Take a photo of a barcode or cover
monarchsandmyths 's review for:
Seven Faceless Saints
by M.K. Lobb
thank you to LBBYR and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
A debut with a fascinating world and enough religious allusions to personally interest me, SEVEN FACELESS SAINTS creates a fascinating world, with characters that are unfortunately a little bit harder to connect to. While I wasn’t completely disconnected while reading it, they didn’t stay on my mind when I wasn’t actively reading, and if I wasn’t intrigued by the mystery elements and plot, I likely wouldn’t pick up the next book. However, if you’re more interested in the mystery or worldbuilding elements (or the comps like Kerri Maniscalco), I would recommend checking this out!
SFS creates a world of saints, disciples, and murderers. The entire world concept was probably the most interesting to me, and seems like it’ll be further explored in the sequel (which I think will be a definite plus). Some of the basic elements of how it’s all set up weren’t particularly unique, but the overall lore of the saints, while not explored as much as I would have liked, kept me reading.
As far as characters went, I think they were sufficiently unique and somewhat interesting, I just didn’t particularly find myself caring. The relationship between Roz and Damian never particularly drew me in or felt like it had sufficient chemistry. The personal stakes never felt truly risky, and I wish as a whole everything in this category had gotten more developed. Despite a few standout moments, as a whole I was just underwhelmed.
Finally, the plot is kind of the in between element for me. I found the mystery decently interesting and as your resident oblivious mystery solver, I was fairly stumped (although I wish I’d cared more about that or the reveal). As a whole, the plot was decently easy to follow and interesting. I just needed to feel more personally connected for it to really hit. Ultimately, I think it serves as a pretty good setup for a sequel, so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed to see what M.K. Lobb delivers there!
A debut with a fascinating world and enough religious allusions to personally interest me, SEVEN FACELESS SAINTS creates a fascinating world, with characters that are unfortunately a little bit harder to connect to. While I wasn’t completely disconnected while reading it, they didn’t stay on my mind when I wasn’t actively reading, and if I wasn’t intrigued by the mystery elements and plot, I likely wouldn’t pick up the next book. However, if you’re more interested in the mystery or worldbuilding elements (or the comps like Kerri Maniscalco), I would recommend checking this out!
SFS creates a world of saints, disciples, and murderers. The entire world concept was probably the most interesting to me, and seems like it’ll be further explored in the sequel (which I think will be a definite plus). Some of the basic elements of how it’s all set up weren’t particularly unique, but the overall lore of the saints, while not explored as much as I would have liked, kept me reading.
As far as characters went, I think they were sufficiently unique and somewhat interesting, I just didn’t particularly find myself caring. The relationship between Roz and Damian never particularly drew me in or felt like it had sufficient chemistry. The personal stakes never felt truly risky, and I wish as a whole everything in this category had gotten more developed. Despite a few standout moments, as a whole I was just underwhelmed.
Finally, the plot is kind of the in between element for me. I found the mystery decently interesting and as your resident oblivious mystery solver, I was fairly stumped (although I wish I’d cared more about that or the reveal). As a whole, the plot was decently easy to follow and interesting. I just needed to feel more personally connected for it to really hit. Ultimately, I think it serves as a pretty good setup for a sequel, so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed to see what M.K. Lobb delivers there!