Naomi Hughes's Reviews > Mercurial

Hi there! I'm Naomi Hughes, author of Mercurial. I wanted to use this space to say a few things I didn't get to say in the book itself, and also to post a content advisory.

First: this book means so much to me, in part because it's actually a reimagining of one of the first manuscripts I ever wrote nearly a decade ago when I was first starting out. I wrote my soul into it over the years: a boy grappling with his god, a volatile princess navigating her own vulnerability, and a ferocious assassin with family issues. This book and me, we've been through a lot together--and now I'm thrilled to get to share it with you!

Now, on to the content advisory. I'll be as thorough as I can, but I'm human and might forget things (or might have a different opinion of what merits a content advisory than you do), so this list is probably not all-inclusive. But it will be as inclusive as I can make it! I will hide spoilers so you'll only see spoiler-related advisories if you want to. :)

Just as a note, this book does have a lot of violence due to some of its themes, but it's not super graphic or grotesque, and it doesn't have any horror tones or gratuitous violence. This story is all about hope and redemption, and how sometimes you have to go through the worst of the darkness to find the light. Accordingly, I do portray that darkness, but it's not what the story is *about*.

I also want to point out that this book does have religion as one of its central themes, so if you find elements of that triggering (such as religious extremism, fundamentalism, literalism, martyrdom, etc.), this might not be the book for you. That being said, this is definitely NOT meant to be a "preachy" book, but rather explores and questions faith in a more philosophical and hopefully authentic way. It's also not meant to represent (or denigrate!) any specific religion, merely to explore and question elements of organized religion that can be harmful in pretty much any context.

Content advisory:
-Poisonings
-Parents intentionally putting teen children in dangerous situations
-Torture (not overly graphic--(view spoiler)[a protagonist is tortured with fire magic, which involves a lot of pain and burnt hair and clothing, but no graphic wounds, as the magic attacks mostly internally (hide spoiler)])
-Stabbings (swords and daggers)
-Lots of descriptions of blood
-(view spoiler)[Patricide (hide spoiler)]
-(view spoiler)[Parent planning/attempting to kill their child (hide spoiler)]
-Mentions of, and on-page attempts at, assassination
-Attacks by a wild animal
-Drowning
-Religious martyrdom
-Medieval-ish prison conditions are described
-Executions by fire/incendiary magic (not too graphic)

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you love this story as much as I do.