"Wicked Saints" by Emily Duncan

Last year, this book was highly anticipated by many in the YA book community. It is a dark fantasy with hints of being steeped in Slavic mythology. Many fans of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy were hoping to finally get a love story between a girl who is just discovering her magical powers and a dark powerful mage. It took me a long time to get to this novel. The reviews were not overly favorable. But with a sequel coming out in April, I wanted to finally judge for myself what this book was all about.

With the world focused on a global COVID-19 pandemic these last few weeks, I had a hard time concentrating and reading has been a challenge. I had trouble staying focused on the book and ended up listening to most of it on audio. One note on the audio narration: the readers use "Slavic" accents when they read the words of the characters. It is a distraction. I think I would much rather not hear the accents. Otherwise, the audio book was fine. Now to the story.

There are two main nations at war in this book: Kolyazin and Tranavia. Kolyazin worships a pantheon of gods, who once in a while pick a cleric from among the people and endow him or her with magical powers. Nadya is such a cleric who was brought up in a distant monastery in the Kolyazi mountains. She hears gods when she prays and is able to work magic when the gods answer her prayers. Tranavians, on the other hand, have forsaken the gods. They rely on blood magic, harnessing the power of their own blood.

Despite the fact that many names in the book sound Slavic, there is nothing truly Slavic about this world or mythology. The world is also extremely dark. In the beginning, Nadya believes that Tranavians are an abomination, using blood magic and denying the gods. But as the plot moves along, we slowly learn that the gods are not what they seem, and perhaps not as infallible and divine.

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It definitely had its moments. The plot did have some interesting twists. However, I am not a fan of Emily Duncan's writing. Some of her sentences were confusing, and overall, I had a hard time immersing myself in the world. The accents, the garbled up Russian/Slavic names and the writing style kept pulling me out of the story. I do, however, already have an e-ARC of the second book and will be reviewing it soon.