TITLE: Coup de Grâce
AUTHOR: Una McCormack
PUBLISHER: Titan Books
RELEASE DATE: Kindle – June 30, 2024 (USA / CA / UK)
Hardcover – April 23, 2024 (UK), June 14, 2024 (CA), June 30, 2024 (USA)
PRICE: Paperback- US $17.99 / CA $23.99 / UK £9.99

Having grown up on the Dear America series due to a history-loving sister and father, I’ve read a number of young adult diary-entry / epistolary fiction. While the style offers a fantastic tool to maintain a very particular distance while observing inner thoughts and how someone coming-of-age processes their emotions in trying and unusual times, McCormack opens Annie’s point of view with an unapologetic drawl, flashing forward with minimal descriptions. Her immediate ‘no one but God may judge me’ attitude may strike some folks the wrong way. It reminded me of who Mal expected Shepherd Book to be, and the dangerousness of that absolutism matches what we saw in those folks who attempted to burn River as a witch.

It was a risky move starting with an outsider perspective, and I can’t say it worked. My eyes glazed, finding the rambling drawl of Annie’s monologue way longer than necessary to cover the bases intended. Within two or three pages, McCormack had given clearly shown Annie’s character, her father’s position on Abel, Abel’s position with the Core and everything that involves, and the circumstance at hand. Annie’s mother came from the Core, dying prior to her father and resulting in Annie becoming more involved in her father’s law practice. They were a well-off family, and her father gave generously to those in need, suggesting he’s a good man. Unfortunately, his killer belonged to a larger gang, and like most, if not all, planets and moons outside the Core, there’s not much power behind the law, so knowing the wheels of justice won’t move her way, Annie takes on the hunt for her father’s murderer herself.

McCormack’s overly drawn-out prose continued into the sections focused on the crew of the Serenity, leading to scenes which started out strongly in the voice of the characters involved before stumbling and becoming uncharacteristically stilted. The tone felt more like Faulkner than anything we’ve seen before in this Whedon-verse, which left me wondering where the author drew the line between classic western cliche and the less stilted quick-turn dialogue more common to Whedon’s writing style.

Audience

McCormack relies on the earlier book in the Firefly series, which have received strongly positive reviews. Anyone who has seen and enjoyed the television show or the movie, Serenity, should start at the beginning. If you don’t enjoy Big Damn Hero or Life Signs, you likely won’t enjoy Coup de Grâce.

As the bulk of the book doesn’t come from the perspective of our main crew, there are some low reviews who don’t consider it to fit within the main storyline or even fully be a Firefly story; however, seeing our heroes from a client’s perspective offered a similar feel as to when Hazel saw Percy Jackson for the first time and thought he seemed like a Greek god or how Son of Mine / Brother of Mine monologues the fate of himself and his family while describing the Doctor.

Successes and Failures

As McCormack wrote the majority of the book from Annie’s perspective, the weight of the entire story fell squarely on her shoulders, and while she had the potential to be a fantastic character, she ended up being a rather frustrating sort instead. Entire threads on Tumblr, Reddit, and beyond have discussed how being annoying can be a greater character flaw to a reader than most, and Annie’s willingness to do whatever it takes certainly flushes her character out, but it doesn’t do much to prevent her from verging into annoying. Frankly, she came across as rather spoiled.

Simon and River came from privilege, but both showed virtues and flaws alongside an understanding beyond their own desires. Out introduction to Simon follows a similar character flaw where his stubborn determination to save his sister puts the cast at risk and his repeated determination to put her safety above all else forms an interesting counter to Annie’s eagerness for revenge, but while he and River both prioritize each other above almost anything else, they acknowledge and attempt to prevent themselves from causing harm to those around them. Because of this, I was willing to give Annie the benefit of the doubt, hoping she’d walk the same line.

While Annie does redeem herself to a degree, the overly purple prose along with the stilted dialogue and incredibly predictable central issue, which I can’t bring myself to call a plot twist, ultimately leaves this novel a story I’d suggest skipping.

Final Score (3 out of 5 Stars)

Whil the story expands on the world of our favorite space western, the majority of the novel comes from an outsider’s perspective, leaving us mostly at odds with the Serenity’s crew, who are the heart and soul of the whole series. Single-mindedness doesn’t have to be the death of a character, but when a character flaw goes almost entirely unaddressed without any growth throughout what is likely (hopefully) their only appearance in a series, it chips away at the nuances of the character until they appear one dimensional.

Extended series novels like this one also often feel like fanfiction, which is an absolute pity as I’ve read several Firefly fan works that provided just as much world development but with far more interesting new characters.

In the end, I was hoping somebody would shoot Annie by about halfway through the book because she had no care for who she trampled to get what she wanted, so she fit pretty well with some of the worst sort that hired our heroes. Ultimately, you can get better stories online for free, and you won’t miss much by skipping this book in the series; however, if you feel the need to read it and enjoyed As I Lay Dying, it’s solidly mid, especially if you come into it knowing what to expect.

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Featured Image: Titan Books

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