#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

[trufflesandbedlam]

I do a couple of sales a year, right? But nothing that goes this hard. It's time, folks. Our Black Friday Sale is live at www.trufflesandbedlam.com and despite the Canada Post strike, we're not taking prisoners.

We're using ChitChats to ship to the US, Canada, and internationally for the season. I dropped off a bunch of packages this morning, and will continue to do so until the holiday shopping season's over.

I've also got a ton of new stuff in the shop for the upcoming craft fairs, with plenty of stock for anyone who wants something cute and special -- fandom and creepy cute original too.

If you have stockings to stuff, this is your opportunity.

We're cooking hot and fully stocked for the following fandoms:

Star Wars

Star Wars - The Clone Wars

Star Wars - Legends/EU

Star Wars - The Bad Batch

The Locked Tomb

Arcane/League of Legends

Our Flag Means Death

Good Omens

The Sandman

ACOTAR/ACOMAF/ACOWAR

Throne of Glass

Frankenstein

Dracula

Crescent City

Haunting Adeline

Bridgerton

Wednesday/Addams Family

Nightmare Before Christmas

Sailor Moon

Animal Crossing

KOTOR

Dresden Files

Dungeons & Dragons

She-Ra

Lumberjanes

Nimona

Legends & Lattes

What We Do in the Shadows

Stranger Things

Outlander

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Wicked Saints (Retiring)

Indiana Jones

Fangirl

...and more.

If you're looking for our secret stash (IYKYK/it is not currently live but we still have stock) please shoot us a DM, and we'll get things sorted out for you to... obtain. ;)

—

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[hell-hirsch]

[thetinyspinosaurus]

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

[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...

[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