Okay so there’s a lot of terms to remember in regards to seasons, days, gods all having different names. It might take me a while to get used to them all.

The world and character building is extremely complex. It’s quite hard to follow and even at 26% I still have absolutely no idea what is going on. What is the plot?

Really struggling to cope with a character called ‘miscellaneous’.

Okay so it gets worse, find below a list of names of the characters in the first 26% of this read and tell me you understand why this is a dnf?

‘Miscellaneous’
‘Abandon Hope’
‘Unnatural’
‘Irradiant’
‘Delirious’
‘Even quicker’
‘Thrice-Digested’

I don’t know if the author was trying to be different? But in this case, the names really pulled you out of the book and to be honest with you, is the main reason I’m dnf’ing this book.

Premise had me hooked, the book, unfortunately doesn’t do it justice.

Dnf at about 20%. Unfortunately I couldn't get into the story. I really wanted to love it and I think the idea is wonderful! But I found it overly complex at times and I didn't care for the characters. I might try again at a later date, but for now, need to move on.

Saint Death's Daughter


This book sounded like an interesting dream… but somehow it wasn’t really for me. I might pick it up at a later time but I just couldn’t get into reading it. After reading almost half of it I still had no clue what was going on.

The world building was wonderfully done but at the same time very confusing and complex. It felt like I was drowning is so many facts about Lanie's world that I couldn't really filter out what was actually important.

One thing that confused me a lot were the names of the characters and places. They seemed more like keyboard gibberish than actual words.

Something I really liked about the book was the relationship between Lanie and Canon Lir. Cannon Lir is one of the only characters actually introduced. They are an only friend of Lanie’s and she seems to be having a little crush on them. Which is actually quite sweet in my opinion.

All in all this book wasn’t really for me. But I will probably come back to it at some point.

My first impression (and a lasting one) is that the naming of characters, places and things is completely charming - like our protagonist, Miscellaneous aka Lanie aka Mizka.

Saint Death’s Daughter features excellent worldbuilding, both in the current timeline and meandering into its history. The descriptions are detailed and very engaging, to the point that I lost the main story thread quite a few times, but if this world takes your fancy you’re going to have fun getting lost.

There is a large cast of characters involved, and I definitely found myself looking forward to the next scene that might involve my favourites who I LOVED. Conversely, any sections with my least-favourites seemed to drag. This book is on the longer side, so if you prefer a shorter tightly-paced book this definitely isn’t for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion for the ARC.

I unfortunately dnf'd this at 20%. As much as I loved the premise of the book, I just found it over complex and could not get over the info dump at the start

First of all: thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This book has a great premise and a very unique world building. But those are the only good things in it.

The language used by the author is unnecessarily polish and formal, which made this a quite difficult read.

The names are not any better... "Abandon Hope", "Miscellaneous", "Sacred Dutra"... I genuinely can't tell whether the author chose those names for any particular reason or if they just wanted to be quirky - either way, for me, it felt... awkward.

The narrative was dense. I believe in some cases, less is more - something this book could have benefited immensely from.

World building is fun, but not when it comes in the form of info-dumping. Not to mention, how confusing some chapters were. I often found myself lost, not knowing how we got from A to Z.

The characters were also... well, boring, with a few exceptions: Saint Death, Goody Graves and Lanie herself.

The romance felt flat. I think it was played out to be this huge thing but I just... couldn't care less about it.

All in all, I think I'm actually a little salty over this book. It had everything in it to be great: and then, it was not.

My true rating would be 2.5 stars. I am only rounding up to 3 because, flaws and all, its definitely a creative book with an unique concept.

Take this review with a pinch of salt because I finished this book in the middle of a reading burnout and wasn't in the right mindset to process this book.

From the cover art, I honestly expected it to be contemporary or historical fiction but that was until I read the premise. It had my attention at 'royal assassins' and I was more than excited to read this book. But little did I know what I was in for.

The jumping between timelines felt out of place to me and while I do enjoy the occasional flashback, this had an irregular occurrence and made it so hard for me to keep track of what's happening. I tried noting them down, I tried bookmarking the page to come back but nothing worked. What didn't help was the ridiculously long names which definitely did not help me. I wish there was a family tree for me to understand what timeline these characters were from and HOW MANY KIDS CAN ANYONE HAVE?!

I'm not going to complain a lot though, C.S.E. Cooney defined worldbuilding. It was such a fresh take and being the person who devours a lot of YA fantasy books, I was hooked. I wished it had been explained more because even though I rarely ever read high fantasy, worldbuilding is something I treasure. The characters were all fairly interesting and equally if I have to put it honestly, obnoxious. The beginning was very slow and there was barely any action until it hit the 60% mark. However, I would still recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heart-warming coming of age adult fantasy :)

"It was always the same nightmare. Lanie must have had it a hundred times. A thousand"
"Stoneses, he said, have been favoured of Saint Death since the days of the Founding Queen"
"Necromancers are rare and fragile, and the world is full of death. Especially for a Stones"
Fans of "Ninth House" watch out because you're going to love this book!
I didn't expect to like it as much s I actually did!
I probably thought that this would have been a good ya fantasy story with a little bit of mystery in it and maybe a romance ... I couldn't be more wrong.
I deeply appreciated the glossary at the very beginning of the book that gave the reader an idea of the timeline of the story and created an entire new universe I could experience.
The world-building, the magic system, the different characters and their own different genders ... all this details worked together to make this book more than amazing and pretty much surprising.
I'm not going to lie , I needed a bit to get into it but mainly because it was a complex structure of plot and characters' description that you have to analyse with attention and dedication to admire it completely.
I loved the main character and I loved how the author worked with different gender's pronouns in order to make the story even more intriguing!
A young, female protagonist with an allergy for death who has the ability to master necromancy and can speak with the ghosts , who's hunted , wanted by so many important families who dream of using her powers for themselves ... amazing !
"Your weakness isn't your allergy"
"Bless my should or what's left of it. I must say, Miscellaneous Stones, for once in your life you've impressed me"
I absolutely adored how the writing style involved passing from a simple narrative (that was never really simple) to poetry and verses. How everything involved some riddles and lullabies to give it an even gentler tone.
And I loved it even more when it dealt with people morphing into falcons or being possessed because of a spirit's rebirth!
So many amazing characters are part of this story just to make this world more enthralling!
I look forward to read more about it!
"I will learn from you ... And when I have learned bough, I will end you"
"Magic - like poetry - is what will suffice"
"We need no wings between us, thou and I."

this is one of those cases where the premise sounds amazing, the cover is great, the synopsis is promising… but then the execution falls flat. i couldn’t tell you what happened exactly in this book because i was not feeling it 70% of the time. was not for me, though i can see other people liking it a lot!

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read the first few chapters of this book and I'm afraid to say, it wasn't for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't grasp the world-building or make a connection with the characters. I apologise for any inconvenience caused and would still love to continue to review your arcs.

Thank you,

Jess

⅗ stars
The concept sounded awesome and at first, it was enjoyable, however, I struggled to finish this book, there was some dull stuff. However, I did enjoy some of it. I did like some of the footnotes and it's a good read for October.

'Saint Death's Daughter': 2.5⭐

(Unpaid Review: thank you @netgalley, @csecooney and the publishers for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review.)

Concept ✅ characters ✅ plot ❓❗
I really liked the idea of this book, death being pitched as an actual character got me so intrigued I started it the minute I got approved. Then, the story dragged on a lot! The writing was different but this book could've been shortened in my opinion. I did appreciate the idea and would recommend everyone to get it!

I found this book to be so hard to get into at first, because there was so much information that I just couldn't keep up with, so many characters and the plot was confusing at first. It did get a little bit better as I continued reading, but I stopped at some point because I just didn't feel like this was the book for me. So - DNF.

At first glance the writing, character names etc felt very Lemony Snickett. But in trying to keep with that theme and the world building it just got to be too muddled for me to fully enjoy and be engaged with.

dnf 19%
i really wanted to love this but i got to (almost) 20% and i am still confused about everything and just can’t get into the story, no matter how hard i try. I just can’t connect to the writing style. It is way too lyrical and has too lengthy descriptions.
i’m amazed by the complex and impressive worldbuilding however it was too easy to lose track on what is what which made it too confusing to me.
It also read way too childish for my liking. It’s definitely rather for younger ya readers or maybe even middle grade idk
But I can imagine that if u like the writing style that it can be a good book and if u want to read it, it would be perfect for spooky season!
(Thank u netgalley for the e-arc!)

Unfortunately, the writing style did not click with me and I couldn't bring myself to continue reading. A DNF.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read this book I downloaded this yesterday and I was captivated. I read it all in one night. I may be lacking some sleep but I fell in love with this book and it is on my favourites list now.

This C.S.E.Cooney is now an auto-buy author for me now I feel in love with the weighting style the characters plot and the progression it just hits right with me and what I enjoy in a book. i will be looking into her previous book now and probably loosing more sleep.

This book was a lot! The world building is sublime and the lyrical writing style was impressive to say the least and therefore I am very greatful to havebeen granted and ARC. I however would rate it only at 3.5 stars out of 5 because I felt the character development was hard to follow such as some of their motivations and goals.

To start, the story spans many years. Because of that, a lot of key characters are present only for a few pages and aren’t discussed again for many chapters, but, while you wait for them to reappear, you forget how some pages ago they where all Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones could think about. It feels like many of Lanie’s goals regarding some of these characters aren’t revisited at all and it leaves their story completely unfinished.

Overall, the writing style really grabs you, but I would have some trouble recommending this book to someone who isn’t a fan of literature or who prefers character driven stories. I myself am feeling a little disappointed by how this epic Fantasy Tale was concluded. It feels as if some of the biggest challenges and relationships Lanie dealt with during the story were simply left unfinished. The conclusion is somewhat underwhelming although ultimately positive.

Even though this story is great, the text sometimes is too dense which makes a little hard to follow the story. The world-building and main character, Lanie, are perfect.

This book is magic, death, Gods and family drama, perfect for spooky season!

I was very intrigued by the premise but I ended up not finishing this after struggling through the first 60%.

This story was driven by a lyrical writing style with an abundance of detailed description. I found the overly lengthy descriptions distracting from the plot. I favour character driven stories, which this was not.

The word count could have been cut down without trimming anything from plot.