The Starving Saints is an enthralling and horrific fever dream of a novel, with a focus upon three unique and very different women as they attempt to survive within the besieged Aymar Castle. Sickness and starvation flourish, until four beings who bear a remarkable resemblance to holy figures of worship suddenly appear with a promise of food and succor.

But nothing comes without a price.

The beginning of the Starving Saints takes some time to build momentum and while the focus upon the main characters is great, I wish there had been slightly more time spent upon the world-building surrounding the initial conflict. The religious aspect is also very intriguing: with nuns serving in roles of influence and intelligence, as opposed to solely focusing upon matters of faith.

All three of the main characters are complicated and imperfect: Ser Voyne, the dedicated knight bound to the selfish king, Treila, a resilient former-nobel forced to serve and Phosyne, a former-nun with the ability to perform “miracles” cast into the role of the King’s madwoman and the castle’s would-be savior.

Each woman has their own motivations and imperfections and their complicated relationships with one another-obsession, hatred and need-while enduring utter horrors, are fascinating to behold.

The antagonists of The Starving Saints are otherworldly, yet very enticing and the foreshadowing regarding their true natures is excellent. I was delighted once I realized what was actually happening and even more so when the characters themselves echoed some of my assumptions.

Different forms of hunger-for food, for knowledge, for purpose and for vengeance play a large role in The Starving Saints. The contrast between the desiccated subjects, listless and famished, to the revelry displayed at a feast, with garish descriptions of succulent meats and ravenous gorging is a stark one. Once the actual nature of the feast is revealed however, it renders further depictions of food more than slightly unpleasant.

Gory and yet beautiful, The Starving Saints is quite the unique novel and while its darker subject matter may not suit all readers, it will definitely remain in my mind for quite a while.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing access to this ebook. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Something about religion and horror just is my cup of tea.

Here we have a castle under siege and one lady performed a miracle to clean the water but they are desperate for her to come up with another miracle to provide food for everyone. As she is trying to conjure another miracle some visitors appear in the castle.. are they an answer to her prayers??

This has three pov and at times I just wanted to go back to the previous pov but overall I just ate this UP.
I listened to the audio so the slow burn nature of this creepy ass book worked very well.

I’m a fan.

Thanks to netgalley and Harper audio for an alc

The Starving Saints is about a Castle during a war facing starvation and how the people of Aymar Castle cope and deal with that starvation when it looks like salvation is coming. Phosyne (the “mad woman” of the Aymar) has performed miracles before to fix their water supply, but when her solution to the food seems more harmful than helpful- her and two other women (Ser Voyne and Treila) do what they can to take their castle back. This is a dark medieval horror with sapphic ties.

At first, this was a slow start for me. I wasn’t sure where it was going so it took me a minute to get into it. Once the story plot was laid out and we started getting into the meat of the book (pun intended), I was hooked. I flew through the last 60% because I was captivated. There was body horror with more than just cannibalism that you expect. The author’s description made me feel as though I was experiencing their pain, hunger, confusion, and more.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is into books that feel like a fever dream.

This book was so good! The themes of hunger and religious ideas of what makes something a deity and what makes something holy we're so intriguing I didn't want the book to end! I need more mysterious litfic horror in my life, this has changed how I view horror forever.

actual rating: 3.5

this is the type of book you want to take your time with to avoid fatigue but time away might also cause further confusion in this already maddening world.
what was this??? lol
medieval sapphic down bad at the worst time, under siege, starving, dying. can one madwoman create a miracle to save them all? or will outsiders need to step in with honey and bees?
this book was slow, the characters were compelling, the body horror was as gross as the madwoman herself. there were surprises and nothing made sense but was exhausting yet enjoyable??? i’m really a mix of emotions with this one. readers will either love it 35% in or give up on it. honestly, it wasn’t until 45% where I felt truly invested.

This book was amazing from start to finish. I'd already had it on my wishlist for the year as an anticipated read and was so happy when I was approved by Netgalley for the arc. I was immediately pulled in by the worldbuilding via the three main characters and how they interact separately with their environments. I loved the triple perspectives kept up throughout the book and getting to piece together what each of them know and how they move through the world given their own circumstances. I also enjoyed how each of them came together to deal with the bigger issue towards the middle/end of the book, I was very excited for the horror element to come into play with this book, also, and I was NOT disappointed in the slightest! All in all I was very impressed with this book and I will definitely be recommending it to the people I know who would also enjoy a book like this!

Wow, what a creepy and dreamy story. The Starving Saints is a horror/medieval fantasy about 3 women who come together to free the people of Aymar Castle from madness. I loved the themes of power, salvation, revenge, and faith. I enjoyed the cannibalism in the story and all the gory details.

The writing was difficult to understand at times. I had to re-read certain parts twice to fully understand and read through the fluff, but overall enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

The cover is stunning, grabs your attention right away, and was the reason I requested this ARC.

If you’re looking for creepy medieval castle vibes with a little bit of dark alchemy then this is for you. The setting is to die for, literally, with all the old fashion gore you would expect from this timeframe. Knights, saints, starving citizens, and a few shadow pets add some extra flair. Overall a good read though it was a little slower paced than I personally usually like. That being said, it does fit the story and slow burn readers will be beyond happy after the wait.

This was a wild disgusting fever dream of a book. I honestly loved it. I cannot resist a good cannibalism story and this book has such an intense sense of dread throughout that captivated me.

Listen. I crush easy, I fall in love easy, I fall out of crush easy, I fall out of love easy. It keeps life interesting.

So I very often exclaim to people, 'I love this book/song/whatever most of all.' And it is true, in that moment.

But once in a while something sticks long term and you just know it when you experience it. This is going to remain a favorite book for the long haul. I knew it within the first few chapters.

It's queer af. It's slow burn af. It's creepy af.

I'm all for horror, and love a good monster or good jump scare. Especially lately as I've been knee deep in Splatterpunk books. But this book is a different kind of horror. It is a slow creeping horror that gets under your skin without ever overdoing it. It's horror of both the supernatural and human kind. There's cannibalism, there's secrets, lies and bargains and poor choices. Sometimes manmade, sometimes not. And bees, so many bees.

Plus the medieval-ness of it all? And the girl on witch on girl-knight action? I hit that point reading this book of, 'hmmm it's 5am do I stay up and just not sleep to keep reading or read the rest of this book tomorrow?'

I am dying for release day so I can immediately purchase the audiobook and listen to it, just to experience someone else reading it to me.

5 stars all around. But because these reviews are suppose to be complete honesty I will admit there was one part of this book that made me dance a little less. I noticed some reviews complained about the first half of the book and either only became interested the later half or DNF after the first half because they felt it was too slow. I think I was the opposite. I absolutely loved the first 80% of this book. The next 10% I really liked too. The last 10% I loved the characters and the plot but the setting went a little too... acid trip out of nowhere. I get why it happened in a way but we didn't get too much of that in the rest of the book (save for maybe the garden) so it was a little huh at points. But most of all I fear for what happened to the cute little slips of scaled pets past a certain bath scene.

Didn't change how much I loved this book though and will be highly pushing it on everyone I know. :)

Also, thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books/Harper Voyager for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling is the sapphic horror medieval fantasy of your wildest dreams—if you can handle cannibalism, religious imagery, cultish rituals, and an undercurrent of intense sapphic yearning. The story follows three compelling characters: Phosyne, an experimental alchemist; Treila, a fallen noble out for revenge; and Ser Voyne, a loyal knight bound to her king. Aymar Castle is under siege, its people starving as war looms on the horizon. Phosyne is tasked with performing a miracle when three mysterious Saints and The Constant Lady appear, promising salvation in the form of food. But as the characters grapple with the promises of these mysterious figures, they must ask themselves: What is the price of salvation? And how much will they have to sacrifice to escape the horror surrounding them?
This book is a chaotic, hedonistic ride through both ecstasy and terror. While there were moments when I found myself a bit disoriented by the narrative, I believe this disorientation was deliberate, mirroring the characters' own confusion and struggle to survive the horrors that surround them. The sense of gore and horror was so vividly portrayed that I couldn’t help but feel immersed in their nightmarish world. A word of caution: this book is not for the faint of heart, especially if you’re squeamish—there are plenty of spare limbs and grotesque imagery throughout. The pacing starts off slow, but once it picks up, the intricate details of the world and its characters had me in a chokehold—if you know, you know.
I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy on May 20th! Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the arc!

This book is an enjoyable fever dream. The writing is dreamy and the religious iconography is interesting. Some of the characters are intriguing. Some we don't get enough time. My main issue is the pacing. The story stops and starts and drags in other places. And then there are the names. I couldn't figure out how to pronounce a good chunk of them.

I was already intrigued by how interesting the cover art was and ended up really enjoying the story the plot the suspense the twists and turns within the book itself!

Caitlin Starling’s The Starving Saints is the kind of book that sounds like it was cooked up in a cauldron of medieval grimdark, sapphic yearning, and a heavy dose of “what the fuck just happened?” It’s a novel that swings for the fences with a premise so juicy it could make a vegan salivate: a besieged castle, starving to death, gets a visit from godlike “saints” who bring feasts and salvation, only to plunge the place into cannibalistic madness and hedonistic chaos. But as much as I wanted to sink my teeth into this grotesque banquet, I came away feeling like I’d bitten into a beautifully plated dish that was half-baked and a little too chewy. Starling’s got the chops, no question. She’s a horror darling with a knack for the unsettling, but this book feels like it’s trying to juggle too many severed limbs and ends up dropping a few.

Starling’s no stranger to crafting nightmares that cling like damp rot. Her debut, The Luminous Dead (2019), was a sci-fi horror gut-punch about a caver trapped in a cave with a manipulative overseer, all wrapped in a suffocating sense of isolation. The Death of Jane Lawrence (2021) leaned into Gothic horror with a marriage gone wrong and a house that felt like it was breathing down your neck. Both books showcased her ability to blend psychological terror with visceral settings, often starring flawed, fierce women who wrestle with their own demons as much as external ones. Starling’s work thrives on tension and ambiguity, and she’s built a cult following for her willingness to get weird and stay there. The Starving Saints, her latest, cranks the weirdness to eleven, but it also feels like she’s trying to outdo her own strangeness, sometimes to a fault.

Set in the fictional Aymar Castle, The Starving Saints traps us in a medieval-ish stronghold under siege by an enemy kingdom, Etribia. Food’s running out, and the inhabitants are staring down the barrel of starvation. Enter our three POV characters: Phosyne, a former nun turned sorceress who’s tasked with conjuring miracles but lives in a pigsty of her own making; Ser Voyne, a loyal lady knight itching to do something heroic but stuck babysitting Phosyne; and Treila, a servant girl with a vendetta against Voyne for her father’s death. As the castle’s desperation peaks, four “saints” and their leader, the Constant Lady, appear out of nowhere, offering endless feasts and divine salvation. But the food’s got a catch. It's mind-controlling, and soon the castle’s spiraling into a bacchanalian nightmare of cannibalism, worship, and otherworldly horrors. Our three heroines, each wrestling with their own baggage, must figure out what the saints want and how to stop them before Aymar eats itself alive.

The Starving Saints is a smorgasbord of themes, and Starling doesn’t shy away from the big ones. Hunger is the beating heart of the story, not just for food but for power, love, and meaning. The castle’s starvation mirrors the characters’ inner voids: Phosyne’s craving for arcane knowledge, Voyne’s need for purpose, Treila’s thirst for revenge. The saints exploit this, turning devotion into a literal feast that consumes the worshippers. It’s a biting critique of blind faith, especially when desperation makes you cling to any savior, no matter how toothy. The book also plays with cleanliness as a metaphor for godliness: Phosyne’s filthy lair screams her rejection of the nuns’ sterile piety, while the saints’ pristine feasts hide their rot. There’s a nod to John 6:53-58 (“unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man…”) that gets twisted into a grotesque literalism, flipping worship into predation.

The sapphic dynamics between the three women add another layer, exploring toxic codependency and yearning. Their relationships are a messy tangle of lust, hate, and need, reflecting the power struggles that ripple through the castle. Bees and honey pop up as symbols of both sweetness and danger, tying into the saints’ seductive but deadly offerings. But some of the symbolism like a creature in a crevice that bites fingers or invisible beasts that feel like they wandered in from a different book, comes off as random, like Starling threw in extra fantastical elements for the sake of it. The themes are ambitious, but they don’t always cohere, leaving you with a sense of “cool, but… why?”

Starling’s prose is a double-edged sword. It’s lush and evocative, painting Aymar as a claustrophobic hellscape where every stone drips with dread. Her descriptions of feasts with meat glistening, honey dripping, and flesh tearing are so vivid you can almost taste the horror. The shifting POVs give each character a distinct voice: Phosyne’s frantic, Voyne’s restless, Treila’s cunning. But the writing can also be a slog. Starling leans hard into a fever-dream style, with short, choppy sentences and metaphorical flourishes that sometimes obscure what’s happening. It’s intentional, meant to mirror the characters’ unraveling minds, but it can feel like wading through molasses. The book’s 320 pages feel closer to 500, with repetitive scenes of characters hiding, scheming, or stumbling through hallucinatory chaos. The pacing drags, especially in the middle, and the climax is prolonged, leaving some plot threads dangling like severed tendons.

Originality is where The Starving Saints shines. Starling’s premise is a knockout. Medieval horror with cannibalistic saints and sapphic antiheroes is about as fresh as it gets. The blend of psychological, body, and religious horror feels like a love letter to fans of Lapvona or The Green Knight. But the originality takes a hit when extraneous elements dilute the focus. It’s like Starling couldn’t resist tossing in every weird idea she had.

The writing is a strength and a weakness. When it’s good, it’s chef’s kiss—gory, poetic, and immersive. But the overreliance on dreamlike ambiguity and repetitive imagery bogs things down. I wanted more clarity to anchor the madness, especially when the plot started feeling like a carousel of “oh no, another feast gone wrong.”

The horror is visceral and unsettling, especially the cannibalism scenes, which are gross without being gratuitous. The saints are creepy as hell, their serene benevolence masking a predatory hunger. But the impact wanes when the weirdness gets silly. Those invisible beasts felt like they belonged in a B-movie, not this grim tapestry. The slow-burn tension also fizzles in the bloated middle, making the scares feel sporadic.

Starling’s tackling big ideas (faith, power, desire) and she mostly pulls it off. The critique of blind devotion and the exploration of sapphic dynamics are compelling. But the themes get muddled by the overstuffed plot and vague supernatural elements. I wanted more focus on the saints’ origins or the women’s backstories to ground the symbolism.

Here’s my biggest gripe. Phosyne, Voyne, and Treila are fascinating on paper being flawed, messy, and human. But I struggled to connect with them. Their motivations shift erratically, and their backstories feel like sketches rather than fully realized histories. I wanted to care about their triumphs and failures, but they often felt like pawns in the plot’s chaos rather than drivers of it.

The Starving Saints is a book I respect more than I enjoyed. Its originality and prose are top-tier, delivering a premise and atmosphere that horror fans will drool over. The horror hits hard when it lands, and the themes are bold, even if they don’t fully gel. But the bloated pacing, inconsistent weirdness, and distant characters kept me at arm’s length. It’s not a bad book—far from it—but it’s a frustrating one, like a gorgeous painting with a few smudged corners. If you’re a diehard fan of weird horror or Starling’s brand of dark fantasy, you’ll likely eat this up. For me, it was a feast that left me hungry for something tighter and more cohesive.

TL;DR: The Starving Saints is a grotesque, ambitious medieval horror show that’s as dazzling as it is maddening. Starling’s premise and prose are killer, but the bloated plot and disconnected characters make it a tough swallow. Worth a read if you love weird, sapphic, cannibalistic chaos, but don’t expect it to hold your hand.

Recommended for: Readers who own a velvet cloak, enjoy theological discourse during sex scenes, and consider religious ecstasy via cannibalism a beach read.
Not Recommended for: Anyone who needs their horror to make sense or their characters to feel like actual people, not fever-dream puppets.

3.5 stars. The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling is a gripping and atmospheric novel that masterfully blends horror with psychological depth. The setting was creepy and medieval. Starling crafts a haunting tale of faith, hunger, and obsession, driven by richly drawn characters and a creeping sense of dread. Her prose is sharp and evocative, pulling readers into a world where belief becomes both salvation and curse. It's a dark, compelling read that lingers long after the final page. Starling is one of the best horror writers working.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this digital e-arc.*

Caitlin Starling's latest novel "The Starving Saints" is a foray into medieval madness, chock full of horrifying creatures and moral dilemmas that will leave readers questioning what they would do in a situation as desperate as this one is.

I really loved this book! Each character was compelling, and there wasn't a perspective that I didn't want to read. In particular, I really loved Ser Voyne and her arc. Each dynamic was also extremely interesting, not only between the girls but also other secondary characters. The plot in general was fantastic, and there was never a moment I found myself bored— I loved the atmosphere before the Saints came, and I couldn't stop reading after they did. Finally, I adored the prose. It fit the plot perfectly, and there were so many lines I had to reread later because of how potent and visceral they were. The descriptions of body horror and gore were also great, and the dialogue felt accurate to the time period. I feel like this concept was really interesting, and I also feel like Starling delivered it spectacularly.

Thank you to Avon, Harper Voyager, Starling, & NetGalley for this ARC!

3.5 stars, rounding up.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC!

Medieval horror with cannibalism, sapphic nuns and knights and honeybees? I was so ready for this and was ecstatic when I was approved for the eARC. And the cover is disturbingly stunning.

It didn't quite hit the mark that I'd hoped, but I still did enjoy it. It was much slower paced than I expected, honestly, and I was surprised how long it took me to read it because I didn't always look forward to picking it up despite the lush descriptions. The pacing just felt really off to me at times, especially the progression of the relationships with the three women. I was very confused by their decisions most of the time, probably because we only got to know them on a surface level. The three of them honestly felt the same to me, and I would often forget which woman I was following at what time.

Despite that, I loved the disturbing world and descriptions that Starling put us in. Everything felt grimy and bloody, and the Saints were super creepy. Definitely a bizarre book that will not be for everyone, but I think horror lovers should give it a shot!

I wanted to love this. Badly. But it was so underwhelming.

The concept is what really draws people into this, and I can understand why. I hadn't heard about it till a friend told me about it and I was immediately interested, but the entire execution falls super short. Cannibalism, horror, queerness? Sick! Sadly it went downhill from the start for me.

The writing is unnecessarily detailed, and not in a beautiful way but a "trying too much" way. It felt confusing, unnecessarily detailed, and with too many segments that felt drawn out with no explanation of what it was really trying to say. Perhaps the author's writing in this is similar to their other book, and that can work for some but I fear that would ruin the reading experience for me as well. From the beginning, we are kind of introduced to a lot of characters that it overwhelmed me, and it was unnecessary. You really just need to know the gist of the main characters + The King and the Lady, but the names of everyone else making their rounds in the beginning just added confusion.

The characters felt underdeveloped and not fully fleshed out. I feel like we got more glimpses of who our main protagonists are instead of the big picture. I felt like there was never a time we really got to know either of them. Perhaps Phosyne was the one I felt like I knew the most, and it might just be because she was the first character we actually meet and get to know a bit in the beginning. Unfortunately, Treila was the least interesting to me, and her chapters felt agonizing to get through.

Maybe it's because of HOW I went into this book, but I expected more horror, more fear in between the chapters, more scary features that made the atmospheric dark, gritty and unhopeful, but this just felt like a fantasy with very minor supernatural and medieval traits featuring three women on an adventure. Sorry, I can't find another way to put it. There was hardly any plot to look forward to, and the characters lost their personalities early on.

While there is sapphic yearning (I guess), this should not be approached as romance in any way. It doesn't feature itself to be, but I know sometimes people can give unrealistic expectations. If there is one thing I would like someone to take away from this, it's to not go into this expecting a sapphic romance between three women.

Overall, disappointed. Maybe I need to read other horror novels to get used to the genre if this is how they are normally written. Which kind of sucks to say but it would help me have low to no expectations.

An eerie fever dream of a novel, and probably my favorite thing yet to come from Caitlin Starling. It's difficult to bounce between three different protagonists in this chaotic of a setting and have each feel fully real and distinct, but I was obsessed with each of them, and their distinctive motives and goals wove together delightfully.