the Name of the Blade series...

Here's a very brief re-cap of the series so far:

When Mio first discovered the katana hidden away in her parents’ attic she could never have thought it would be the trigger for a war filled with mythical monsters. After the events of Darkness Hidden, struggling under the weight of her grief and against the lure of the katana that threatens to overpower her, Mio must end the war. But she can’t do it on her own…

Prepare yourself for plenty of action, tears, horrifying choices and mythical monsters. Lots of them.

Gorgeous front cover...

Just as in the first two books that precede it in the Name of the Blade series, Frail Human Heart (originally titled 'Frail Mortal Heart') is bursting with amazingly detailed pieces of description, a ship-load of emotional roller-coasters and characters that never back down from a fight. Zoë Marriott doesn’t just ramp up the action and the tension though, she also builds up the relationships between the characters and is totally unafraid to break them down and put them back together again in a way that completely undermines everything you (and Mio) thought you understood.  As the last in the series, it definitely doesn’t disappoint.

I won’t go into too much detail (because of *spoilers*), but particular highlights for me include: the kitsune and their world, the memory scenes, Mio and her family relationships, the beautifully integrated Japanese mythology that underpins everything (you can tell a ton of research went into this book) and, though it might be a little spoiler-y, I have to add Ebisu’s jellyfish and the dragon to this list too – the scenes with her had a gorgeous dreamlike quality.

An interesting detail of this book - and Darkness Hidden – that I haven't really encountered before is the ‘Previously in…’ section at the start of the book. For some readers who are reading all three books quite close together this could seem annoying and unnecessary, but I found it quite helpful and less annoying than having the previous events in the last books constantly reiterated as the story could continue faster and build up tension without having to slow down to reflect on past events.

Overall I loved this book, as I have loved all of Zoë Marriott’s since I first discovered The Swan Kingdom. It’s a real departure for her as an author that I was initially a little wary of as I wasn’t sure how the mythology was going to blend together with London as a gritty, urban setting, but it really pays off and shows how she can be equally at home in urban fantasy as she is in high fantasy.

...and there's some pretty stuff inside FHH too!

I’d thoroughly recommend Frail Human Heart and the rest of the Name of the Blade series to readers who loved Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series as it has a similar mixture of urban and fantasy and nail-biting action scenes - or to anyone who has even a little interest in Japanese mythology.

And, if you’ve read and loved Frail Human Heart because of those Japanese influences and you want to read more of Zoë Marriott’s novels, I’d definitely recommend Shadows on the Moon as your next book to curl up with!

For more information on the Name of the Blade trilogy, go to Zoë's blog, which you can find HERE. You can also follow her on Twitter @ZMarriott

A selection of what's on my bookshelf

Do you like urban fantasy or high fantasy? Or both? If you have any books you'd like to recommend, please leave them in the comments!

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