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A review by votesforwomen
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
3.0
Okay so this was bloody (so so so bloody wow I couldn't get over the amount of blood in this story) and dark and Russian and had so many elements that I loved....and yet in the end it felt kinda vapid?
This story has three main characters. There are side characters, too, but admittedly, they don't matter all that much. There were a few who bordered on important, but for the most part, the story was told by three characters.
-Nadya, who has a full name I cannot spell. She was a fierce OP little Slytherin who didn't want to kill people but will totally stab you if you get in her way. She could communicate directly with the gods! And then they give her magic! So...that much of the magic system is explained xD Other than that...I didn't love her. She was fine as protagonists go, but...eh.
-Serefin (I kept reading it Seferin or even Severin...the names/spelling in this book kind of broke my brain a little.) was the prince of the country that's fighting a Holy War against Nadya's country. He was also stabby, but he was a softy underneath and liked to get drunk and spent a lot of time with his close friends and was probably an ENTP, because he was outgoing but also quiet and liked to run from his problems. He was probably my favorite of the three. I enjoyed him greatly.
-Malachiasz (I really hope I spelled that right because I don't feel like going to get the book to check) is the Bad Monster Boy who's violent and out to kill everyone but! Conflicted! And HAWT! *fans self because that's what I'm supposed to do* I know there were maybe two moments where I genuinely believed he was hawt, and he occasionally took me in with his lies, but for the most part...eh. If you've read one book with a supernatural monster boy, you've read them all.
Let's talk about the magic system, though. The two countries, Nadya's country and Serefin's country, are at war because of the divine orders they serve. Nadya's country has a pantheon of gods, and she's the last person in the country able to do magic from them (she's called a cleric). And then in Serefin's country, we have "blood mages", who have special book thingies that if you bleed on them and crinkle the paper they do MAGIC THINGS. Like create spikes! Or set things on fire! Or kill people! Fun times for all! I wish I understood the rules of using them because those were never laid out clearly!
(Oh, and also, there was a LOT of slashing fingers and wrists and bleeding and other gory stuff that made me grimace and cringe because I CANNOT DO THE BLOOD OKAY. BLOOD IS NOT GOOD FOR MY BRAIN. TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME PLEEEEEASE.)
The King, too, didn't make a ton of sense. I mean, I'm all for evil fathers, but at the same time...we only got about two pages of screen time with the king where he acted like a slightly hassled ruler, distant from his son but not all that cruel, before suddenly learning that HE'S A CRUEL TYRANT AND WANTS TO KILL EVERYONE. So like...is there consistency? Not here.
My personal pet peeve: Duncan could NOT use commas for anything. It was so distracting, I swear. 50% of the time I was crying because the sentence went on forever and needed commas. 50% of the time I was crying because the sentence should've been four or five sentences and was a bunch of phrases strung together. This happened on almost every page. HELP ME.
Also...me no likey the cliffhanger. I'm currently wishing that this book were a standalone because it totally could've been. But alas.
3.5 stars, I think? Some of the description was genuinely beautiful and I liked the main characters okay. And on top of that, Wicked Saints really held my attention. But in the end...eh. Just another fantasy book, really. At this point, YA fantasy is all starting to feel the same.
This story has three main characters. There are side characters, too, but admittedly, they don't matter all that much. There were a few who bordered on important, but for the most part, the story was told by three characters.
-Nadya, who has a full name I cannot spell. She was a fierce OP little Slytherin who didn't want to kill people but will totally stab you if you get in her way. She could communicate directly with the gods! And then they give her magic! So...that much of the magic system is explained xD Other than that...I didn't love her. She was fine as protagonists go, but...eh.
-Serefin (I kept reading it Seferin or even Severin...the names/spelling in this book kind of broke my brain a little.) was the prince of the country that's fighting a Holy War against Nadya's country. He was also stabby, but he was a softy underneath and liked to get drunk and spent a lot of time with his close friends and was probably an ENTP, because he was outgoing but also quiet and liked to run from his problems. He was probably my favorite of the three. I enjoyed him greatly.
-Malachiasz (I really hope I spelled that right because I don't feel like going to get the book to check) is the Bad Monster Boy who's violent and out to kill everyone but! Conflicted! And HAWT! *fans self because that's what I'm supposed to do* I know there were maybe two moments where I genuinely believed he was hawt, and he occasionally took me in with his lies, but for the most part...eh. If you've read one book with a supernatural monster boy, you've read them all.
Let's talk about the magic system, though. The two countries, Nadya's country and Serefin's country, are at war because of the divine orders they serve. Nadya's country has a pantheon of gods, and she's the last person in the country able to do magic from them (she's called a cleric). And then in Serefin's country, we have "blood mages", who have special book thingies that if you bleed on them and crinkle the paper they do MAGIC THINGS. Like create spikes! Or set things on fire! Or kill people! Fun times for all! I wish I understood the rules of using them because those were never laid out clearly!
(Oh, and also, there was a LOT of slashing fingers and wrists and bleeding and other gory stuff that made me grimace and cringe because I CANNOT DO THE BLOOD OKAY. BLOOD IS NOT GOOD FOR MY BRAIN. TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME PLEEEEEASE.)
The King, too, didn't make a ton of sense. I mean, I'm all for evil fathers, but at the same time...we only got about two pages of screen time with the king where he acted like a slightly hassled ruler, distant from his son but not all that cruel, before suddenly learning that HE'S A CRUEL TYRANT AND WANTS TO KILL EVERYONE. So like...is there consistency? Not here.
My personal pet peeve: Duncan could NOT use commas for anything. It was so distracting, I swear. 50% of the time I was crying because the sentence went on forever and needed commas. 50% of the time I was crying because the sentence should've been four or five sentences and was a bunch of phrases strung together. This happened on almost every page. HELP ME.
Also...me no likey the cliffhanger. I'm currently wishing that this book were a standalone because it totally could've been. But alas.
3.5 stars, I think? Some of the description was genuinely beautiful and I liked the main characters okay. And on top of that, Wicked Saints really held my attention. But in the end...eh. Just another fantasy book, really. At this point, YA fantasy is all starting to feel the same.