Scan barcode
saintburns's review against another edition
4.0
This book was hard to finish even as I enjoyed what I was reading. It has all the elements of things I enjoy, weird magic that deals with blood and saints and heretics, the epic journey, the calling of destiny, and the villain who might be a hero but is mainly still a villain. The thing that sucks about a second book is that as a rule it has to leave things unresolved so that the threads can be picked up in the third. So as this book ends I am left with many questions and concerns that hopefully will be answered in the last book. This book was enjoyable but also a struggle because there was So Much despair and betrayal and weird eyes. It was turned up to 11 in both a good and a bad way. Can’t wait to read the last book in the series but I am unlikely to reread them.
aschrotel's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this but I felt like it was the same plot as Wicked Saints. They go on a mission, he betrays her, he’s gone and she’s devastated. Anyone else?
dskartopu's review against another edition
4.0
Soo... Let me start by saying, I am truly broken by this book. The book got darker and darker and darker. My love for the characters I should hate grew more and more. And my mind become a bloody mess reading this. I loved it and that is basically want I want to say. Also reading this in the spooky season was great as well. Totally recommend it, especially if you love dark, gothic and eccentric vibes.
betharanova's review against another edition
3.0
This book really made me work to choose a rating. If you aren’t looking to read an essay, then: some things bothered me, and it’s not as advertised, but I enjoyed myself.
This is definitely what a second book should do with the worldbuilding. It takes the same concepts and dives deeper, exploring the wilder and more mysterious parts of what book one introduced you to. That exploration duly expands on the initial questions of divinity, monstrosity, and magic. It gives you some answers while raising more questions, and all of it was fascinating.
I love the characters, including the new additions. Velyos is a delight; I frankly wish he’d gotten more page time. Katya is a lot to handle, but in such a fun, entertaining way. Serefin and his crew remain the shining stars by which one can navigate these rough waters. The only complaint I have about Serefin’s journey was that I wish he could have been more active, rather than being yanked around for essentially the entire book. Otherwise, his POV was wonderful and I very much support all of his developments. Becoming a bird monster god really suited Malachasz and only made him more interesting.
Nadya’s development was most interesting of all. I adore her religious struggles, how she needs her goddess even when she’s dubious. She’s grown more sympathetic to Tranavians, but also harder and crueler in getting what she wants for herself. I love an Act II morally worrisome heroine. I’m excited to see where book three takes her. I even had a good time with some of the Nadya/Malya content, a pleasant surprise after not buying it in the first book.
I do want to take a paragraph for our king, Konstantin. Kostya makes a return in this book, and he’s a beautiful echo back to the very beginning of Nadya’s journey. He has the same beliefs that she started out with. This was almost a very interesting character moment for Nadya, especially since they spend most of the time fighting. Unfortunately, he is the one character to dislike Malachiasz without waxing on about how he is only a sad, lost boy. He is the only person in the room to doubt that they should trust and hang out with the Black Vulture, regardless of how beautiful a boy he is. For that crime, he is cast by the narrative as a sort of jealous boyfriend and duly punished.
(I’m hoping Parijahan and Rashid get to shine in the third book. So far, the plot would be the exact same without them, and they don’t have the good manners, or perhaps the page time, to react to and have opinions on events around them.)
And the plot! The plot is stunning when you get there, which is unfortunately in the last hundred pages. I’m not incredibly fussed about this, but I know that kind of pacing bothers some people. As it stands, the only thing that bothered me about it was that when the pace picked up, the commas disappeared and the sentences turned to a frantic and-and-and structure. A minor annoyance, and likely a purposeful choice to make it feel as though things are happening very quickly. The finale was enchantingly dramatic, suspenseful, and shocking. Those last hundred pages were absolute eldritch magic.
So why only three stars? Because before the plot began, there were four hundred pages of my main two complaints. The horror suffered from constantly repeated phrases, and the villain romance suffered from… really, not being a villain romance.
If scenery or an object is described, the paragraph will end with the phrase “dripping with blood.” Sometimes the modifier comes after an em-dash, as if it’s a great shock, despite the fact you can count on the exact wording after every description, in the same way you know to yell “Spongebob Squarepants” at the end of each line in the theme song. The first time you read the sentence, “A cluster of eyes opened on his cheek,” it’s alarming. The eighth time, it’s so mundane that the POV character has to literally say in their narrative, “It was horrifying to look at,” just to remind you. Because I was thinking, “Oh, those eyes again. What a nuisance,” and wondering irritably if I’d ever learn anything about them besides the fact that they sometimes, yes, dripped blood. (More on this in a comment, because I did really want the cosmic monstrosity of Malachiasz to come through.)
Nadya and Malachiasz are, in name, a villain romance. But it doesn’t feel like that at all. They’re too chummy. They rib each other in a particular teen way and sit too close together. Their fights are brief and leave both of them apologetic messes. For over half the book, I wondered if the problem was Malachiasz’s characterization; he can seem inconsistent.
But that’s not it! Malachiasz is a great character whom I enjoyed very much! He has a peak combo of tragedy and self-importance, and he’s fun to read about! The problem is that the narrative itself shields him from any repercussions from other characters, and in fact does its best to block the reader at every turn from thinking of him as a villain or a monster. Only bad people remember Malya’s crimes. Only bad people hold reasonable grudges.
The good characters around Malachiasz startle whenever he does an evil, like goldfish when you drop a rock into their little pond; but like goldfish, as soon as the water settles, they forget there was ever a disturbance. Nadya is constantly surprised when he kills people or lies, no matter how many times he does it. She will think a bit on how that means she shouldn’t like him. Then she’ll forget all about it in favor of that boy, that sad and lonely boy, that broken yet gentle mess of a boy. They make out. Lather, rinse, repeat. She’s still one step closer to sanity than Parijahan and Rashid, who have no reactions whatsoever. They occasionally pop up to be affectionate with Malya and assert that despite his monstrous form and deeds, he is just a lonesome boy and dear friend. Malachiasz is one of the few villains who is emotionally vulnerable, which is what felt odd about his characterization at first. But it’s only because he has nothing to fear. The author will not allow him to be rebuffed. Characters are not permitted to blame him for more than a page or hold him accountable.
I so dearly wish that Malachiasz had been allowed to stand on his own. He could have done it! I didn’t need the narration to wail the word “boy” every other sentence and use multiple characters to assure me he’s likeable; I would have enjoyed and felt for him regardless. I think it would have been fascinating for someone of Malya’s sensitivity to have to deal with others’ genuine reactions to his schemes. Certainly there would have been more tension and conflict in the plot. But we didn’t get that, either because the author didn’t trust that I the reader would like her character or because she couldn’t write objectively about him.
Anyway, no, Nadya and Malya spent much of the book holding hands and being soft, often literal pages after he had done something horrific, which was then glossed over so they could smooch. So it wasn’t a villain romance.
Serefin is the exception to both of these rules. His were the moments of horror that made me suck in a breath through my teeth, and his was the only attitude toward Malachiasz that was not only believable but heartbreaking. Unfortunately, Serefin was not enough to carry the entire book up to four stars to match its predecessor.
I did enjoy myself. Unfortunately, I had to spend an awful lot of pages learning how, and it was by suspending my disbelief regarding character decisions that were anywhere near our dear Malochka. May all these lovely characters stand on their own and shine organically in book three.
This is definitely what a second book should do with the worldbuilding. It takes the same concepts and dives deeper, exploring the wilder and more mysterious parts of what book one introduced you to. That exploration duly expands on the initial questions of divinity, monstrosity, and magic. It gives you some answers while raising more questions, and all of it was fascinating.
I love the characters, including the new additions. Velyos is a delight; I frankly wish he’d gotten more page time. Katya is a lot to handle, but in such a fun, entertaining way. Serefin and his crew remain the shining stars by which one can navigate these rough waters. The only complaint I have about Serefin’s journey was that I wish he could have been more active, rather than being yanked around for essentially the entire book. Otherwise, his POV was wonderful and I very much support all of his developments. Becoming a bird monster god really suited Malachasz and only made him more interesting.
Nadya’s development was most interesting of all. I adore her religious struggles, how she needs her goddess even when she’s dubious. She’s grown more sympathetic to Tranavians, but also harder and crueler in getting what she wants for herself. I love an Act II morally worrisome heroine. I’m excited to see where book three takes her. I even had a good time with some of the Nadya/Malya content, a pleasant surprise after not buying it in the first book.
I do want to take a paragraph for our king, Konstantin. Kostya makes a return in this book, and he’s a beautiful echo back to the very beginning of Nadya’s journey. He has the same beliefs that she started out with. This was almost a very interesting character moment for Nadya, especially since they spend most of the time fighting. Unfortunately, he is the one character to dislike Malachiasz without waxing on about how he is only a sad, lost boy. He is the only person in the room to doubt that they should trust and hang out with the Black Vulture, regardless of how beautiful a boy he is. For that crime, he is cast by the narrative as a sort of jealous boyfriend and duly punished.
Spoiler
He dies for the sin of not being sympathetic to Malachiasz. This does not matter, because Nadya manages half a minute of being snippy at Malya over this before they are cuddling again. RIP, king.(I’m hoping Parijahan and Rashid get to shine in the third book. So far, the plot would be the exact same without them, and they don’t have the good manners, or perhaps the page time, to react to and have opinions on events around them.)
And the plot! The plot is stunning when you get there, which is unfortunately in the last hundred pages. I’m not incredibly fussed about this, but I know that kind of pacing bothers some people. As it stands, the only thing that bothered me about it was that when the pace picked up, the commas disappeared and the sentences turned to a frantic and-and-and structure. A minor annoyance, and likely a purposeful choice to make it feel as though things are happening very quickly. The finale was enchantingly dramatic, suspenseful, and shocking. Those last hundred pages were absolute eldritch magic.
So why only three stars? Because before the plot began, there were four hundred pages of my main two complaints. The horror suffered from constantly repeated phrases, and the villain romance suffered from… really, not being a villain romance.
If scenery or an object is described, the paragraph will end with the phrase “dripping with blood.” Sometimes the modifier comes after an em-dash, as if it’s a great shock, despite the fact you can count on the exact wording after every description, in the same way you know to yell “Spongebob Squarepants” at the end of each line in the theme song. The first time you read the sentence, “A cluster of eyes opened on his cheek,” it’s alarming. The eighth time, it’s so mundane that the POV character has to literally say in their narrative, “It was horrifying to look at,” just to remind you. Because I was thinking, “Oh, those eyes again. What a nuisance,” and wondering irritably if I’d ever learn anything about them besides the fact that they sometimes, yes, dripped blood. (More on this in a comment, because I did really want the cosmic monstrosity of Malachiasz to come through.)
Nadya and Malachiasz are, in name, a villain romance. But it doesn’t feel like that at all. They’re too chummy. They rib each other in a particular teen way and sit too close together. Their fights are brief and leave both of them apologetic messes. For over half the book, I wondered if the problem was Malachiasz’s characterization; he can seem inconsistent.
But that’s not it! Malachiasz is a great character whom I enjoyed very much! He has a peak combo of tragedy and self-importance, and he’s fun to read about! The problem is that the narrative itself shields him from any repercussions from other characters, and in fact does its best to block the reader at every turn from thinking of him as a villain or a monster. Only bad people remember Malya’s crimes. Only bad people hold reasonable grudges.
The good characters around Malachiasz startle whenever he does an evil, like goldfish when you drop a rock into their little pond; but like goldfish, as soon as the water settles, they forget there was ever a disturbance. Nadya is constantly surprised when he kills people or lies, no matter how many times he does it. She will think a bit on how that means she shouldn’t like him. Then she’ll forget all about it in favor of that boy, that sad and lonely boy, that broken yet gentle mess of a boy. They make out. Lather, rinse, repeat. She’s still one step closer to sanity than Parijahan and Rashid, who have no reactions whatsoever. They occasionally pop up to be affectionate with Malya and assert that despite his monstrous form and deeds, he is just a lonesome boy and dear friend. Malachiasz is one of the few villains who is emotionally vulnerable, which is what felt odd about his characterization at first. But it’s only because he has nothing to fear. The author will not allow him to be rebuffed. Characters are not permitted to blame him for more than a page or hold him accountable.
I so dearly wish that Malachiasz had been allowed to stand on his own. He could have done it! I didn’t need the narration to wail the word “boy” every other sentence and use multiple characters to assure me he’s likeable; I would have enjoyed and felt for him regardless. I think it would have been fascinating for someone of Malya’s sensitivity to have to deal with others’ genuine reactions to his schemes. Certainly there would have been more tension and conflict in the plot. But we didn’t get that, either because the author didn’t trust that I the reader would like her character or because she couldn’t write objectively about him.
Anyway, no, Nadya and Malya spent much of the book holding hands and being soft, often literal pages after he had done something horrific, which was then glossed over so they could smooch. So it wasn’t a villain romance.
Serefin is the exception to both of these rules. His were the moments of horror that made me suck in a breath through my teeth, and his was the only attitude toward Malachiasz that was not only believable but heartbreaking. Unfortunately, Serefin was not enough to carry the entire book up to four stars to match its predecessor.
I did enjoy myself. Unfortunately, I had to spend an awful lot of pages learning how, and it was by suspending my disbelief regarding character decisions that were anywhere near our dear Malochka. May all these lovely characters stand on their own and shine organically in book three.
mycena_acicula's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
itputsthebookupontheshelf's review against another edition
4.0
Ruthless Gods was even better than Wicked Saints.
For me, that wasn't hard because it took me multiple times of reading WS to understand the hype. Though I did finally get it.
This second book was not necessarily faster paced but started off with so much happening that it felt like it. That was one of my main issues with book 1, so I was so glad that this one grabbed my attention and held it much better.
It was fun to watch relationships grow and falter amongst friends and enemies alike. We get a lot more interactions and points of view in this book, which I really enjoyed,
It's much darker, bloody, and one hell of a good time! I would highly recommend giving Ruthless Gods a go, even if you weren't a huge fan on the first book.
A huge thank you to Netgalley and publishers for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review,
For me, that wasn't hard because it took me multiple times of reading WS to understand the hype. Though I did finally get it.
This second book was not necessarily faster paced but started off with so much happening that it felt like it. That was one of my main issues with book 1, so I was so glad that this one grabbed my attention and held it much better.
It was fun to watch relationships grow and falter amongst friends and enemies alike. We get a lot more interactions and points of view in this book, which I really enjoyed,
It's much darker, bloody, and one hell of a good time! I would highly recommend giving Ruthless Gods a go, even if you weren't a huge fan on the first book.
A huge thank you to Netgalley and publishers for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review,
trgrze20's review against another edition
3.0
Do you ever read a book and see so many issues in it but keep reading it anyway? That’s how I feel about this series. It’s a lot of blind trust based on where someone has lived or was born, a lot of lands and names I forget and can’t pronounce, a lot of skipped over scenes that would have been great to read such as the bickering that goes on during their months of travel or battles scenes where all of a sudden we won or we are all separated, and a lot of a god randomly appearing and disappearing.
Again, I have quite a bit of issues with this book that had me rereading scenes over and over to see if I missed something.
That being said, I can’t help but continue reading. Call it a guilty pleasure read.
Also, how is this considered YA!? It is very dark and blood and gore is mentioned every other page. I would say it is definitely a 17+ on the graphics scale.
Again, I have quite a bit of issues with this book that had me rereading scenes over and over to see if I missed something.
That being said, I can’t help but continue reading. Call it a guilty pleasure read.
Also, how is this considered YA!? It is very dark and blood and gore is mentioned every other page. I would say it is definitely a 17+ on the graphics scale.