A review by ibelin
Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book started off strong. I was enthralled with the setting and the mystery it presented and how the writer would describe different character's without making it a main focus of a scene. I enjoyed seeing the perspectives of the two main characters as the book progressed... However, I found myself extremely disillusioned / annoyed with the characters around the 200-page mark. 

There was a plothole that annoyed me and I will discuss it in the spoiler below.

In the 70+ years of these people following the Saints, there is never any chat about what happens when a Disciple of Patience and a Disciple of Strength have a child or what happens to those who have parents of different Saints. It would have been more interested to see a character who was the child of patience and chaos....

Story Spoilers Below:

I began to grow annoyed with Damien. He felt smart and thoughtful in the beginning of the book but towards the end it felt like he refused to commit to anything. He was struggling with coming to terms that the system sucks and his dad and the magistrate aren't good people etc etc but even when faced with that, he still couldn't come to a decision until he thought Roz was dead. It felt frustrating and like his character growth stalled for 100 pages and regressed. It also felt like he knew the Magistrate was dead in the first 100 pages but it was never addressed (specifically when he realized the Magistrate called him Damien and not Venturi).. He also never confronts the voice in his head. While I understand he likely didn't want to explore what it was, the fact that it took until the end of the book for him to try and even confront it bothered me. I would've enjoyed it more if there was exploration of the voice and how he deals with it or just him struggling over his own religion. It felt flat as the story progressed.

Also I want a spin off of Vittoria being a sapphic lesbian meeting a sapphic rebel. I think that would be extremely cute and either really toxic or really transcendental