#Wicked Saints

[pygmi-says-hi]

book review:

Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan

2/5 stars

disclaimer:

the author is not a great chica. she is antisemitic and generally rude. I am reviewing the content of the book as abjectly as possible and won't bias my review with that. But, I do think you should know that.

anyway!

What is this book about?

Nadya (Nadezhda) is a cleric for a pantheon of gods. her country (Kalyazin) is at war with another country (Tranavia) over religion vs blood magic. She is hiding because of her powers but gets ambushed in a raid by Tranavian soldiers. The rest of the story consists of her escaping with Tranavian defects and her fellow Kalyazi clerics, because the Crown Prince wants to usurp her power.

What did I like about this book?

I think it had a really cool vibe. dark fantasy, blood, gore, twisted slavic mythology...the atmosphere was broody and intriguing. It was kind of entertaining, held my interest for a while.

What did I not like about this book?

Well.

Couple things.

The magic was poorly outlined. I read the first book when I was like 13 and then cycled back to reread before I finished the series. I was really only rereading to get a sense of the magic system...but that explanation never came. Nadya can 'communicate' with the gods, but the pantheon is incomplete and poorly researched. (I made a post about writing religions, go check it out!)

When you write a pantheon, it needs to have a complete set of gods for life to exist. There were some gods like the god of silence...but no goddess of the harvest? huh. Also, the 'blood magic' sounded cool but there was never an explanation or consistency of how/why it worked.

2. Characters were boring af. Nadya started as a badass but quickly diluted from there. Obviously, there was supposed to be an enemies to lovers with her and Malachaisz, but he was so edward cullen coded I honestly didn't care. She lost a lot of her personality and the rapport she had with her 'best friend' was like a saltine cracker. None of them had any relatable goals or attitudes I was drawn to.

3. The plot was...somewhere? The plot arc was more of a heart monitor during cardiac arrest. Not a 'main goal' other than escape, which was fine for like 2 chapters, until it started to get old.

TBH, it read like a mid-level fanfiction. Clearly this author had an enemies to lovers plot that she wanted some fantasy with, but only wrote in the other stuff to decorate the love story (which was still meh). The fantasy was poorly researched, the characters underdeveloped, the plot and pacing was confusing and slow. The banter was juvenile and not engaging; the romance read like Twilight but satanic.

4. Politics made no fucking sense. for a book about a political religious war, the religion and politics were complete chaos. No explained structure of how the 'vultures' (aka extremist political group) functioned, how the Crown Prince had anything to do with anything.

This is clearly slavic vs jewish, and is not breached appropriately. This is why you need to be careful when creating a religious war. the jewish people have been stereotyped to use human blood in 'sacrifices' by antisemitic ppl. if you don't carefully research, you could potentially represent an ethnic group crudely.

Summary:

It read like a first draft. Basic plot, still fleshing in the details, roughly outlined structure and basic character traits. It had a lot of potential but did not meet up.

I've read the second and third and it doesn't improve. The same problems prevail.

link to book:

Wicked Saints

follow for more xox

[hell-hirsch]

[3-opossumsinacoat]

[darklinaforever]

Has anyone ever read Something Dark and Holy, by Emily A Duncan ? Because the Russian context and the Nadya and Malachiasz story intrigue me...

[thetinyspinosaurus]

Nadya, girl, I need you to stop thinking with your pussy and to start thinking with your brain because this is NOT working.

[booklover-s]

Ok, about blessed monsters: I'm almost finished and it's my favorite book in the trilogy, Nadya, Malachiasz and Serefin are impeccable from start to finish, how I love them!

[freshlybrewedbookreviews]

Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1) by Emily A. Duncan

I don't have strong opinions either way on this one. I was reminded a lot of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse (which, funnily enough, Duncan shouts her out in the acknowledgements for being an influence on her), so I felt like I'd already read a version of this story. I also felt like the teenage angst/hormones got to be a bit much for me by the end of the novel. The story was interesting, though, and the pacing kept things moving. I'm not sure I'll be checking out the sequel, but this held my attention as a YA fantasy.

[between-the-pages657]

I forgot Serefin and Kacper have like a thing.

[thesinlesssinner]

My favorite character in the Wicked Saints series I’ve become obsessed with, his name is Malachiaz. Everyone NEEDS to read those books.

[somanybookssolittletime1]

In My Mailbox (#71)

In My Mailbox (#71) -need to addd tehj books

~Purchases~ Lightlark by Alex Aster | Goodreads Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan | Goodreads Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan | Goodreads Blessed Monsters by Emily A. Duncan | Goodreads ~ARCs~ A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid | Goodreads Creeping Beauty by Andrea Portes | Goodreads Magical Girl Incident, Vol. 1 by Zero Akabane | Goodreads Creeping Beauty by Andrea Portes | Goodreads ~~~ I…

[boo-koo]

"Поэтому, вместо того, чтобы вникать во множественные заговоры, Серефин решил сделать то, что у него получалось лучше всего: употребил просто фантастическое количество алкоголя"

Эмили А. Дункан "Жестокие святые"

[ruinme-please]

The holy guitarist (x)

[yaegeram]

"Forgive me Father, for I have killed tonight."

[obsessed-and-possessed]

For a split second I genuinely thought they’d make out CUZ IT WOULD’VE FITTED SO WELL but no they had to stare into each others eyes and sing to each other in the most heterosexual way possible😔🤚

[midddoriya]

80s anime

[litnerdwrites]

Okay, but what are the odds that Anir, Alexi, and (now) Val have a club or support group where they meet up and groan about their respective Princes (Wrath, Envy and, Gluttony), being in love? Like they set up charcuterie boards, get glasses of wine (and blood), and just mindlessly bitch about how they make their jobs harder.

Think Val searching high and low for Gluttony, who avoids to get more 'quality time' with Adriana. Or Alexi waiting with a delegation that came to meet Envy, only Camilla had stoked his sin right before they arrived, and now they have to wait while he claims her on his throne. Loudly. Or Wrath pissing off his chefs because he kicks them out of the kitchen to cook with Emilia (amongst other things).

In Throne of the Fallen, Alexi had to convince Envy to go after Camilla, and I'm pretty sure Val finding out that Gluttony fell in love with Adriana is going to send her reeling (even though she's probably going to tell Gluttony not to be a baby about it and just talk to her). Anir probably had the same frustrations with Wrath, during the original trilogy, and before it, when Wrath fell in love with her for the first time.

They would also spilling the most piping hot tea in all of the underworld about what their princes are like behind closed doors, when they think no one is watching. I'm picturing them being shocked over the idea of Wrath cooking with Emilia at all, and giving her doe eyes while she treats his giant hellhounds like puppies (they totally like her more). Or Envy sitting down to paint with Camilla, and go on romantic picnics with Camilla.

Every time one of the princes gets engaged, they'd approach their burnt out second who seems ready to quit, and give them a time and place. If Emilia ever found out about it, she'd probably start her own club though, where the wives + best friends gather to discuss how difficult their princes were in the beginning (and maybe some side stories about how frustrating Emilia found Fauna and Anir until she finally asked him out).