Wicked Saints: A Novel

Something Dark and Holy, Book 1

By: Emily A. Duncan

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek, Tristan Morris

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself. A prince in danger must decide who to trust. A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings. Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.  

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. 

Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy.

©2019 Emily A. Duncan (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

“Prepare for a snow-frosted, blood-drenched fairy tale where the monsters steal your heart and love ends up being the nightmare.” (Roshani Chokshi, New York Times best-selling author of The Star-Touched Queen)

“This book destroyed me and I adored it.” (Stephanie Garber, New York Times best-selling author of Caraval)

"If you like your young adult fantasy full of ice, blood, and angst, Wicked Saints will sweep you up in its wintery embrace." (NPR)

Waiting

Given all the glowing reviews, I tried my best to stick this one out. I could not get past chapter 8 or so, despite coming back to the book and giving it a second (and third) go. I could appreciate the quality of the writing and sensed patience with the plot would be rewarded, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll save it for a rainy day.

Awkward start, amazing characters

This book was a slow start, but by the time I finished I was bereft. The narrators' accents were a little too heavy, so it distracted from the world building. This made me almost give up on the book, and I am so, so glad that I didn't.
Eventually the world building and character roles came together, and before I knew it, I was totally engrossed in the story. The main characters were so well written, that it became impossible not to become emotionally invested in them. As of right now there are some plot holes, and loose ends, but that just makes the sequel so much more enticing.

felt a tad fan fiction

I hear was truly looking forward to this book and I've had it on my radar for a bit. I then realized why I wanted to read it so badd. Son summoner and the darkly in fanfiction. Although a great story I didn't feel like it had enough originality in it

I LOVE THIS AUDIOBOOK!

I had the day off from work and ended up spending my whole day listening to the entire book, because I got so sucked in. I love the story and the characters and narration. Both narrators did a great job, but I was especially blown away by the soulfulness, vulnerability, and power transmitted by Ms. Soudek. She also did an amazing job on the accents... I think it’s brilliant that they obviously cast a real Russian. I actually got teary-eyed a few times, especially at the end, because her voice and the words and story went straight into my heart. Thank you. I highly recommend this audiobook and can not wait for the sequel.

Ugh.

the horrible Russian accents hurt my soul. like... the whole book is in English even tho the characters are obviously from some pseudo-russia, so WHY WOULD THEY HAVE ACCENTS unless they all decided to actually speak English with each other?! it's offensive and painful to listen to as a native speaker.

Good Story and Characters But Familiar Too

I'm dividing my review into sections.
The Story: Overall, this is a pretty standard Chosen One story. The Chosen One sets out to do The Thing she was chosen for. She does it, and there are twists and unintended consequences that set up for a second book. Emily Duncan's delivery on that structure is pretty good, and if you like Chosen One stories, you'll probably like this. It has echoes of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Spinning Silver, and The Bear and the Nightingale, while still offering a new world and magic system that is interesting on its own.

The Characters: This part is extremely subjective. If you read the Shadow and Bone trilogy and shipped the Darkling and Alina, you'll probably love the romance here. There is some similar imagery and tragic dark boy + saint girl vibes. That was not my ship, but I respect it as a thing other people like. Serefin was the best character in the book ( I know, I know, Darkling fans, your favorite is Malachiaz.) He is more complex, unpredictable, and interesting than all of the others. The two sidekick characters were massively under-developed and hardly mattered to the story.

The Narrators: whoo boy. You've probably seen the debate in the other comments. The female narrator made everything sound trite and no-big-deal. But her accent was more believable and she had more distinct voices than the male. The male narrator sounded like GPS. He had a very staccato reading voice with very little inflection. I recognized him from the Six of Crows prologue. They weren't the worst narrators I've heard on Audible, but they weren't great.

Overall: I enjoyed listening to this book. The story was familiar, as were some of the characters. That said, I didn't mind the echoes of other stories because this world and magic system were very creative and much different than the others. If/when there's a sequel, I'll probably just pick up the physical book if they hire the same narrators. I wish they had picked Kathleen Gati for the whole thing. She did an amazing job with The Bear & the Nightingale.

Returned

I wanted to get into this book but it was torturous. Boring, difficult to understand with the strange accents. I couldn’t stand to listen for one more minute.

Awful Narration; Imaginative World Brought Down by Standard YA Tropes

Wow. The narration in this is abominable. The accents during dialogue are performed like bad Hollywood vampire tropes (“I VANT to SUCK vour buhloood” type ridiculous), while non-dialogue is flatly Americanized and bit stale. What makes the narration worse is that there is no differentiating among the accents of characters from varying countries, even though we are told in the story that they sound quite different, they are all performed identically. The author also provided a pronunciation guide for names and places, yet they are still mispronounced throughout the book, including the name of a lead character. Hopefully this is corrected going forward.

The story is fairly standard gothic YA (think Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha series). The book really survives on the dialogue between characters and the strong leads. The world is complex, but it lacks imagery and true development. What is most absent throughout is ambience. If you take away the dialogue, the story is told very flat and lacks dramatic tension. We are told what happens and what (some) things look like, but there is no feeling, no tension; just straight telling not showing.

If you like the characters, gothic stories, and forbidden romance with mysterious and morally ambiguous pretty boys, you will most likely enjoy the book. If that doesn’t stand out to you, spend your credit elsewhere. The bones of a good story and compelling world and characters are there, but it lacks the fleshing out needed to really jump off the page and feel real and draw you in. If you are someone who doesn’t mind reading, you would also be better served with the physical book instead of the audio version.

Wonderfully wickedly done.

Bravo!! What a great ride! I'm excited for the next one! The epilogue was beautifully done😍

idk

it's like a super slow burn for me. it did get to a point where I was going dnf. but then it got better. idk I think I just confused with all the gods and I was also sure if Nadia was the only one who can see and speak to gods

They sound like meerkats from compare the market

People don't have accents when they are speaking their native tongue. This pretend Slavic accent sounds like a cruel parody while the actual Slavic words borrowed from my native Polish are butchered beyond belief. This is painful, because the story is very interesting.

I loved it!

In the past month I was seeing this book everywhere! It was all over Twitter and instagram and everyone was saying how amazing and incredible and everything they wanted in the book this book was! And... it is true! My hopes were super high and I was so afraid that this book won’t meet my high expectations but it did! I definitely want to read it again when it will come out in the uk!

The story is new and fresh, characters are not 100% black or white, you immediately fall in love with every single one of them. The story is very interesting and plot was engaging from the very beginning!

When I heard last words my only reaction was: “Nooooooo!!!!!.....”
and no audible, I didn’t enjoy it, I want more, how dare you to finish it so quickly! 😂

A little confused

I really like this book and there are some good characters but I found that I was thoroughly confused by the end. I also could found that it didn't feel finished or seem to come to any kind of resolution. I would recommend but wouldn't read again myself.

Wicked Saints

It took until chapter 19 for me to really get into this book. I think the male narrator made it harder for me as spoken rather robotic for me, even through the characters accents were perfect. Just the parts inbetween. The book left me torn and wanting more

Something missing

I loved the idea and the world but wouldn't pick up the next book. Some of the writing felt a bit awkward at times, and the plot reveals towards the end didn't make complete sense to me. Overall it massively felt like a debut.