Mortal Things by Marie Lu
Publication Date: October 27, 2026
Summary From Netgalley:
Rose Lin Fairchild didn’t believe in gods, but one chose her anyway.
Rose despises Raven, the god of Death. His mysterious commands. His mercurial moods. His closed heart. But most of all, she loathes that she was forced to become his Harbinger, a human mercenary tasked to fulfill their god’s every want and whim. Still, she would do it again, because being a Harbinger is the only thing keeping her best friend alive.
When a murder rocks the world of the gods, Rose is suddenly thrust into the immortal realm’s spotlight as Raven’s heir. This is her chance to free her friend once and for all. But in order for her to ascend, she must first prove herself to the other gods—and the one person standing in her way is a fellow Harbinger.
Étienne Beauchard is notorious for his sly wit and charming good looks. Rose can’t stand that he is the one assigned to test her abilities, but as their initial hostility evolves into an intense attraction, they find that the gods’ secrets go deeper than they ever expected. Something is wrong in the immortal world, something that threatens to break their bond and engulf them all in war.
As Rose and Étienne fight to uncover the truth and trust each other with their hearts, they realize that everything hinges on the same question: How far would you go to save the person you love?
ARC provided by Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
I’m having a bit of a hard time writing this review, as I really liked the story, but never felt connected to the characters, which led to my not ever getting invested in the story. What makes it even harder is Marie Lu is one of my favorite authors and I hate that I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would. Still it is a fascinating world with an interesting magical system, and it explores a lot of good themes and does those well.
The story is told only from Rose’s point of view, which was fine, but I would have liked to hear what Etienne was thinking and feeling as well. Rose is a very lonely young woman, who has little faith in herself as a likable person. Her backstory of growing up in the foster system shaped who she is and how hard it is for her to trust anyone. She has found a family within the Harbingers, but still longs for a true connection like she had with her best friend Laine. I enjoyed watching her relationship with Etienne grow, although it did seem a bit rushed at the end. I loved Etienne and enjoyed his scenes with Rose. His backstory is also one of tragedy and pain inflicted by those around him.
There is a lot of secondary characters and it became hard to remember who was who. Especially with the gods, as they had untraditional names. Which harbingers belonged to them was also hard to remember. None of these characters felt especially fleshed out, even the ones who were pretty central to the story, which might be one reason I never really connected to the story on the whole.
The writing was beautiful and the setting was well done. I loved the urban fantasy feel to the whole story. There were many themes explored as well, such as belonging, finding your place in the world, family and friendship, trust and sacrifice as well as betrayal and love. It took an especially hard look at mortality and what makes us human as well. All of these themes helped to keep the story going. The pacing was fine, though a bit slow in the middle. The ending also felt a bit rushed and at times confusing.
Of course this is only my opinion, and might reflect more on what my mind set was while I was reading this one. If you enjoy urban fantasy that has an interesting magical system as well as the gods living among us, certainly give this one a try.
