Malachiasz, no

I am attached to these children and it's painful

btw, one way to get me invested in a ship is to have one of them go "oh gods, anyone but him" when they realise they have feelings

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You know what I love? People who are supposed to be enemies grudgingly working together, and growing to like each other no matter how hard they fight it. Also, an examination of what it means to be a monster, and how human monsters can be. So, really, it’s no surprise that I ended up adoring Wicked Saints.

The series title is Something Dark and Holy, and I think that describes the feeling of this book perfectly. It is deliciously dark, and yet I didn’t feel like it had any of the unnecessary violence that repulses me in many dark fantasy books. It is also focuses heavily on gods, saints, heretics and how whether something is one or the other really depends on your point of view.

The three main characters in Wicked Saints (two of them with their own POV in this book, unless we count the epilogue) are all powerful, dangerous, and possibly as likely to destroy the world as to save it. And yet, they are also broken, charming, awkward, in love, and so many other human words. They are all enemies, and yet they all have the same goal, or at least a goal similar enough to force them to work together. Also, they all want to save their own respective countries, which doesn’t always seem possible without destroying the other.

I loved the worldbuilding in this book, but what really pulled me in and kept me going was my deep attachment to the three main characters. Nadya, Serefin and Malachiasz are all complex characters whose loyalties are tested in this book, and whose fates seem to be entwined despite their protests.

After that ending, I am a little scared what the sequel will bring, but I am definitely curious.