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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/returning 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.
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/returning 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.
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Still worth it for the magic system for me, though. The fluidity of it reminds me a lot of what I internalized from studying Celtic mythology and fairy faith, back in the day - not in the specifics but in the way things work, differing between peoples, not structured but intuitive, impactful but unsolvable.