Book Review :: WICKED SAINTS

Book: Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Something Dark and Holy Trilogy #1
Publisher: Wednesday Books / Macmillan
Source: ARC via NetGalley!

Where to Buy: Shop local! Find your local independent bookstore at IndieBound!

_________________________________________________________________________________

“Prepare for a snow-frosted, blood-drenched fairy tale where the monsters steal your heart and love ends up being the nightmare.” - Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen

“This book destroyed me and I adored it.”- Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

_________________________________________________________________________________

Goodreads Summary:

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.

My Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Check out my full review after the jump! Click "Read More" below to continue!


I received a copy of WICKED SAINTS from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Ugh I've read so many books in the past few months that I've been too busy to write reviews for. This one I just finished, so I wanted to write out the review before I forgot too many of the details! As spring break approaches, you know the time teachers can turn off their responsibilities for a week, I will be uploading reviews for all the books I've read since January!

One of my most anticipated YA releases of 2019 was definitely WICKED SAINTS by Emily A. Duncan, so THANK YOU NetGalley for approving me to be an early reader for this! Let's just say as you can see from my blog and Goodreads account, fantasy is my entire jam. So when I caught wind of a book that tells us of a girl who can speak to the gods, I was already all the way in. Now, I realize it sounds a little Percy Jackson-ish, but I assure you this is so deliciously dark and satisfying and wonderful, you would do well not to get them confused!

WICKED SAINTS follows a girl named Nadya who makes her home deep in the Baikkle Mountains of Kalyazin, in a monastary that sits seven thousand steps above the base. She has the special ability to talk to the Kalyazin gods through a necklace she wears faithfully every day. Its with this necklace she can communicate with the gods and use their powers using the different beads on it. Rather quickly, she is forced to flee the only home she's ever known when an army comes from Tranavia and completely raids their beloved monastery.

It's when she flees she is briefly introduced to Serafin, the high prince of Tranavia, and eventually she meets Malachiasz, Rashid, and Parijahan. Together, they set off to the most dangerous of tasks where they realize just how much people would go through to have all the power in the world.

Okay, so I loved this. It took me a while to get through (I originally started it back in February) due to school work and testing, but I'm so glad I finished and I loved the world and the plot so much. The one thing that confused me sometimes were the amount of characters and their crazy names that I sometimes forgot who the book was talking about. Malachiasz (I'm assuming is pronounced Mal-uh-kai?), Parijahan (I started off the book saying "Par-ee-juh-han", but then there was a part of the book where she's referenced as "Parj", so then I started saying "Par-zhen", but I don't know which is correct!); then there are a ton of the god's names and settings that threw me: Svoyatovi Ilya Golubkin, Zbyhneuska, and so on. So it took me a while to get used to everything, but the world-building was crazy good so it all worked out in the end! What's a good fantasy novel without long names, right??

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this one if you are a fan of darkness, monsters, betrayal, blood magic, it has it all. Plus, THAT ENDING THO?? I am so very excited for this to come out next month that I've already preordered a copy for myself and one for my classroom library! Do yourself a favor and preorder this one, the final copy is so stunning!

Thanks again to NetGalley who allowed me an early read in exchange for an honest review!