Not gonna lie, Wicked Saints was one of my most anticipated reads this year, and receiving it from the publisher made me feel like I was on top of the world. I haven’t made it a secret that I’m still fuming over the ending of the Grisha trilogy, and this book comes in where the badass female character is promised to end up with morally grey sort-of-villain? I was sold. I knew it would blow my mind…. but once I started, I just wanted it to end.
Wicked Saints follows cleric (or missionary?) Nadya who could communicate with all the gods. There’s a crapload of other clerics who could talk to gods too, but they could only do one while she could talk to everyone because she is not like other girls. Her monastery is then attacked by Seferin—blood mage and crown prince of another country—so Nadya goes on the run to prevent her powers from being taken. She meets up with a group of rebels, led by Kylo Ren cosplayer another blood mage, Malachaisz, and teams up with them to try to put a stop to the war.
This book initially caught my attention since I’m very much a morally grey character lover and villain/protagonist stan. The blood magic stuff was definitely intriguing as well, so I just knew I had to grab a copy. Once I opened the book though, I was surprised to see that the characters really fell flat to me. Not once did I care about any of the supposed high-stakes in the book. Apart from its very blatant Grishaverse-inspired premise, the writing felt too egregious at times and it was just…too much that I was really turned off.
My criticism definitely doesn’t end here though. For one, the only people of color are referred to as creatures of the desert (what the hell?). Knockoff Alina was incredibly xenophobic throughout the whole book, and her character is immediately reduced to being a love interest. Wicked Saints promises a badass female lead who’s determined to seek justice and kill her enemies—peep the tagline of the book: “let them fear her“, but she ends up relying on her male love interest for just about anything. Like seriously, everything. The author definitely glamorizes alcoholism too, and I don’t understand how this is branded as YA when one of the main characters deals with his problems with aggressively drinking himself almost to death. I also saw how she taunted people who were bothered by that by saying that they’ll be scandalized with the drug use in the second book….which is not great.
Also, with the blood mage stuff? Seemed intriguing at first, but when these mages have to slice themselves open to do any sort of magic, that isn’t really my kind of thing. Especially when they have RAZORS sewn into their sleeves to cut themselves.
Overall, I really did view this as sort of a Grisha Trilogy AU. It’s like the author wanted to bring Alina, the Darkling (or Kylo Ren, could be debatable) to another universe that was ten times edgier than Ravka. The prose wasn’t beautifully written and often times very distracting, but I still feel like this could’ve been a great book had all my other issues been addressed. Pretty much the whole cast of characters is white, though she includes two characters of color since someone probably reminded her that diversity exists. Maybe I would’ve given this a two or even a three had the characters stopped relying on banter and xenophobia to make themselves sound more interesting. I do think this would’ve done better on AO3.
I think this book would be a great fit for those who have a soft spot for Kylo Ren and the Darkling, but it just wasn’t for me! This seems more like a book for people aged 17 and above as opposed to teens in general, especially with all the drinking and body mutilation present in a lot of scenes. I don’t think I’d be picking up the sequel though.
Title: Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1)
Author: Emily A. Duncan
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Source: ARC via publisher
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
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Rating: 1.5/5
I’m sorry the book ended up being like this and you were anticipating it so much.
I actually didn’t continue reading Shadow and Bone, but I don’t think I would have liked it much if I continued.
Hey Kristen! I didn’t actually enjoy Grisha until Nikolai popped up in the second book, but I felt like I had to pull my ass to continue finishing the rest of the series. I eventually grew to love the characters more than the actual prose though!
Oh no I’m sorry you didn’t like this! The main character sounds terrible, and knockoff Grisha trilogy isn’t the best premise considering so many people didn’t really like the Grisha trilogy anyway haha.
Hey! Yeah I’m neutral on Grisha though I don’t like the ending adsfdgfhgnb!!! I just hope a lot of people who plan to pick this book up don’t excuse the other problematic parts of it.
I’m so sorry that was such a disappointing book considering you were anticipating it so much! It seemed truly bad, and I had added it to my TBR a while back but since then I haven’t seen a single positive review from people I follow so I’ve removed it. The comments the author made were bad as well, so I won’t be picking it up.
YES I heard she was involved with a hate read for BH. Considering the person she’s attacking is an author of color, I don’t think that was the best route to take. She also glamorizes drug and alcohol use on her Twitter, from what I’ve seen
I knew about the fact that she glamorized drug and alcohol use but I had no idea she was involved with a hate read for BH, this just keeps getting worse, that’s so bad!
So sorry, that the book didn’t work out for you. I have had this on my TBR for some time now. Your review makes me feel reluctant to pick it up.
If you pick it up, I hope you take it with a grain of salt! A lot of questionable things definitely happen in the book and I wasn’t comfortable with most of them.
Welp. This sounds incredibly disappointing.. and after all that hype! Probably will take this off the TBR 😅 Loved your review, tho! 🤩
Hey Angela, thanks for your kind comment!!! Definitely made my day <3
I’m sorry the book was a disappointment for you. I’m the same with the not like other girls trope, I just can’t.
Yeah, I get that a main character has to be ~unique~ but oh my god
1.5 stars?!?! What a bummer. I have been seeing several similar ratings but I haven’t really read details at all. Now I can see that there are definitely some edgy and atrocious themes so, like you, I’m surprised that this is in the YA genre. I have an ARC of this as well so I’ll be reading it soon, but I’ll be reading it with caution. Thank you for the heads up!
Let me know what you think! I’ve heard so many good things about this book before I started but A LOT of bad ones after I finished.
I read this book too (from Netgalley) and I totally agree with you. The characters are a total Grisha knock-off and I was so freaking bored at times, oh my god. For me, Serefin kinda saved the book, but that’s because I have a soft spot for that character trope (let’s be real, Serefin’s existance is a trope itself.)
I actually liked the atmosphere. I like more dark worlds, but the blood magic was just soooo basic.
I am actually dabating if I should try the next book…urgh!
Totally! I do think she could have gone without Serefin using alcohol to cope with everything though. Her audience isn’t exactly old enough to drink so there’s that, hahaha! I don’t think I’ll be picking up the second book, but if you end up doing it, let me know how it goes!
Oh no, sad to hear that! It’s so disappointing when a book sounds so promising and falls so flat. Also, tropes are outdated: something fresh is always better. Hope you find a book you like next time!
Hahaha, I hope so too! I’m a big fan of enemies to lovers, just not when one of the characters end up getting reduced to a love interest. Especially when the book promises badassery and all.
Wow I’d heard that people were looking forward to this but it sounds awful 😬