Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan Review

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan review (2/5 stars)

Warning: spoilers! However, this book is very predictable so I don’t think it matters too much

This book follows Nadya, her country’s last hope, a cleric who can talk to the gods and ask for powers from them, and Serafin, the crown prince of Tranavia and a powerful blood mage. Tranavians can use blood magic, where they spill blood in order to do magic. Nadya lives in Kalyazin, which has been at war with Tranavia for over a century over religion. When Serafin attacks the monastery where Nadya lives, Nadya must flee. She meets Malachiasz, a defector from a powerful group of blood mages called the Vultures who got their humanity tortured out of them. Nadya, Malachiasz, and two unimportant people named Rashid and Parijahan, decide to kill the king of Tranavia and stop the war. Along the way, Nadya falls in love with Malachiasz and tries to unravel the mysteries surrounding him. 

It turns out Malachiasz was actually the leader of the Vultures and he ran away after he suggested a theory on how to turn a man into a god to the king of Tranavia and the king expected him to go through with it. The king of Tranavia is trying to kill his son, Serafin, because he needs Serafin to be a sacrifice so he can turn into a god. The king is also jealous that Serafin is more powerful of a blood mage than him. 

One of my main complaints about this book is how stupid all the characters are. Nadya, the main character, knows not to trust Malachiasz. There are so many obvious red flags that she just straight up ignores, like how he was part of the Vultures, who had their humanness tortured out of them and have been her enemy for a hundred years, or how someone literally told her not to trust him and revealed that he was behind the king’s plan to kill a bunch of people to become a god. After this particular warning, Nadya practically just shrugs and goes, “well, he’s my broken boy!” and then kisses him. I really didn’t like the whole broken boy aspect to Malachiasz. It doesn’t make me sympathetic to him and really makes me question Nadya’s intelligence. 

There was a big “twist” at the end where it turns out this was Malachiasz’s plan all along and he really is evil. It wasn’t surprising at all, especially since Malachiasz once warned Nadya that whatever happened the next day, she should know that she was the best thing to happen to him. That definitely sounds like a dude about to betray someone. Malachiasz’s betrayal could’ve been done a lot better, like if Nadya hadn’t only known him for two weeks, or if he seemed a lot more trustworthy to begin with. I also knew from the beginning that something was up with Malachiasz because he didn’t have a POV and this random, less important to the story prince did, even though Malachiasz is supposed to be the love interest and therefore more important to Nadya. I’m also concerned that Nadya chose to work with Serafin, given that she believes he tortured and killed her best friend and everyone she grew up with. 

There are also a lot of unanswered questions. I know this is a trilogy and I haven’t read the second two books (and I’m not planning to) but the ending felt very sloppy. A lot of “important” characters are in situations that need explanations, not because they mysteriously disappeared or anything, but because the author clearly didn’t think to tie up their stories. Parijihan and Rashid and Kacper, who are supposed to be the main characters’ friends, are either missing or dead and Nadya and Serafin don’t even care. There’s also no explanation about what the gods are, since they’re hinted at being humans who just got more power and transcended, and we have no explanation for the older god who helped Nadya at the end. We don’t understand witches at all or how they do their magic (which is apparently different from blood mages and Nadya’s cleric magic, but we don’t know how). We don’t know why Tranavia isn’t religious. We don’t know why blood mages need spell books or how Nadya has her own power that’s different from everyone else’s or why she’s the only one ever who can talk to all the gods (like we don’t even need an actual explanation, just a theory would be nice). A review I read pointed out that the religion in this novel doesn’t even have a name. 

All in all, this book was very disappointing and predictable, and I would not recommend it.