I was intrigued by the cover of this book, and the story was good. I did not expect there to be so many POVs and that always takes something away for me. I believe that this is more dark fantasy than it is horror. That’s okay, just not what I was expecting.

Incredible book. Medieval horror at its best. Slow, eerie, claustrophobic — I felt this book in my bones.

I choose this book because I was intrigued by the cover.. I find it annoying when a story is told in more than 2 POV but the story is very easy to follow and really interesting. There are a few trigger warnings that should be considered for some readers but overall it is a good book and good storyline.

This novel unfortunately was not for me. I was under the impression it was horror, not dark fantasy. This author tried really hard to make this sound elevated in to fit fantasy narrative but in just felt short. The cohesiveness was not there and half of the time I couldn’t not tell what was happening in the story.

✨This is another ARC to favorite! Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this ARC of The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling.

“…three starving women who struggled for mastery of themselves in the face of a spiraling world.

Three women saving their world from murderous creatures masquerading as religious icons… and they’re queer! What more could you ask for? Ser Voyne, the dashing knight with her honor and grace. Phosyne, the nun turned alchemist who uses her strong mind to overcome temptation. And Trelia, the resourceful and quick rat catcher who, I think, really saved the people with her fearlessness.

This book is full of gore, body horror, cannibalism, and mind control. I loved every moment of it, it was so fun and action packed! The characters were so vivid. This is going on my list of auto recommendations!

Do you revel in the decent into maddness and horror? Does medieval cannibalism and revalry intruige you? Then this is deffinitely the book for you. Caitlin Starling drew me in with the idea of a nun-turned-sorceress, and unhinged saints all trapped within a castle rife with famine and disease, but I was plesantly suprised by the budding romance and enticing charachter development of the three women. Sir Voyne, Phoysne, and Trelia scattered within different parts of the castle, wrestling with various horrors are perfectly interwoven into this sinister fever dream.


*Blurb from the back of the book below*

From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.

Aymar is a castle under siege--with one wall facing a cliff and the other surrounded by enemy soldiers, those within its walls have resorted to eating leather and waiting for the priory's bees, the only beings that can leave Aymar, to make enough honey to keep them from starving. Phosyne, a heretical ex-nun, is frantically working on a miracle to save her people, but her lack of success has her working under the watchful eye of the stern knight Ser Voyne. Meanwhile, a disgraced noblewoman whose father was executed by Ser Voyne wanders the halls of Aymar Castle, hunting rats in an effort to keep everyone fed. Their paths collide when four saints worshipped by the people of Aymar arrive past its gate, bringing more than enough fresh food to keep everyone fed and happy. Having their own reasons to be suspicious of these newcomers in holy clothes, the three women become unlikely companions in unraveling the mystery of how they arrived, and how they can free their people.

'The Starving Saints' is not an easy book to get into. It's a bleak fantasy, with writing that feels as oppressive and hopeless as the situation in which our cast finds themselves. Once the saints show up around seventy pages in, the pace quickens to an intoxicating frenzy, and the pieces that are meticulously set up in the beginning fall into place. It gets weird, it gets violent, and it gets confusing--all in a way that is lavishly described by Caitlin Starling's vivid prose. A lot of things in the story follow fairytale logic, though not in a way that feels disappointing or hollow. Phosyne's miracle working is guided by intuition and lucky guesses, with some of her feats confusing even her, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of hard magic system.

While I always appreciate a queer love story, I'll admit that this one felt a little out of place. Perhaps it was the bleakness of the setting, or perhaps it's just because I'm a bit too tender-hearted to be into throat-grabbing, but it felt more like filler in an already long book than an exciting new cast dynamic. I don't think Starling intends for it to be romantic as much as it's their weird and unhealthy fixations on each other, but if you're looking for a sapphic love story then you should look elsewhere.

'The Starving Saints' is weird and confusing and is probably a bit longer than it needs to be, but overall I enjoyed my time with it. This was my first time reading Caitlin Starling's work, but I'd definitely like to read more in the future.

Toxic women? Cannibalism? The Starving Saints was a highly anticipated ARC for me and it not only did not disappoint, it blew my expectations out of the water. What can I say except I love religious themes and cannibal metaphors.

A great read for YA and Adult body horror and female rage fans. This felt like listening to a Paris Paloma song, so if you're a fan of that genre you'd love this book.

A little bit of a slow pace, but the rich, horrifying language kept me reading. The body horror was done so well that it was difficult to read (in a good way, that's what I was looking for in this book). It was so easy to get swept up in the rage an anguish of the characters.
Medieval language is hard to adjust to, but I'm so glad it was included because it was really immersive and made the book feel like it was actually set in medieval times rather than modern day.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the eARC!

🥀🏰 The Starving Saints🏰🥀

"They deserve salvation, not merely an extension of their suffering"

This book was slow burn, chaotic, deranged, and filled with pure medival madness. If you've read Between Two Fires and have been yearning for a dark fantasy or something similar, this right here is literally an extended version of the disappearing castle chapter, with cannibalism and sapphic undertones and I mean that in the most exciting way!

We have an all female MCs, a Knight, a Nun and a Noble lady, whom are all in the same terrible circumstances, their castle is surrounded, they're out of food, the people are starving and they need to find a way to feed all these mouths, they keep praying to their saints to help them... and insanity ensues after prayers are answered.

We get everything with this one, dark fantasy, horror, suspense, and medival fever dream. This was such a delightful read. I dranked it up in just a couple of days, all 352 pages of it!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025, and it did not disappoint.

I would love to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this medival fever dream in exchange for an honest review!

god. gorgeous, delirious, wild & rabid. disgusting - give me more. no one does atmosphere like caitlin starling, and she is at her best in this sweltering, suffocating castle. the characters are stunning, each with their individual goals and personalities, and the cast of villains are richly sinister. the plot is rich and the pace is simply delirious - i was frequently just as confused if not more so than the characters - and the flow is beautiful. i want to devour this book whole.

This book has an amazing premise and if I was watching it as a film I think I would have been enthralled. I DNF'd at 20% after trying to read the book for over a month. The prose was overwhelming with historical words I was constantly looking up and names I struggled to pronounce. I desperately wanted to like this book because the plot set up so far was great from what i could understand and will probably give it another try some day down the road but it was just not for me at this time.

Give me religious trauma and female rage! Giving this a 4 out of 5 stars. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

(I swore I already wrote a review for this but apparently not so here we go again).

This story is not for the faint of heart. It is unfortunately a bit slower than I would have cared for, but the darkness and body horror and rage kept me going. This is a very character driven story, and being told from the POV of three different women who are trapped in the castle from vastly different socio-economic classes, you get a really diverse narrative and each character has very unique motivations.

Writing this I am already wanting to re-read this story and it just weaseled its way into my brain.

TW: cannibalism, murder, dismemberment, animal abuse, dogs killing, body gore, please do check your TW before picking up this book

Aymar castle is under siege for 6 months and they're running out of foods. It's told from 3 different POV: Phosyne; a heretic nun (a witch) who's forced to create a miracle, Treila; a strong-will girl who wants a revenge, and Ser Voyne; a knight whose loyalty was torn between her King and the suspicious Constant Lady who claimed to be their savior.

What a story! It's a medieval horror with sapphic elements & cannibalism in it. The pacing is a bit slow for me, and sometimes is confusing. It got me cringed (in a good way??) whenever I visualize some scenes in my head.

It is disgusting and creepy, but it's a new experience for me to read this kind of story.

Deliciously dark and simultaneously empowering, Starling weaves a compelling and disturbing tale of three women linked by their trauma and impending destruction in a besieged castle with fast-dwindling food stores. Among the dark corners of Aymar Castle, Treila scavenges for rats and plots vengeance against the knight who destroyed her life. In her rotting tower, Phosyne, the castle lord's madwoman, is tasked with finding a miracle to replenish the castle's food. And Ser Voyne, a knight with seemingly shifting loyalties, becomes entranced by the castle's mysterious visitors and possible saviors: the Constant Lady, the Absolving Saint, the Loving Saint, and the Warding Saint. As the Saints and the Constant Lady continue to exert their control in Aymar, the people descend into a state of bacchanalian madness and possession. Yet those with the will to resist are determined to survive by any means necessary.

Told from the three distinct perspectives of these bold women, this was such a unique and all-consuming story. The magical yet destitute world Starling creates is multidimensional and lends itself well to the character-driven narrative as the reader discovers the three women's motivations and inner turmoil. The Starving Saints has everything one could want from a cannibalistic, sorcery-infused story about the complicated, sensual, and unfailingly supportive relationship between Treila, Phosyne, and Ser Voyne. This triad is the heart of the novel and the brutal gore that decorates the pages is the lovely bloody cherry on top.

I always hope with a new Starling book after The Luminous Dead that I'll get more toxic and dependent lesbians, and she really just knocked it out of the park with this one.

Semi-joking aside, The Starving Saints was a beautiful mess, and it checks a lot of boxes for me in what I want/look for in fantasy: yearning, power corruption, other-worldly/eldritch beings, religious iconography tied to eroticism, cannibalism, strong women in armor! The list really could go on.

The story follows three women with wildly different relationships to power, fealty, and spirituality. They live in a castle under siege, and with many of the others there, are starving and essentially waiting for one of the following: the siege lets up, they die of starvation, or the sieging force breaks down their doors and ends it once and for all. With this siege is the strange religious group of the Constant Lady and her attending Saints, Catholicism vibes and all, and it truly all goes to hell when the Lady and her Saints appear at the castle gates, in the flesh, without the doors being opened to let them in.

The best way I can even imagine describing this book is if The Garden of Earthly Delights had beautiful toxic lesbians and bees and cannibalism, which feels completely insane to put words to. "Bacchanalian madness" as the books description says is so apt it's not even funny. The story is messy and gory, the cannibalism is actually kind of stomach turning, and my god the yearning. Ugh, all of the gay yearning and kissing, the violence bordering on eroticism! I was kicking my feet the whole way through. And the writing as always with Caitlin Starling is stellar, full mouthed and beautifully fleshed out.

I'm very thankful to NetGalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

3.5

hmmm see i actually was truly loving but the ending had me taking things back. a whole kingdom on the brink of starvation and a knight, crazy witch, and * are set to save them all. i really loved all three povs but phosyne's in particular i loooved, it was really fascinating to read esp bc we got more of the magical lore from her.

the allegories about honey, bees, and fruit were really well done but i will admit the writing style at times had me feeling confused which ig is the purpose but several times in a 350pgs book?? not the biggest fan. i do wish we had gotten more descriptions on things so i could visualise, at times id be stuck wondering exactly whats going on but overall had a great time.

adult fantasy authors love themselves a rushed ending BUT they usually have you feeling complete, it felt very meh here unfortunately ☹️. an additional chapter or two is definitely needed.

This is the fantasy/horror book of my dreams! Pacing is fast, I was creeped out and I was constantly engaged!!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Starving Saints and once I started, it was hard to put down. The world building is rich, immersive, and beautifully detailed, making it easy to get lost in the story.

Told through three distinct POVs, each character is well drawn and compelling in their own way. The magic of this world is questionable but that does not detract from the experience.

While there are a few plot holes and lingering questions, they didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment. The atmosphere, storytelling, and character depth make this a gripping and memorable read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Caitlin Starling for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

DNFed at 30% unfortunately. I was really hoping that I’d like this book! It seemed like something that would be right up my alley. However, it just missed the mark for me.