I was hoping for more cult-vibes with this. While I enjoyed the atmosphere, the cover would lead you to think this was much scarier than it is.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Starling is one of those authors whose books I am either obsessed with or I reaaaaally don't care for them. The Starving Saints I am OBSESSED with. Starting off strong in a fantastical medieval world with witches, honey, cannibalism, eroticism, sapphic characters. Truly made for me and so utterly engrossing.

lady knights? check
sapphic romance? check
bees? check
cannibalism? check
walls that eat fingers? check
medieval? check
While I can't confidently say I know what was always happening, I was HERE for the vibes. This was such a fever dream but in the best possible way. I did have to deduct stars because as I said I'm not sure what was happening for a fair bit of this, but it was fun!
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Book Review: Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Genre: Horror / Gothic / Supernatural / Weird Religion Vibes
Release Date: May 21, 2024

If you like your horror books visceral and your protagonists aching for a bit too much, then Starving Saints needs to go straight to the top of your TBR. This is a deeply gothic, bloody exploration of faith, devotion, and desire. If you’re into weird religion horror, twisted love stories, and the kind of writing that leaves you both repulsed and fascinated, Starving Saints is going to be your next obsession. Caitlin Starling really leaned into the whole “what if miracles were horrifying fever dreams” thing and somehow made it feel lusty, terrifying, and tragic all at once. Like what?

Starling does body horror in a way that is both repulsive and magnetic...like you shouldn’t want to look, but you’re obsessed.

Themes:
Dark religious horror
Body horror / visceral sacrifice
Unresolved tension
Cultish convent setting
Miracles that might be more monstrous than holy
Gothic lesbian longing

Would I recommend this book?
Absolutely—but only to the right reader. If you don’t mind when a book goes full fever dream, this is exactly the kind of book you should pick up. It’s smart, disturbing, sensual, and laced with a kind of slow rot that lingers long after you close the final page.

Thank you William Morrow, Avon, harper Collins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review

First and foremost I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC, I was drawn to this book by the premise but unfortunately this was a miss for me. The beginning of the book had me hooked and had so much promise. The writing style was enchanting, the setting was intriguing enough, and I was mildly interested in the characters. Then everything went.. downhill from there. Somehow, after the Saints came the book became extremely unsure of itself and I lost all interest.

There were several times I would zone out of the book because it felt like I had read the same passage before. It got to a point where the events of the book became so repetitive. Sure things were happening but you weren’t even compelled to care. I don’t know if it was the multiple pov and the way the characters came in and out of the narrative or if it was simply the authors writing style, but I simultaneously felt bombarded and starved of information at the same time. Voyne’s bewitchment was a big example of this. I as a reader felt like these details would just be thrown out of nowhere and sure, maybe they would be tied together later on in the end, but the build up makes for a confusing read.

I feel like the benefit of 3rd person omniscient is that the reader can experience the character’s emotions all while maintaining a sense of detachment that allows them foresee certain events. Nothing made sense! From the arrival of the saints to the possessions. I’m not necessarily mad that I couldn’t “predict” future events but more so annoyed that it felt like certain details were strung together but not well enough that the story is able to stand up on its own.

I was so happy to finish this book but not necessarily because I loved it but because I was just so happy to be done. Overall, I am thankful for this ARC but unfortunately this one missed the mark.

Book Review
The Starving Saints
Caitlin Starling
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


Be prepared to immerse yourself in a medieval mystery drenched in gothic horror and cannibalism. Three very different women are our guides as the crumbling fortress of Aymar Castle comes under a six-month siege by their forbearing foes. As starvation sets in, the women must navigate despair, danger, and dread.

Ser Voyne is a seasoned soldier and heroine of past wars. Her loyalty is beyond reproach as she positions herself to defend the king and his people. Phosyne, holed up in her tower, is desperately trying to achieve another miracle—make food from nothing. Somehow, this sorceress has scientifically discovered a process to make the rancid water potable. How hard could it be to discover another miracle? The king is growing impatient with the lack of progress. Phosyne, once a nun under Sister Jacynde, was excommunicated for her independence of thought and action. Under relentless pressure, she may be descending into madness.

Finally, there is Treila, certainly more than her status as a servant girl suggests. Motivated by vengeance after witnessing her father’s beheading, she maintains a laser-sharp focus while others spiral into delusion. The interactions among these three women shape the response to a monstrous event.

Seemingly out of thin air, The Constant Lady and her angelic core of three saints appear, offering boundless food, healing, and divine guidance. Some even believe Phosyne conjured them into existence. But there will be a grotesque price to pay. The people of Aymar, in a bacchanalian feast, gorge themselves—unaware of the terrible cost and the true origin of the food.

Starling masterfully weaves this tapestry of horror with escalating tension and dread. She constructs a menacing poetry as the hypnotic forces of temptation clash with the actions of our three protagonists. Her prose drips with mystery and desperation, evolving into a chilling denouement.

During the final half of this tale—steeped in corruption and haunted by hope for redemption—I found myself glued to the audiobook, narrated by professional actress and writer Barrie Kreinik. It was astonishing how she effortlessly shifted between accents and dialects, fully bringing this novel to life in the theater of my mind.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Voyager, and Harper Audio for providing an Uncorrected Proof and Advance Audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Want to read a book that is quite not like anything else you have ever read? Want to follow three different sapphics with very specific roles in the same story? Want some lovecraftian horror in a medieval setting? This is the book for you!

love the story, ate this up. but really chewed through it bc holy word ball. historical fiction kills me w the fancy verbiage but we got there!

My rating- 2.5/5

This was a bit of a tricky read for me, and even though I finished it a few weeks ago, I'm still having a tough time grasping my thoughts on the story. There were elements that really shined here, and there were others still that I felt were less than successful.

So, let's get into it-

Characters- This story bounces between three main characters: Phosyne, the mad scientist type, Ser Voyne, a loyal knight, and Treila, the unassuming peasant girl with a secret grudge. On their own, I think each of these characters worked fine enough, and I liked them each in their own regards. I did, however, feel that in how quickly the story would bounce between the three, I ended up losing some of my connection to them. It was often difficult for me to remember who had done or said what, especially as the story took full force and our characters struggled to remember their own alliances. I also struggled to understand their motivations at times, which is partially because of the nature of the story itself (which I'll dive into in a bit), but it made my experience with reading this story a lot more frustrating than it needed to be. 2.5

Premise- Going into this book, I was really excited about the premise: a castle under attack is running out of food, and is turning to miracles to help them survive. This sounded like it had the potential to be a unique and devastating story. However, the book abruptly stops following this thread about halfway through and instead switches gears to focusing on a small group of strangers who appear in the castle claiming to be the Constant Lady (this world's goddess) and her saints. Okay, I can get behind that too. After the switch though, the story take a heavy turn into a 'descent into madness' type story, something that doesn't bode well for all readers but that I tend to like. Unfortunately, this switch left something to be desired for me. I felt that things got a little too crazy, a little too fast, and because of the rapid shifts in perspective between our three characters, I felt I had little time to breath and adjust as a reader. It left me feelings a bit motion sick and confused about where exactly the story was meant to be going (and how I as a reader was meant to feel about it). 3.5

Pacing- This is the second book I've read by this author, and when it comes to pacing, I have similar concerns with The Starving Saints as I did with The Luminous Dead. Both of these stories are full-throttle from beginning to end, and with no room to breath, I fear that the reader loses a lot of the emotional impact along the way. While yes, this story is naturally one that is filled with urgency, I still feel that there were missed opportunities for the author to slow the story down and let the reader catch up. When a story is constantly action, action, ACTION, it's difficult to properly build the connections between characters. Add this to the fact that, throughout the book, several characters are drawn to act in ways that are against their own morals, and the fact that the author is trying to build a sense of romantic suspense, and the reader ends up hopelessly lost. I want to like Caitlin Starling, I really, truly do, but I feel that she needs to let her characters breath, or else I (and many other readers, I'm sure) will never be able to relate with them in the way that her stories require. 1/5

Romance- Once again, I'm seeing a bit of a pattern here in Caitlin Starling writing. One of my biggest complaints after finishing The Luminous Dead (aside from the pacing) was that that the supposed "romance" was incredibly underbaked. And walking away from The Starving Saints I'm even most confused, because at least in TLD I knew which characters were supposedly falling for each other. The Starving Saints delivers a confusing love triangle between it's three leading ladies, but due to the nature of the story, all of the romance is put on the backburner and ends up feeling like an afterthought of an afterthought. I would have prefered if all of the romance had just been left out, because as is, it just adds another layer of confusion to this already messy story. Like I mentioned earlier, this books breakneck pacing makes it incredibly difficult to get a good grasp of the characters, so then to try and convince your reader that there is budding romantic feelings at play, well, let me just say it didn't work for me in the slightest. I genuinely wish this whole romantic triangle was left on the editorial chopping block. 0/5

Worldbuilding- Okay, I feel that I've been pretty harsh on this book, so now I want to switch gears and talk about something I liked here. Caitlin Starling is a natural with worldbuilding. I really enjoyed the stage she set for this story, and most everything about it felt effortless and genuine. I truly felt that this world was lived in, and Aymar Castle as a setting felt so lively. This is what Caitlin Starling excels at, and this is why, despite having mediocre experiences with the two books of hers I have read, I know I will continue to come back to her. She has a definite talent in bringing the background of her stories to life. I just wish she would take some time in building her players and pacing the story so that her readers can fully enjoy the world that she's made for them. 4.5/5

All in all, this book missed the mark for me. I do genuinely hope that others enjoy this story, and that Starling continues to hone her craft, because I feel that she is bound to create something great. The Starving Saints just wasn't it for me.

I am so confused, but this was intriguing. Yes another book that will take me several rereads to even begin to understand!

rep: lesbians

spice: none

tw: cannibalism, amputations on a massive scale, murder, suicide, body horror, gore

This was EXACTLY what I needed. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump for way too long and this book took me right out of it! I was a little nervous about requesting this as I didn’t love Starling’s last novel but I just couldn’t resist the premise and the Netgalley gods (thankfully) delivered! This is a medieval(?) fever dream that pulled be right in and I just couldn’t put it down, the characters are interesting and the setting is unique but it’s the plot that always kept me on my toes. Is there cannibalism? Yes but how do I explain that it works for the plot without giving away spoiler? Is this book for everyone? No but I do encourage readers to take a chance because the writing is so good! Definitely recommend!

This really just doesn't do the reader any favors. It's slow, attempts at subtlety just come off vague, and the story is a little too complicated to have spread out over several perspectives. I have hope for Starling's other titles, but this one is a chore to read.

🩸 Bookish Thoughts
This book was described as a sapphic horror fever dream and it DELIVERED. Was it gory, chaotic, and gruesome? Yes. Did I read it in one sitting? Also yes. Was my stomach unsettled and slightly nauseous the entire time? Absolutely, and I still gave it 5 stars.

I don’t think I’ve ever read something quite this intense. “Captivating” doesn’t even begin to cover it. The dread just keeps building and building until you’re in too deep to look away. Even with all the violence and horror, the writing was beautiful. The gothic medieval tone, the imagery, the atmosphere... it pulled me in completely.

This book is definitely not for the faint of heart. Or sensitive stomachs. Or anyone who isn’t prepared for a lot of cannibalism. Like, seriously, maybe don’t read this one during lunch. But if you’re ready for it, it’s one of the most unique horror reads I’ve picked up in a long time and I could not put it down.

🕯️ What to Expect
• Gothic atmosphere
• Medieval horror vibes
• Intense dread
• Religious madness
• Sapphic rep
• Body horror
• Cannibalism (graphic!)

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

Caitlin Starling’s fourth novel, The Starving Saints, is packed full of everything you’ve come to expect from this author: atmosphere for days, queer women being awful (complimentary), body horror, unpleasantly small spaces, and extreme acts of fealty.

Trapped in a besieged castle, with two weeks’ worth of rations remaining, the people of Aymar are waiting for a miracle. They’ve already had one, when the heretic witch Phosyne purified the castle’s water, using methods that remain mysterious even to her. But water isn’t enough to sustain the siege’s survivors, and the king demands that Phosyne now find a way to create food out of nothing. To ensure that she’s working as hard as she can, he assigns his most reliable knight, Ser Voyne, to watch over Phosyne’s progress. A third POV character, the servant girl Treila, prowls the castle doing an illicit trade in rats and plotting her revenge against Ser Voyne for executing her father five years ago.

This premise, obviously, rules. I love it when people are stuck together in places they can’t leave: bottle episodes, generation ships, boarding schools. I get a little frisson of pleasure every time I remember the moment in The Thing where Kurt Russell says, “Nobody trusts anybody now, and we’re all very tired.” Nobody in Aymar Castle trusts anybody now, and they’re all so, so, so very tired. Cut off from her former beliefs, Phosyne can’t even attend the Priory church services where everyone else gets to taste a precious drop of honey as sacrament. Her miracle with the water has been attributed to the Priory (her former religious order) out of fear that the castle’s inhabitants wouldn’t trust the cisterns if they knew Phosyne was the one who purified them. Ser Voyne’s presence in Phosyne’s workshop is intended as further incentive, as if there could be any stronger incentive than Phosyne’s own death and the deaths of everyone within Aymar’s walls.

As Aymar waits for relief from outside their walls or the miracle of restored food within them, a different wonder appears. Their god, the Constant Lady, appears inside the castle gates, flanked by three attendant Saints. Nobody opened the gates to let them in. They did not fight their way through. They simply appeared, and they have brought with them gifts, rich banquets of fresh food to a starving populace. Though a few protest that it’s too good to be true—Prioress Jacynde for one, the ever-suspicious Treila for another—the castle’s inhabitants are too hungry to ask questions, and soon they are all under the sway of the (presumed) Constant Lady.

The Starving Saints is a book about the allures, and then the price, of desire. All three of our main characters recognize the dangers posed to the castle by the (supposed) Constant Lady. Yet they’re still terribly vulnerable to the temptations of the Lady and her Saints, as soon as they’re offered a quick path to the thing they most desire. For Phosyne it’s knowledge; for Treila, justice; for Ser Voyne, a righteous cause to serve. They are not wrong to have these wants, not even necessarily wrong to depart from prevailing moral norms in their pursuit of them. But what the Lady offers is the ends without the means. This is a book that argues for the intellectual and moral work that goes into attaining what you want. When our characters fail to think critically about what they’re doing, when they stray too far from the moral calculus that takes other people’s lives into account, that’s when they’re most susceptible to falling into abusive and destructive acts.

Nuns (and other trappings of Catholicism) are having a bit of a moment in SFF (and, I suppose, more broadly in the culture, what with getting a new Pope right on the heels of the release of Conclave last year). Lina Rather, Meredith Mooring, Tamsyn Muir, and Gabrielle Buba have all written books that explore the tensions that arise when you live within a patriarchal power structure that teaches the value and method of pursuing moral truth, yet demands that its adherents ignore any truths that fall outside of an approved set of conclusions. These are themes I love and adore. I want to bathe in these themes. I want to do a keg stand where I chug so much of these themes I end up in the hospital with theme poisoning.

The Starving Saints… eh, doesn’t so much. Starling keeps taking the bite out of her moral dilemmas before they have a chance to get started. Before the Lady and her Saints arrive, the castle’s leaders discuss the need for cannibalism, which (spoiler) does happen later on, in far more gruesome excess than the king had proposed. This is a major taboo, and it should feel like an urgent moral matter for the characters to grapple with. But Ser Voyne, the main voice speaking against the cannibalism-for-survival plan, has eaten human flesh before, when “they [were] pinned down in bleak winters, in blighted fields… But that was different.” We later find out that Treila has also done cannibalism in the past. In a setting where two of our three protagonists (!) have eaten human meat to survive, it’s hard to feel that a major boundary will be crossed if the inhabitants of Aymar Castle have to do it again now.

For a book about gods false and true, The Starving Saints shows little interest in its characters’ religious faith. Treila, Phosyne, and Ser Voyne all have to grapple with the inadequacies of the moral frameworks they’ve been operating under. Yet this happens almost entirely without reference to the dominant religion, even though the Priory is supposed to be a vital organizing principle of this society. We don’t get a clear explanation for why Phosyne’s new research was so incompatible with the Priory. It’s not even clear what the Priory itself believes, although one gets hints now and then. Phosyne has lost her faith so completely that she can’t remember what it was like to have it, yet the question “faith in what?” remains uncertain. In the Constant Lady, who we later learn even Prioress Jacynde doesn’t believe cares about her flock? In the alchemical and scientific research methods the Priory teaches? Something else?

Still, Phosyne’s frantic, messy research spoke to me, not least because it’s clear that she’d be doing it whether the community was starving to death or not. She doesn’t want to die, obviously, but the main thing she wants is to know. The book distinguishes between the Priory’s methodical alchemy and the intuitive, bargaining, elemental magic Phosyne is struggling to discover:

This is how the learning works: side-glimpsed realizations, nothing direct, but always leaning toward greater understanding… If Ser Voyne was here, there’s no way Phosyne could explain it in a way that makes sense, but it does. It does.

As the book proceeds, the reader also begins to catch side glimpses of how the magic works, and how the castle might be saved. The (apparent) Constant Lady and her Saints are old, and dangerous, and they don’t operate on morality, but on bargains and elemental balance—and it’s perhaps no surprise that the rigidly religious and scientific Priory is unequipped to deal with it when it arrives. If Shirley Jackson had written Game of Thrones, I like to imagine that The Starving Saints is what she’d have produced. It’s a meaty, troubling novel with even more cannibalism than its description led me to expect. I reiterate that at least two, probably all three, point-of-view characters have known the taste of human flesh, and you know for yourself if that’s something you’re into. God forbid women do anything.

The very first thing that popped into my head as I sat down to write a review for this book was the iconic quote from Lady Gaga talking about the House of Gucci film: "I don't believe in the glorification of murder. I do believe in the empowerment of women." It's giving 'I support women's rights and wrongs'. It's giving 'Yes queen, satiate your hunger'. It's giving 'cannibalism as a metaphor for "unnatural" hunger'.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but Aymar Castle are unprepared for the rescue brought to their doors when their beloved Saints arrive through gates that never opened. The Constant Lady brings salvation, but at a cost; one that only grows darker and heavier as time goes on.

This was an incredible story. I loved the distinct voices of our three leading ladies (unsurprisingly to anyone who knows me, I loved the ex-nun "madwoman" Phosyne the most), I found the world building engaging and the pacing of the story was practically perfect. Often times I didn't want to put it down, and when I wasn't reading, I was thinking about what could possibly be coming next, and I never managed to get it right.

If you are a fan of powerful and unhinged women, sapphic longing, intriguing power dynamics, and the many shades of horror that color this book, The Starving Saints is a must read.

This book definitely started out slow for the first several chapters. I was bored, but I gave it a chance it DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I was absolutely absorbed into the world of this book. I would think about it when I would dream and still occasionally do. Do not let the first few chapters fool you into giving up. It is a Sapphic situation, but it is only the yearning and longing, so no smut, There is heavy magic and the ending left me yearning for more. After I got absorbed, I did not want to be let go. Absolutely amazing story writing and I hope there might be some kind of sequel, at least offhand or something from an outside point of view.
Also, this book has some gory descriptions and corpse mutilation and cannibalism, and f that is not your style, definitely recommend to avoid it, however to me, this was not an issue and added to the intrigue and horror.

4.25

setting: aymar (fictional)
Rep: three sapphic protagonists

this was a wild weird ride and I dug it! did I always understand what was going on? no, but it worked for me loved phosyne, treila and voyne!

4.5⭐️s rounded up for Goodreads

In true Starling fashion, The Starving Saints is a bit of a slow burn, supernatural, horror-fantasy. And as always with Starling's books, I feel like I need a re-read. Like, this is probably a 5 star read, but my brain didn't fully retain and/or appreciate what I experienced.
I went in fairly blind, as I tend to do, and (SPOILERS) medieval delirium with both accidental and purposeful cannibalism was definitely a fantastically gross surprise.
Starling doesn't write the same book twice (each is wildly different and original).
However, I often ask myself these questions regarding Starling's characters.
"Do I like them?!"
"Should I like them?!"
"What is wrong with me?!"
Because yes, I end up loving them for one reason or another. They're always interesting, intelligent, and often morally grey. Phosyne, Voyne, and Treila are beautifully flawed. Aymar Castle and the Saints are a fever dream.


Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager | Harper Voyager for the eARC!

I loved this book. It was delicious, creepy and unsettling, with an eerie setting, gruesome scenes and tension to spare. The plot and magic system were pretty unique and all three main characters were all fleshed out and distinct. I really grew invested in learning about their past and seeing their individual journeys, plus their unique relationships to each other. I recommend for horror fans looking for story with cannibalism, queer knights and nuns, creepy bees and lots of madness.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (4/5)
“The Starving Saints” is a feverish medieval horror that blends visceral cannibalism with haunting, surreal atmosphere. With three compelling women caught in a siege-turned-madness, the book delivers intense emotions, tense power dynamics, and unsettling imagery. It may get chaotic at times, but its raw energy and striking characters make it a memorable, immersive read.