WICKED SAINTS
Author: Emily A. DuncanSeries: Something Dark and Holy #1
Source: eARC via Publisher
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:
Summary:
An instant New York Times bestseller!
A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.
A prince in danger must decide who to trust.
A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.
Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.
In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy..
Amazon | Chapters | TBD
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.
Trigger Warnings: This book has blood magic, self-harm, lots of violence, and an off-handed conversation about said self-harm in the course of its 400 pages. Please practice self-care before, during, and after reading this book.
From the fact that I had PREORDERED it and asked to participate on the blog tour, I think you can tell I was EXTREMELY excited for this one. It was actually one of my most anticipated reads of 2019. But. What the actual eff. Why is this getting such good reviews. Ignoring the fact that I was bored by 10% into this book, and probably wouldn't have finished if Dani and I hadn't been reading it together, after like 65%, I mostly just anger read this one.
I don't generally like putting negative reviews on my blog and saving them for Goodreads, but there were things I felt I had to address with this because it is gaining such traction and I had been a part of the blog tour. A lot of things about this one really bothered me, beyond the abusive aspects that I talk about below.
The characters are boring, the plot feels reminiscent of literally hundreds of YA books before it (Dani and I were counting off specific points and lines that are basically the same as others we have read), and the "morally grey" aspects made me want to tear my hair out. I have read a couple reviews on here that talk about how Nadya doesn't have a lot of agency in this book - even in her POVs she is reduced to a side character. Once I saw it articulated, I agreed. I do hope that in the rest of the trilogy she is given the opportunity to grow; however, I will not find out because I'm not reading the rest of this.
You have to continuously wait for things to happen in this. It goes from one Big Point to nothing for like another 100 pages until you get to another Big Point, etc. etc. The fact that the characters find out they have been lied to and then so easily trust other people is ridiculous. The "halo" aspect of Nadya's character.... frustrates me to no end. So much of this just ANGERED me because I have no problem with books that use tropes, plot ideas, etc. from other books - but only if they do them well.
I am no longer going to be reading any "enemies to lovers" books that glorify tactics used in abusive relationships as "romantic" and "sexy." I read somewhere online that the test you should do is to imagine it is Peter Pettigrew (specifically the actor from the movies) doing these "hateful" things and see if they are still ~sexy~. If it isn't sexy if Peter Pettigrew does it, then it isn't sexy at all. I'm over villains and generally bad people who get a pass because they are attractive. No thank you!
This is a spoiler and a trigger warning, but I wanted to share because I haven't seen much said about it in reviews. I had a really big problem with a conversation between Malachiasz and Nadya. The more I think about it, the more upset I am that in WICKED SAINTS, the use of blood magic doesn't scar you because magic JUST so the author could put in the bit about Masshole self harming so he would be seen as a damaged boy. I can't handle how this topic was used and abused in this book.
Just read the Grisha trilogy instead.
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Trigger Warnings: This book has blood magic, self-harm, lots of violence, and an off-handed conversation about said self-harm in the course of its 400 pages. Please practice self-care before, during, and after reading this book.
From the fact that I had PREORDERED it and asked to participate on the blog tour, I think you can tell I was EXTREMELY excited for this one. It was actually one of my most anticipated reads of 2019. But. What the actual eff. Why is this getting such good reviews. Ignoring the fact that I was bored by 10% into this book, and probably wouldn't have finished if Dani and I hadn't been reading it together, after like 65%, I mostly just anger read this one.
I don't generally like putting negative reviews on my blog and saving them for Goodreads, but there were things I felt I had to address with this because it is gaining such traction and I had been a part of the blog tour. A lot of things about this one really bothered me, beyond the abusive aspects that I talk about below.
The characters are boring, the plot feels reminiscent of literally hundreds of YA books before it (Dani and I were counting off specific points and lines that are basically the same as others we have read), and the "morally grey" aspects made me want to tear my hair out. I have read a couple reviews on here that talk about how Nadya doesn't have a lot of agency in this book - even in her POVs she is reduced to a side character. Once I saw it articulated, I agreed. I do hope that in the rest of the trilogy she is given the opportunity to grow; however, I will not find out because I'm not reading the rest of this.
You have to continuously wait for things to happen in this. It goes from one Big Point to nothing for like another 100 pages until you get to another Big Point, etc. etc. The fact that the characters find out they have been lied to and then so easily trust other people is ridiculous. The "halo" aspect of Nadya's character.... frustrates me to no end. So much of this just ANGERED me because I have no problem with books that use tropes, plot ideas, etc. from other books - but only if they do them well.
I am no longer going to be reading any "enemies to lovers" books that glorify tactics used in abusive relationships as "romantic" and "sexy." I read somewhere online that the test you should do is to imagine it is Peter Pettigrew (specifically the actor from the movies) doing these "hateful" things and see if they are still ~sexy~. If it isn't sexy if Peter Pettigrew does it, then it isn't sexy at all. I'm over villains and generally bad people who get a pass because they are attractive. No thank you!
This is a spoiler and a trigger warning, but I wanted to share because I haven't seen much said about it in reviews. I had a really big problem with a conversation between Malachiasz and Nadya. The more I think about it, the more upset I am that in WICKED SAINTS, the use of blood magic doesn't scar you because magic JUST so the author could put in the bit about Masshole self harming so he would be seen as a damaged boy. I can't handle how this topic was used and abused in this book.
Just read the Grisha trilogy instead.
I definitely understand a lot of your feelings on this one... the characters really frustrated me at a lot of points and needed more to them, as well as the weird relationships between some. The plot/pacing also needed a lot of help. Sorry this was such a disappointment for you!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, sorry this one was so disappointing. I'm pretty sure this isn't on my TBR, but if it is, it's coming off. Thanks for the honest review!
ReplyDeleteI'm so relieved I'm not the only one who thought many of these things about the book. I was really worried when I started it that the blood magic/self-harm aspect would be...problematic. I stopped reading at about 15% in because I also noticed that it was somewhat boring and the pacing was weird. I'm still kind of debating trying it again because people seem to love it so much?? But I am very glad you voiced many of my concerns and thoughts about this book. I thought maybe I was missing something. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI'm so relieved I'm not the only one who thought many of these things about the book. I was really worried when I started it that the blood magic/self-harm aspect would be...problematic. I stopped reading at about 15% in because I also noticed that it was somewhat boring and the pacing was weird. I'm still kind of debating trying it again because people seem to love it so much?? But I am very glad you voiced many of my concerns and thoughts about this book. I thought maybe I was missing something. Great review!
ReplyDeletesorry for the double comment, noticed this was anonymous for some reason the first time, oops