Assassin's Heart

by Sarah Ahiers

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

Initial thoughts: At its core, I found Assassin's Heart fairly entertaining but I think I'm a little more forgiving because this had the makings of a good book, albeit somehow fell short.

Linguistically, Assassin's Heart could have done with another round of editing. The whole semantics of "Family before family" and explanations of obvious meanings that could be inferred of "clipper" and "traveller" were sorely misplaced. And really, any book that gets published with, "I released a breath I hadn't known I had been holding," and "I released my own breath, not even aware I'd been holding it," slipping through surely couldn't have been ready.

Then there were the masks. They had no rhyme or reason. Each mask was unique, making it possible to identify the wearer. Might as well have tossed them. On hindsight, could this idea have stemmed from Greek theatre and worship of gods through masks? I did get that sense but maybe more time could've been spent on explaining how masks were an act of worship towards the goddess Safraella rather than superfluously explain words.

A mild morbid curiosity carried me through the audiobook. Safraella was the goddess of death and those who followed her accepted the lawful killings executed by the clippers/assassins. This means death motivated a lot of the plot. This should've made Assassin's Heart a heart-stopping book. Alas, it wasn't. There still were a few more holes that needed to be plugged. Although, the ghosts did add to the atmosphere.

Basically, I liked the idea of religion as the driving force behind every act. Motivations differed according which god someone worshipped and how much or little regard they had for any god. The whole notion of Safraella demanding deaths but granting reincarnations or resurrections gave Assassin's Heart a sinister undertone, which I thought rather original.

Too bad Lea was so incompetent at times, I really couldn't understand why she should have the favour of the gods to survive a fire that killed everyone else in her Family. Oh, and I'm glad I listened to the audiobook rather than read the words on a page — the capitalisation of Family would've driven me nuts.