REVIEW: WICKED SAINTS (Emily A. Duncan)

I'll preface this by saying that I was not part of the initial crew supporting the writing process of this book on Tumblr -- until a few weeks ago, I had no idea what this book was about, but I thought the concept was divine (if you'll pardon the pun). But alas -- even gods are not infallible. Wicked Saints will unfortunately die a quiet death on my bookshelf.

Let's start with what I liked:

1. The concept. While not necessarily "original" (what really is, anyway?), I thought the idea of a girl who can commune with gods found a fresh life in this book. Quite heavy-handed in its Catholic parallels, the questions Duncan poses toward blind faith and dedication are ones that are often skipped over in YA. The gods themselves had a unique and at times hilarious dynamic, particularly toward the beginning of the book. Speaking of which...

2. The beginning. The start of this book has tonally exciting and did a fantastic job of starting in media res. I do wish there was more development with (any of) the characters who lived in the monastery with her, particularly Kostya, who kind of seemed forgotten, especially considering the significance Nadya seemed to put on him early in the story. I almost expected it to be a love triangle (although future books might see -- not that I'll be tuning in).

2. (One of) the characters. Serefin was cool, honestly. This laissez-faire prince was genuinely interesting, and his friendship with Ostyia and Kacper (Kack-per or Kass-per?) was sweet. I found myself much more invested in his chapters, waiting anxiously to get to them.

Okay. That's all I got. Sorry.

Now to the bad stuff stuff that could use an editor another draft some improvement.

1. The writing. I know how this sounds. "But Cristina! That's the whole book!" Well, yes. Way too frequently, I found myself going, "Huh, wait, where are we? Oh, we're somewhere else completely now? Cool." Or, "Oh, okay, I guess I missed that character's entire backstory." Unfortunately, this not only made me very confused as to where we were and what was happening, but ultimately resulted in a vague sense of overall character. Rashid and Parijahan, for example, were almost non-existent as characters, though I got the sense we were supposed to care for them -- but we never got the chance to actually know them beyond their occasional convenience to the plot. (Why were they helping Malachiasz to begin with? I'm sure it was mentioned but I forgot, and I just finished the story -- not a good sign.)

I'll be the last person to say "give me more description!" but this book really suffered a lack of it. I know I never shut up about "show don't tell," but... please, show don't tell! The sheer amount of times that Nadya straight up told us "He looked anxious" or "No words could describe how [this felt}..." I hate to say it, but there are definitely words to describe how it felt. You gotta give us something, sis.

Last thing on language -- I was openly cringing at the intended poignancy of certain lines, particularly those relating to madness and chaos. *Prolonged groan*. Trust your readers to pick up what you're throwing down. A general rule of comedy is that a joke isn't funny if you have to tell us it's funny. Duncan runs into a related problem: A line isn't poignant if you have to tell us it's poignant. "But this is YA!" you say. "Some things need to be more thoroughly explained!" And to this, I reply, teenagers aren't stupid.

2. What actually happened? Like, in the plot? This kind of ties into my previous point, but I frequently found myself going, "wait, what?" Like the vagueness in location, movement, and secondary characters, the plot also suffered from fuzziness. When the characters would come to seemingly simultaneous conclusions, I would be left scratching my head, wondering either how they came to that conclusion, or what conclusion they came to at all.

3. The religious aspect is problematic. I'm sure that's the point, but there's only so many religious parallels (particularly to Catholicism) you can take before you get a little... frustrated with the main character calling non-believers heretics and abominations, and saying they need to be wiped out. Especially when she's kinda positioned as right in the narrative. It's a yikes from me.

4. The main character. Nadya... oh, Nadya. This girl takes holier-than-thou to whole new levels. I could say... a lot about Nadya, but I'm tired just thinking about her. All I want is an emotionally intelligent heroine. Just once.

5. Malachaisz. I'm gonna stop it there.

Final thoughts (*long sigh*):

Wicked Saints is a clever approach to an interesting concept. Thematically, it's pretty great at bringing high-fantasy to YA readers. Ultimately, however, it flops on execution. I can see how followers from Wicked Saints' Tumblr days might thoroughly enjoy this book, especially if they're already familiar with the characters and plot from its conception. New readers, however, might find it muddy and unclear, and (if they're anything like me) wishing this story had gone through just one more set of eyes before its publishing debut.

***

I received and ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts presented are my own.

(Originally posted on Goodreads: January 19, 2019)