Book Reviews: Something Dark and Holy series by Emily A. Duncan

Title: Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy Book 1)
Author: Emily A. Duncan
Published: Wednesday Books, 2019
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 390
Total Page Count: 451,515
Text Number: 1577
Read Because: recommended by chthonic-cassandra, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A cleric infiltrates her enemy's capital, aiming to assassinate their king. Okay: the writing here is atrocious. I can't say if it's objectively worse than most YA or just more evidence of why I avoid the genre (although it at least isn't another example of the first person present tense curse). It does its best to undermine all its potential, but there's a lot of that: A conflict between divine magic (from questionable gods) and blood magic (with overtly problematic ethics); aesthetic gore and wintery war-torn nations; the tension of courtly politics, doomed desires, and deception. I dig the vibes; the worldbuilding developments at the 60% mark recaptured much of my attention. But I sure hope the sequels are better written, because there's only so much "he was a glorious monster, tragically beautiful"-style writing I can take.


Title: Ruthless Gods (Something Dark and Holy Book 2)
Author: Emily A. Duncan
Published: Macmillan, 2020
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 545
Total Page Count: 455,900
Text Number: 1592
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our protagonist et al. head overland as their nations are trapped in an endless winter, seeking a magical forest where she can speak to the gods. This is a better book than the first in the series, but I don't think it's because the voice is meaningfully improved; I've only adapted. (Awkward sentences and comma splices abound; the repeated descriptions of a "beautiful, terrible boy" are ridiculous.) But the focus on the worldbuilding and the messy, compelling magic system—particularly the protagonist's relationship with magic/the divine—compels me. And while the interpersonal dynamics are unforgivably tortured, it's a fun torture: longing repressed by guilt, made more interesting by the larger forces at work on the cast. I'm still not convinced this series is good, but so far I don't regret continuing.


Title: Blessed Monsters (Something Dark and Holy Book 3)
Author: Emily A. Duncan
Published: Wednesday Books, 2021
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 530
Total Page Count: 456,790
Text Number: 1594
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In the wake of the world-altering fallout of the previous book, the cast copes with the return of lost ancient gods and the consequences of their countries' long war. I hugely disagree with criticisms of the magic system in this series, because that's easily my favorite part: magic is regional, fluid, and fuzzy, and while it's pointedly dissatisfying not to have easy answers, the result is something much more convincing and compelling for its nuance. I really enjoyed the middle worldbuilding sections on account.

Unfortunately, I'm a lot less interested in the sudden-onset found family vibes that permeate this book, and I lost the thread a bit in the climactic action: characters sacrificing/dying/( spoiler )

is thematically apropos but I hate it anyway, and when combined with a found family it makes the a tolerably-happy ending too predictable. Further, the writing hasn't significantly improved during the course of this series, although the quirks seem to change each volume; this time, a lot of onyx eyes and flat, quippy one-liners. There are elements of this series which I sincerely admire, and I don't regret reading it, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

True Crime Reviews: Under the Banner of Heaven, Krakauer; Lust Killer and Practice to Deceive, Rule

I loved Rule's The Stranger Beside Me and when doing house things (of which: not as much overwinter but, let's be honest, I needed a break) I read so much true crime on audio, so I finally went and made a list of everything the library has unabridged. And so far the results are ... uh, less impressive.

How much of that is due to "readers mispronounce PNW placenames"? Like 10%, but it's a very painful 10%. On the other hand: Dick DePosit.


Title: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Author: Jon Krakauer
Narrator: Scott Brick
Published: Books on Tape, 2003
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 390
Total Page Count: 453,785
Text Number: 1585
Read Because: reviewed by Katherine Addison, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: In framework, this is true crime about the murder by two fundamentalist Mormons of their sister-in-law and infant niece; but in practice, it's less about these events—which are clear-cut and unromanticized—and more about why: about fundamentalist Mormonism, its origins and relationship with the larger Mormon church, the church's views on gender and its long history of polygamy, and how these factors led a group of fundamentalist men to murder. Backtracking through history can feel like an endless digression, and certainly it makes for a hot mess of a reading experience with a lot of names and timelines to track—the history of the Mormon church is wild. But it's a productive big-picture view. Like the author, I grew up in Corvallis, which has an unexpectedly large Mormon population; unlike him, I had little contact with the church. I doubt I would have intentionally searched out a history of Mormonism, but stumbling upon this one explains so much, answering my old curiosities but also contextualizing the Mormon church's presence in America and American culture. Fascinating; I'm sure it's not a complete picture, but this is so much more than I knew before.


Title: Lust Killer
Author: Ann Rule
Narrator: Callie Beaulieu
Published: Tantor Media, 2017 (1983)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 413,205
Text Number: 1555
Read Because: more true crime while painting, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: So, Rule's treatment of this case hasn't aged well, particularly the way that crossdressing and other "deviant" behaviors are elided with paraphilias and, specifically, lust murders—a substantial flaw in Brudos's case. (Rule also punches below the belt at odd moments; particularly, the laborious inclusion of jailhouse lawyering indicates mainly that jailhouse lawyering is difficult and therefore flawed.) Nonetheless this is an interesting case. I come from the Willamette Valley and had never heard of Brudos. This makes the mispronunciations in the audiobook infuriating, obviously, and it makes Rule's characterization of "cozy" Salem just bizarre. (Maybe it used to have a different reputation?) But fascinating that such a sensational case of such an iconic serial killer profile exists forgotten in local history and, reading around the sensationalism, an interesting profile of the relationship between personality development, sexual fetish, and criminal behavior.


Title: Practice to Deceive
Author: Ann Rule
Narrator: Anne Twomey
Published: Simon Schuster Audio, 2013
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 410
Total Page Count: 455,255
Text Number: 1590
Read Because: reading more of the author/more true crime while various house things; audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The murder of Russell Douglas and the slow, complex series of events that ended in two convictions. Douglas's murder ultimately isn't that complicated—but the motives, a borderline stranger-murder/would be murder-for-hire/ineffectual insurance scam, are unusual; further, it wasn't policework that solved this case, but rather a significant tip from a friend of a culprit. Thus much of the length here is given over to what feels a little like padding: the lives, both tragic and petty, of the players and their families. But my real takeaway is the same I brought from Hesse's American Fire: lovers conspiring to commit a crime may seem darkly romantic but is in reality petty, pointless, and vaguely cringe (even when reading around Rule's ample sexism and body-shaming).

P.S. There's a supporting figure here named Richard DePosit & the audio experience of multiple straight-faced readings of "Dick Deposit" is, yes, quite funny.

BRs: A Grief Observed, Lewis; Skeptic's Guide to Hypnosis, Olson; The Body Keeps..., van der Kolk

Nonfiction collection with otherwise no connection except maybe how out of place A Skeptic's Guide is in this company. Where is the Olson fandom at that no one else has gone the extra mile to read this trash book and then review it, eh?

Title: A Grief Observed
Author: C.S. Lewis
Published: Harper One, 2015 (1961)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 90
Total Page Count: 412,935
Text Number: 1554
Read Because: these quotes popped up on Tumblr and resonated with me; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: C.S. Lewis's diaries kept after his wife died from cancer. I find Lewis's religious anxiety intellectually interesting but emotionally unaffecting, and honestly I appreciate the distance that this allows; it was good to have some space to catch my breath because, while the source of our bereavement differs significantly, Lewis gives a voice to grief—its scale and shape, its selfishness and the anxiety of selfishness—that echoes my own experience. This isn't life-changing, but it's also a slight read, one framework for a single grief in a limited period, and it doesn't need to comprehensive to be productive.


Title: A Skeptic's Guide to Hypnosis
Author: Brad Default aka Dan Olson
Published: 2022
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 451,625
Text Number: 1579
Read Because: morbid curiosity after watching Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins video, available free on the Internet Archive
Review: I read this because I'm the person that watches the special features (and I made a GoodReads page for it because, uh ... got me there). You probably shouldn't, for obvious reasons: it's not good. But for what it is (a non-fiction book written in a month for the purposes of a YouTube video) neither is it bad. The IDGAF attitude makes for a breezy readability and gently inappropriate sense of humor. The content is competent, mostly because the history of hypnotism ties nicely to a metanarrative about the grift ecosystem.


Title: The Body Keeps the Score
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
Narrator: Sean Pratt
Published: Books on Tape, 2021 (2014)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 465
Total Page Count: 457,625
Text Number: 1596
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This is a thorough and wide-reaching overview of the mind/body link in trauma: the way brains are wired and rewired by trauma, and how fundamentally it informs how and why survivors operate. Its breadth consequently makes some parts insubstantial; the lackluster allusions to DID ping as "wait, what?" for me, and make me wonder what other parts suffer from similar oversights. Nonetheless, the confidence with which it asserts some pretty damn important, controversial, and largely ignored truths about developmental trauma and C-PTSD has inherent value. Substantial, thoughtful, productive, nuanced, holistic - if flawed, either in the work or in the author.