Out of the characters, I felt they had the most fleshed out arcs and showed the most personality, and I hope the other characters-especially Nadya-catch up with them. I would say my favorite aspects of this book were the two male main characters, Serefin and Malachiasz.

Other trigger warnings include torture and parental abuse. In Tranavia, blood magic is their game, and the mages keep sharp razor blades sewn into their sleeves to wipe into their spell books and cast spells to attack their enemies. There are countless times in the book where characters induce self-harm on themselves by drawing blood. While it wasn’t a problem for me personally, there are some trigger warnings for more sensitive readers to be weary of before opening the pages of Wicked Saints. **Spoiler Warning but also Trigger Warning!** Nadya could use a little more personification and personality in my opinion, but I did really enjoy the other two male characters I could tell the author outdid herself with them as main characters. With just about any other fantasy story, you know all their own motivations involves gaining power and helping end the way by any means, but the more interesting part of that is the different ways they try to go about achieving that goal. Nadya is obviously supposed to be the hero of the story, but Serefin takes a little longer for you to feel the same way about him, and you honestly don’t know what to think about Malachiasz the boy is an enigma.

It starts off as a typical good-vs.-evil type of story, but as you read on, you realize its more of a group of morally grey characters, which to me, always makes for a more interesting story. It’s got some Russian (Kalyazin) and Polish (Tranavia) inspiration in the ways of the two sparring countries, and fellow readers are really drawn to the different types of religions and how they’ve been such a huge driving force of the larger, outer conflict this story represents. Heavily compared to the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, this YA-Fantasy trilogy has also been said by fans who shipped Alina Starkov with The Darkling will really enjoy this story, to which I can definitely agree with!įans of the genre have been drawn to this darkly gothic tale of a nation torn in half because of a holy war, and even Owlcrate created their own special editions of the books that honestly look even better than the originals. To see my Fancast/Dreamcast of the series – Click HERE Total Star Rating: 3.75 Stars

Wicked saints review