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.

Thank you so much publisher for providing an arc! I just devoured this book. It was so nerve-wrecking so I can not express enough about the plot. The plot is so interesting that you will find yourself gasping everytime you find something new.
I really like the worldbuilding, and how the author can create a world that has the capability of making us vicariously live through it. I feel like the introduction was a bit too slow-paced for me. The characters are fairly interesting.
Henceforth, it was quite a good read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney is an adult fantasy that will appeal to fans of Jay Kristoff's Nevernight trilogy or Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City. The story revolves around two sisters: Lanie and Nita. Estranged when they were children, Nita storms back to Stones Manor, the family estate, when Lanie is 15 years old. And Nita is not alone. Nita returns with Mak, a man who she can force to change into a falcon at will. Nita has the power of Fascination. Whoever looks into her eyes has to obey her will. But Lanie has her own powers. She can raise the dead back to life. What adventures will these two sisters get into?

Here is an emotional flashback from Chapter 1, which introduces us to the two sisters:

""Stoneses die young,” her big sister explained patiently. “We have to grow up fast if we’re to grow up at all.”
Hoppy Bunny’s sundered halves plonked to the ground. Lanie stared but did not dare cry. At best, Nita would laugh; at worst, Lanie would end up just like Hoppy Bunny.
...
“I won’t be here anymore to toughen you up, Miscellaneous,” said Nita, and for the first time that Lanie could remember, her sister sounded afraid. “Put your toys away. Work hard. Write me often. Don’t forget me.”
Last, a terrible cold kiss on Lanie’s brow.
Lanie was eleven when Nita left for school. And though she would regularly have nightmares about that day for years to come, what she always remembered when she woke up was this:
The real nightmare—Nita—was gone."

Overall, Saint Death's Daughter is an adult fantasy with plenty of world-building. Although Part 1 (the first 25%) takes place when Lanie is 15, there is a time jump in Part 2 to when Lanie is 22 years old. Just like Nevernight, there are plenty of footnotes, because the author's creativity could not be contained to the pages of the story. There is also plenty of humor. In fact, I was surprised by how light-hearted and "slice of life" this adult fantasy was. I had been expecting bloodshed or at least some action, but up until the 50% mark, there is little to no action. That is also the point when my interest began to wane, which is why I took off 1 star. This book seems to be more about daily living in the fantasy world. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of adult fantasy fiction, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in April!

The blurb totally entranced me, and I couldn’t wait to jump in and experience this world. The plot was interesting and well thought out, and the world building was stunning! I really enjoyed the characters, which was great since lately main characters are just coming off as whiny and entitled into most of the books I read!

To be born into a family of royal assassins pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be... rather unusual. Especially if, like Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones, you also have a vicious allergy to all forms of violence and bloodshed, and an uncanny affinity for bringing the dead back to life.

To make matters worse, family debt looms – a debt that will have to be paid sooner rather than later if Lanie and her sister are to retain ownership of the ancestral seat, Stones Manor. Lanie finds herself courted and threatened by powerful parties who would love to use her worryingly intimate relationship with the goddess of death for their own nefarious ends. But the goddess has other plans...

This is an intriguing world with an unique storyline. I like the magic described in the book and the world building is amazing. I love the heroine Lanie too. Love how independent and resourceful she is. The whole story is rather 'magical' for lack of a better word.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an arc.

Fun, whimsical, and macabre, Saint Death's Daughter reads like a glorious mashup of Gideon the Ninth and the Addam's Family. Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is a necromancer born into a storied household of wizards with a passion for death, nearly all of whom have died dramatically before their time (Cooney details the erstwhile family tree in hilarious little footnotes that read like tombstones in Disney World's Haunted Mansion). Lanie and her odd mixture of family, both blood and found, must contend with the ominous threat of the Blackbird Queen Bran Fiakhna and her polycule of shapeshifting wizard spouses to save each other and preserve their nation.

The world-building, while brilliant, can get a bit elaborate and hard to follow at times. Similarly, the prose is rich with adjectives and adverbs that give add plenty of quirky embellishment but sometimes lead to discursiveness that distracts from the plot. The magic system was fascinating, but I wish we'd been able to explore the other godly magic in more detail. I feel well-versed on necromancy, fire-magic and fascination (a type of magical compulsion), but when I'm being tantalized by wizard's who can slow time, create illusions, and turn invisible, it is hard not to crave more information. Which gods do their magic stem from? How is it similar or different from Lanie or Mak's magic? Generally, my main issue was this misplacement of detail: for example: contrary to the above, Cooney spends basically a whole chapter elaborating on Lanie's love for a couple of resurrected mouse skeletons,.

The true heart of this story, however, is the relationships between Lanie and her family. Whether it is the tense tutorship of Grandpa Rad, the solemn devotion of Goody Graves, or the childish fire of Sacred Datura Stones, this story shines when it is imparting meaning into Lanie's relationships, both living and dead. These moments of connection keep what can sometimes become a fairly grim story grounded in tenderness and humor.

"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."

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Rebellion for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

The suitably spookily titled Saint Death's Daughter by C S E Cooney. Miscellaneous Stones, known as Lanie, is a Necromancer coming into her power. She is the first in her family in generations to have this particular esteemed & feared ability. But it has come too late, and the family debts have left her and her older sister in danger of losing the ancestral seat Stones Manor.

The novel has treachery, intrigue, love - both romantic and familial. Thoroughly enjoyed this!

#Fantasy #Necromancy #Magic #SaintDeathsDaughter

It's really long but a good read but it is wonderfully-written. It's fun and whimsical and the world-building is great. I was immediately drawn in by the cover.

This was an immensely original and creative story with excellent world building. It’s a story of found family and magic, necromancy and ghosts. The author has quite a way with names for her characters. My only complaint would be the length of the story- I’m pretty sure it could have been shorter! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This gives off major classic Disney Halloween vibes! A whimsical fantasy that is utterly charming, complex, and unique

Saint Death's Daughter is an elaborate story - which did get confusing at times. At the beginning I had no idea what was going on, but slowly began to catch on. It's light compared to most adult fantasy book which I found to be refreshing.

The Stone's family tree is whimsical, detailed, and interesting. The characters are fun and charming, just as colourful and quirky as their names suggest. I am obsessed with all of their names!

The world and its history is so detailed and thought out, and the family tree is so fascinating and comprehensive. it is clear that the author has put her heart into the narrative and characters with considerable thought and meticulous execution.

However, it is so damn long!! Over 1000+ 'pages' on my Kindle, and also making it drag at times.

That being said I am still very much interested in finding out what happens next in this delightfully eccentric story. Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion, Solaris for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

The main character reminded me a lot of Feyre and Aelin from the Maas world and loved how this story kept me gripped all the way through. It’s a new concept I’m starting to read and assassins are always a fun time!

Saint Death’s Daughter is not for the faint of heart! This is not a light, fluffy, read-it-in-a-weekend novel. This is a high fantasy saga with a fully developed magic system that is deep, complex, and brimming with intrigue. Perfect for fans of Naomi Novik, Leigh Bardugo, or V.E. Schwab, this book has a dark side, so if you’re drawn to worlds filled with necromancers, reapers, and death magic, this one’s for you.

It’s a massively ambitious book, at nearly 500 pages, and with dozens of characters to keep track of (plus an incredibly complicated magic system), it’s an intimidating read, for sure. I’ll admit that it was challenging for me to keep the details straight as I read; I usually like to be reading more than one book at a time, but I couldn’t hold anything extra in my head with this one!

But the world-building is second to none, and the fascinating combination of royal assassins, looming family debt to settle, and the influence of the goddess of Death made this book worth the effort. A solid 4-star read!

——

Thanks to C.S.E. Cooney, Rebellion/Solaris, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A very interesting story of new magic, necromancy, poor relationships between power hungry people and the effect people have on each other. The names are super unique and I love that they all mean something and are plays off words that associate with their surnames!

Aw I’m so conflicted by this one.

This book had the potential to be absolutely incredible, like maybe one of the best fantasy books ever, dare I say it!? But it wasn’t.

Okay. A book with a load of different gods, magic, necromancers, an mc who has an allergy to death but can communicate with the dead in a way, fucking people that are also birds, magical royal executioners?! Honestly all of these, and just the blurb makes it sound insane, and it was in many moments. But oh boy was I confused a lot.

Right at the start there’s a guide explaining some characters, who the gods are and also what the days of the week and months are. At first I though ooh how helpful. But I was reading this on my super old tablet and it’s just impossible to flick back. And what is the necessity in changing what the days of the week and the months are?? There’s still the same number, it just makes it confusing, and often thinking when it told you the date, how long has this been since the last bit???

And I don’t even know how many names were mentioned throughout, a lot. More than there’s ever been in any book. And it switches between there actually name and nickname without any kind of help that they’re the same person (their names are really weird so it’s not obvious nicknames like Tom from Thomas eg. The mc is Lanie from Miscellaneous).

Not just the names, but weird words for things with no context or explanation.

However, when I did sort of know what was going on, it was really good! And I loved the characters of Lanie, Mak and Datu. And I thought the ending was great and not what I’d expected at all! It has been left as it could end with that or there could be another book. I would definitely read the next one but won’t be expecting as much.

Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book; it was brilliant. I loved the complex world building, the intricate plotting and the wonderful prose which sometimes morphed into verse. It's possibly a tad long but overall is absorbing throughout.

3.5 stars rounded up

Firstly this is a massive arc, sitting at 1259 pages!
Don't let that put you off.

Magic, necromancy, gods, betrayal, family blood and found, this book has it all.

The action doesn't take place until over half way, it does give a good insight into the daily life of Lanie, Mak and Datu, as well as their new found family and the many threats that comes with being a necromancer.

I would have liked to dive deeper into the magic especially with Haaken.
Though I don't think I can ever look at a bird the same, especially a blackbird.

The world building while brilliant, sometimes took the focus away from the plot and was a little over done in places.

Though I Really struggled with part 1, especially with the character drop/overloaded, I couldn't quite grasp onto anything but I'm so glad I pushed through.

Saint death's daughter does give off stand alone vibes but is also left open enough for a sequel, which I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up.

Special thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review

If you like detailed, action-packed fantasy with a macabre vibe, this book might be for you.
I couldn't put it down.
I liked the academic style of writing, with footnotes and information about magic and the different beliefs and cultures, as they suited the main character.
Lainie is a necromancer who is very young at the start of the book, but she grows into her power as the story unfolds.
This stood apart from other fantasy plots for me because it wasn't just about romantic relationships. It was about a girl who had been raised in an environment where she couldn't trust her family, and didn't get any love for them. The story shows her developing friendships and forging a family of choice, as well as pulling off some impressive magical acts.
The characters from different cultures and faith backgrounds reminded me a bit of Raybearer.
The aesthetic is part Addams family, part Shadow and Bone.
It's definitely worth checking out.

Saint Deaths Daughter Review
3.5/5 stars

Release day: April 12, 2022

Before Beginning this review, I would like to thank Netgalley and Rebellion publishing for approving me for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Story: This book was very long, 1259 pages on the netgalley app so, VERY LONG. The story was super whimsical and interesting though. It was born with unique and homey ideas that left me chuckling and smiling. The fluffy adventure that arose in this novel was very entertaining.

Writing: The writing was classy and defined. The language itself was pretty and beautifully written. Sometimes the language bored me a bit, but nonetheless, it is easy to appreciate.

Characters: All of the Stones family were super peculiar and quirky, they all had distinct gimmicks and personalities. I think C.S.E Cooney did a wonderful job on character building, leaving them all complex and comforting.

World Building: The world building of Saint Deaths Daughter was very complex and at sometimes, very confusing. I wish that C.S.E Cooney have a better explanation as to the events and world happening.

Overall this book was super interesting but could've been done better. It was also very long, so it was a monster to get through. But I did really enjoy reading it despite my confusion occasionally. I would recommend picking up this book (it will probably be shorter as a print copy)

This one took me a while due to having to deal with replacing a tub that took upwards of a damn month (and because it’s a bit of a brick of a book), but every time I opened this to get through another bit, it was a luscious treat. The Locked Tomb series is going to be the first thing that people will draw comparisons to, because queer necromancers, but this is honestly an amazing world unto itself. It’s got very deep and intricate worldbuilding, but also the humor of Discworld, and doesn’t hesitate to make fun of itself both in the text and in the extensive footnotes. That humor and the inherent queerness in it brings some levity to what can be a really fucking dark text at times. It seems like Cooney is throwing a lot at the reader at first, but it all lands, while still setting up a few threads for future books. Laney, Granny, and her family and friends are all amazingly developed and fun to follow, and I can’t want to see what comes next here. Pick it up, it’s more than worth your time.

Amazing and gripping read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

OH MY GOSH THIS BOOK!!! Iwas gripped completely by this book and read it in one sitting missing a meal to finish it. it was so well written with well developed characters and a chilling feel that left me with goosebumps. It was so interesting and completely enaging. I really enjoyed it.

"Stoneses die young," her big sister explained patiently. "We have to grow up fast if we're to grow up at all."

And indeed, the Stones family has a complicated history of untimely deaths, mostly told through the footnotes at the end of each chapter. But that is not the only thing that makes them special: they have historically served as assasins to the royal family of Liriat and, most importantly, they all have rather extravagant names. Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is the youngest member of this family, and after her parents' deaths she and her sister must find a way to pay all their debt and avoid losing the family home, getting tangled up in some dangerous schemes along the way.

This story was incredibly ambitious, there was a lot of worldbuilding to do and a lot of ground to cover plot-wise, and yet the book didn't feel incomplete. There were some points I was left wondering about, like the exact workings of the magic system or other types of wizards, but all that was shown made sense. As for the plot, it was a bit dense for me, especially because it didn't move that fast until about halfway through the book, and so the characters (except for the protagonist) didn't seem to have that much room for development and connection with the reader. It also left a few loose ends, so I'm hoping for a sequel that will round everything up, but the book also works as a standalone.

Finally, I would like to mention the writing style, which was flowy but still made for a great narration. I think it was perfect for this story, with its aristocratic setting and eccentric characters. It felt humorous at just the right moments (the footnotes were a really fun aspect and their "serious" tone was perfect), but it somehow also made me feel worse for Lanie at her lowest moments. The weird family names were also a great touch, if a bit confusing at first, but they made complete sense after knowing a bit more of the family history throughout the book.

All in all, this was a great read. It's definitely not for reading in one afternoon, but if you like fantasy you might want to give this book a try.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

How do you review a book sensibly when all you really want to do is scream ILOVEITILOVEITILOVEITILOVEITILOVEIT!? I mean, I fucking loved it. But it did come from Netgalley so I feel obliged to make some sort of attempt. Reasons I loved Saint Death’s Daughter:

1. Lanie, the main character. She’s sensible and strong and whimsical and passionate and vulnerable. She puts mouse skeletons back together to resurrect them and then cries when she has to let them die again! SHE IS SO PRECIOUS I CANNOT. Also, imagine being born into a family of assassins while having a violent allergy to death. Yikes. It’s tempting to list fifty things Lanie does that make me adore her, but that would be kind of spoilery, so believe me when I say the mice are just the beginning.

2. Datu. I would die for Datu. That is all.

3. Canon Lir. I would also die for Canon Lir. They are the best.

4. There are in fact a lot of people in this book whom I would die for.

5. Whimsical gothic is one of my favourite aesthetics and this book hits it squarely. There are assassins, necromancers, lots and lots of dead people, mind control, a whole bunch of underground stuff, murder up the wazoo… and all of it is treated with a lightness of hand that makes it simply delightful. It’s serious too, at times. But also whimsical. I mean the main character is named Miscellaneous Stones. MISCELLANEOUS STONES. Was there ever so perfect and beautiful a name? No, never.

6. Found family. Another of my favourite aesthetics. There is nothing warmer and yummier than a sad lonely character whose family are a bit shit finding people who welcome and accept and adore them, particularly when they totally don’t expect it and all of a sudden realise that their life is FILLED WITH LOVE. The best.

7. The worldbuilding. ALL the worldbuildinggggggg. I mean, for simple plot purposes you could take out half the worldbuilding in the first few chapters and it wouldn’t change a thing, but books aren’t just about plot, are they? The little details and stories we hear in those first few chapters are just so fun and a great way of introducing us to Lanie and the world she’s grown up in, because really, Stones Manor is her world, at first, and it feels like a big complex one. We only get reminded of how small and narrow it actually is when Lanie finally ventures out into the wider world, which makes that revelation all the more effective.

8. The plot. It’s fun and engaging and I always find myself caring about whatever Lanie is trying to do. There are a couple of nice twists, and I’m super super eager to find out what’s going to happen in the next book, too.
This list feels entirely inadequate for a book that delighted me so much, but I’ve done my best. I really hope there’s going to be an audiobook, because I’d absolutely love to listen to this story, too. I already have my physical copy on pre-order. Anyway. Read this!

This was an absolute gem of a book! I don't make comparisons to Gideon the Ninth (or its sequel) lightly- but this absolutely has the same strange, beautiful, disgusting, messy love of life and death in all its forms permeating through every word. Lanie Stones is a wonderfully realised character (how fantastic to have a necromancer who is in love with life as well as death!) and her world is as detailed and well thought out as she is.

That last thing is what worried me going into this book- I loved the ideas and imagery in Cooney's Desdemona and the Deep but found the plot and characters a bit undercooked. This is something that Saint Death's Daughter absolutely corrects. There were several developments that I didn't seecoming at all but made absolute sense in the context of the characters and their world, and by the end I felt like I knew Lanie, Lir, Mak and Datu like old friends.

It's a beautiful book, honestly. I'm going to buy a hard copy when it comes out, and it's going to sit alongside The Goblin Emperor as one of my all time comfort reads. Thank you!

With many thanks to #NetGalley for an advance copy of #SaintDeathsDaughter, which enabled me to read the book ahead it’s publication date and let you know that you should a b s o l u t e l y check it out, if you enjoy the Locked Tomb stories, Addams Family circus (with more heartwarmth than the opening chapters might suggest), and a healthy mixture of humorous and macabre in your SFF. A queer-by-default world, family values clashing with found families, a really colorful, lush and humane take on necromancy, an unflinching portrayal of the price of violence and privilege and at the same time, a really over-the-top trashy sexy evil villainess, complete with her harem of wizards — so many things tossed into the mix, and the end result is a very gripping read. I swear, I was making noises along the lines of “I’ve no idea where this book is going” at 10, 20, 50 and 80% of the book and was so pleased to be stunned by plot twists up until the very last chapter. I admit I very rarely feel blindsided by the trajectory of the ride when I open the book, so I enjoyed very much when that happens. It’s not as breakneck as Nona the Ninth, but it’s also a much warmer narrative, with compassion and craving for community that infuses its pages via the narrator. I enjoyed the snarky footnotes, found the glimpses of magic other than that of Lanie’s intriguing (and hope for more info on them on them in later books), and generally found the book an enjoyable ride.

This is a fast-paced fantasy that is both funny and well written, with vivid characters and hilarious situations. The two daughters of Liriat's Royal Assassin and Executioner couldn't be more different. Amanita Stones is a cheerful psychopath who has bullied the younger Miscellanious (a.k.a. Lanie) since birth. But Lanie has a rare gift for necromancy -- and the Goddess of Death Herself as a patron. Amanita and Lanie will have to work together to save their ancestral home, Stones Manor, from the ambitious Scratch family. And when Liriat's Queen is murdered by the notorious Blackbird Bride and the Parliament of Rooks, Lanie is going to need all the help she can get.

Author CSE Cooney is a World Fantasy Award winner. It would not surprise me to see Saint Death's Daughter in the running for this year's award. This book will appeal to lovers of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Many thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun, interesting book! I did find it hard to get into but once I was immersed, I enjoyed the ride. The characters (Miscellaneous especially) were fleshed out and unique and I enjoyed Miscellaneous’s character growth. At times, the book dragged on a bit and I found myself confused in some places with how many characters were being introduced. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. Who doesn’t love necromancy? Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED this book!
The premise was amazing-a book about an assassin’s daughter with a gift for Necromancy and an allergy to violence was almost impossible to mess up.
The lead character, Lanie, is strong and quirky, and very likable, but it was her sister-Anita-who I really fell in love with.
It’s hard to say too much about this one without giving away the whole book, but it’s enough to say this-check it out! 4 BIG ⭐️‘S!

This book is a lot. I don’t know the last time that I read a book that felt so much like work to read but this was almost entirely worth it. I also know this book fits in with my reasoning for never looking at Goodreads ratings for recommendations because it punishes the different and rewards the mediocre.

In Saint Death’s Daughter we are introduced to Lanie, the youngest daughter from a long line of family Necromancers known for dying young and being evil. Lanie doesn’t quite fit the mold and has the powers but not the evil. We follow her through the years and through many separate trials and tribulations. I can’t really summarize better because I don’t even know what to focus on.

This book was like a demented love child of Nevernight by Jay Kristoff and (hear me out) DiscWorld by Terry Pratchett. I think something that a lot of the negative reviews were kind of missing was that this is a comedy, as well as high fantasy drama. The author uses footnotes and asides, historical ridiculousness, and dark humor throughout the story and peppered into the chapters. A lot of the information presented (and it's a LOT) isn’t necessary to the story itself, it's just some background in the form of a punchline. The story was darkly funny once you knew what it was getting at.

The world building, which is weighed down by just how expansive it is, is still very interesting and once picked up, amazing! We get multiple cultures, regions, religions, dialects, magic systems all in this one story. Which relative to the length of it (seriously if GRRM wrote this world this book would be five million pages long) is astounding. Much like Pratchett’s DiscWorld did over 40+books we get dark and humorous histories of families and conflicts.

The characters were lovely and diverse. Non-binary rep, casual poly, and LGBT+ relationships everywhere. Characters that seemed one note early would come back and be filled in wonderfully later. Lanie was so easy to support and love. I loved all the relationships in this. Even the conflicting ones because they were so interesting.

The plot was so interesting and jumped unexpectedly in so many places that I feel as if I read the plots of three books in one. So many interesting turns and twists that I was constantly engaged (only a little drag in the middle but I couldn’t even blame it, because I too, wanted Lanie to have a bit of a break at that point).

I absolutely loved the magic systems in this. It was so original for what should be probably written into the ground already but so many different ways of viewing magic even in the book itself! 5 stars for magic!

The only reason that this book is not five stars is because I feel that the writing has made it fairly inaccessible. This book was HARD to read and I was interested! But never, not once, could I just glide through the story. I know that might make it sound like I want to be lazy or something but…maybe I do. I want to be entertained and not necessarily so deeply challenged for said entertainment. And I don’t think that this book really needed to be like this.

The author seemed to just have an excessive use of a thesaurus and over complicated sentence structures. This becomes a problem even in CONTEXT of the story. When a certain language in the book is supposed to be particularly verbose and prose-y, its barely indistinguishable from the writing in the rest of the story. It didn’t stand out beyond its rhyming.
I had several lines that I would have highlighted on a regular app to show just how purple some of it was.
If I could have just sat back a little and relaxed in the moment and gotten lost in the words without having to have an ongoing brain workout for words I don’t regularly use this would be five stars. It's already pretty overwhelming with how much detail she put in, it didn’t need to be quite so difficult to just get through singular lines as well.

However, I would never tell an author how to write. Just a heads up, that this won’t really be accessible to all and maybe that is fine for them and their vision. But I think if they cut down just a little this could be a hugely popular series.

Tips for reading this: I saw a lot of reviews complaining about the months and days and gods all listed right at the beginning but don’t be overwhelmed by this. Its extra info and barely matters. When has it ever mattered if like Elizabeth Bennett met Darcy on a Tuesday in March? It doesn’t. Just like the days don’t matter here. Its just a cool detail that makes sense when a world doesn’t have our history. Same with ‘all the introduced characters that don’t matter’ - her history is like 90% jokes. Laugh at their silly death and move on. You don’t need to memorize them. Any Gods that become important are explained in the moment they do.
Final thought: I totally ship Mak and Lanie and I think I’m outta luck on that one.
Also: like all the violence trigger warnings! This is dark and brutal and definitely not YA, I hope they are not marketing it as YA. NA if anything.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion publishing for this eARC in exchange for my honest review! This book will be available on April 12, 2022 if it sounds even vaguely interesting to you and you are willing to work a little then I totally recommend it!

This is a big book. Big. The unique names were my favorite thing. Every time a new one was mentioned, I smiled. Lainie's a blossoming necromancer in a family of assassins and executioners extraordinaire. With her parents dead, she and her older sister need to save the estate from the debt collectors. I have to admit, it was slow and "wordy". It takes me right out of the story when I have to stop to find the definition of big hihfalutin words. If this was an attempt to show they were of the elite nobility, it fell flat with me. Some I couldn't figure out even in the context of the sentence. The story was good, but I felt it needed edited and moved along faster. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book from Netgalley. 3.5 stars

Right! This book seems to divide people quite a lot, and for good reason. What you need to know if you're thinking about reading it is, this isn't an easy read. It's not a book where you can skim sentences because there's a lot of information, think more Harrow the Ninth than other fantasy reads. However, if you're up for a bit of a challenge, and you love the Addams family and learning about the history of the family in this book, this is for you. I loved it - I loved the hilarious names of the characters (my favourites being Quick Fantastic Stones and Even Quicker Stones, lol) and I adored Lanie and her development. I saw a review mention that this should be a YA book because of the age of Lanie and that they DNF'd it quite early - there is a time jump in which Lanie becomes an adult, so this book is more suited to NA/Adult category.

I also LOVED how original everything was, from the names of the seasons to the names of the places and the history and everything. Despite all the information you're given, I don't believe any of it needs to be fully remembered to understand and enjoy the story. I don't recall all the names of the gods or the seasons but the author is very good in the way they use them, having characters re-explain or mention them in certain ways that you're reminded of what they are.

Basically, it's complicated, but it's worth it, in my opinion. Incredibly interesting, well thought out, well written, and funny at times, with a cast of three dimensional and original characters who crawl into your heart and don't get out. (Goody)

Thanks Netgalley for a free copy!

This is a strange and delightful writing style, it is so detailed it needs footnotes to keep it on track. this book was hard to put down.

What ultimately shone the most for me in this book is the way that theme, metaphor and worldbuilding all blend so seamlessly together to the point that I even struggle pulling them apart now, but I’ll do my best.

Let me start with the things that I enjoyed about the worldbuilding, specifically.

We’re dealing with a protagonist who performs death magic (Lanie Stones). This makes the setting and the plot inherently macabre, yet somehow Cooney manages to make death feel… whimsical and aphrodisiacal. There is a colorful whimsy to the world, particularly with the way that Lanie’s death magic works, and it gives me strong Studio Ghibli vibes. I’ve seen this book comped to Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, but I honestly don’t think that’s a good comparative title. If anything, it’s only a comparative title insofar as the necromancy itself goes. And I even hesitate to say this because Lanie’s necromancy doesn’t carry the same vibe as Harrow’s. Rather, it carries the opposite. Lanie’s necromancy—indeed, Lanie herself—is all about love. Lanie loves death as a mother, treats death as a mother, as the God that Death is—and she makes us love death in return. She helps up make peace with death. And that’s where the theme sneaks in, but I’ll save that for a couple of paragraphs just yet. So, let’s continue with what I enjoyed about the worldbuilding.

I enjoyed the multicultural setting. We have three nations whose cultures and histories are so interlinked that they become mirror images of each other. This doesn’t mean that they’re not distinct. On the contrary. They are incredibly distinct. What it means, is that we’re dealing with a setting where natural assimilation between cultures has occurred over decades, maybe even centuries, yet each culture still retains its own independence. From my own point of view, this reminded me a lot of the relationship between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. To give an example: the nations share (some of) the same Gods, but call them by different names. To give another example: there are schools dedicated to one nation within another nation. Another example: each nation has wizards with wizard marks, but they all have a preferred type of magic, dependent on the God in question.

Speaking of the wizard marks, I found those to be a fun conceptual twist to the more familiar concept of a witch mark as these have been used both in fiction and in history.

But, going back to the multicultural setting, this also helped ensure that all the characters had incredibly distinct voices. One nation’s speech is built around rhyming and body language, to give an example. A lot of thought has gone into the linguistic elements of this book. Both in this sense, but also when it comes to placenames and people’s names. You have a constant sense of all these cultures mingling, yet staying distinct at the same time, all based on the terminology used.

Lastly, I loved the constant, but always subtle, subversion of gender norms both through clothing, make-up, and mannerisms. You won’t find traditional gender norms here—and it’s a delight to read.

Transitioning from the worldbuilding into the theme, this wasn’t really a book about death for me. This was a book about love. And that’s why I personally find Harrow the Ninth a misleading comparative title. This book has so much love—unfurling from Lanie’s own large capacity for love—that it didn’t give me the same vibe of Harrow the Ninth at all. But you also have to read a good part of the book before this starts to become apparent to you. The book opens with death, grief, echo wounds, and a literal allergy to death, but it ends with love as the answer to death. It’s about coming to terms with death through love. It’s a love-letter to funerals across the world where people smile through their tears.

Adding onto that, it’s also a question of where you put your love.

In the Gods? In your family? In your friends? In yourself?

Lanie uses love through death (magic) to set herself free from the bonds of her family legacy, all the while still honoring that legacy. And Cooney asks us, the readers, to remember that death is forever the sister to love. Or perhaps daughter, in this case.

As a last and slightly more critical note, I’ll say that the pacing and the plot both slow down at times. I struggled slightly towards the middle, personally. It’s a long book, basically, and that means it naturally will lose momentum at times. For most readers, that is. And especially for YA Crossover fantasy, which is what I would classify this as, age-wise, although there seems to be a general confusion about this (both from the audience and the publisher side). Cooney has magnificent prose, and that prose is allowed to flourish in this book, which can both be good and bad insofar as the pacing of the plot goes. Primarily, for me, it was good, even if I did struggle in places.

If I could rate this book higher, I would. It's fantastic, involved, engaging, heart breaking and fun (as well as many other adjectives). The only disappointment is that this seems to be the author's only full novel to date so I can't wallow in a deeper pool of them expressing their ideas.

Cooney has built an intricate world in which we follow one thread of possibility to fruition. On the way there, our main character must find her way first within her family (easier said than done), then within her own skin and, eventually, within the greater world as she knows it. What she finds is that what is expected of her as a Stones and as a necromancer can perhaps be accomplished on her own terms rather than everyone else's.

Miscellaneous (Lanie) Immiscible Stones is a necromancer. Her family honor the god of death (Saint Death). Their motto? “Stoneses die young”

Her family has a long history/bond with the reigning family and have made quite the name for themselves over the years… But all of that comes to an end, and powerful people want to use Lanie and her abilities for their own nefarious ends.

Adventure, death, romance, family, magic… it has it all!

This book is extremely well written. Love the world building, story and characters.

And… it is going to be a trilogy! I can’t wait to read more!

Lose yourself in a rich and vibrant fantasy world of depressed necromancers, ghosts, fascinating magic, heart-rending betrayal, and murderous intrigue with C.S.E. Cooney's excellent "Saint Death's Daughter." This book shines with a unique and overwhelming setting that contains a whole host of gods, faiths, ceremonies, laws, naming conventions, and small details that give the story an incredible sense of place that I greatly appreciated. Later chapters devote entire sections to exploring some cultural and civic practices that Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones' home country of Liriat practices, which helped nail down a place and tone for the plot to thrive in.

And thrive it does, spanning multiple years and following one previously mentioned necromancer-in-self-training Miscellaneous Stones, her adventure starts with her being homebound and mostly loving it except for some inconvenient deaths and impending money trouble, which leads to a cavalcade of further misfortunes when summoning her abusive sister and heir to the Stone family name home from abroad to deal with the problem implodes spectacularly. One of my complaints with the book is that the way the story moves from point to point, especially though time skips, can be a little choppy, but with excellent character work and some shocking twists these gripes are easily set aside.

An incredible first look at a world I can't wait to visit again, with characters I am eager to see more of in the future. Well worth a read.

What a brilliant read! I loved the cover and the blurb sounded interesting but had no real expectations beyond it being a new fantasy. It’s so good when you then discover a book that you absolutely love.
We first meet Miscellaneous (Lanie) Stones as a young girl after the death of her parents. She is the youngest daughter in the family of royal assassins and is that rare thing, a necromancer. However she also has a severe allergy to death and violence and suffers echo wounds whenever she is in the presence of these. Lanie is an absolutely brilliant protagonist and I loved reading her journey as she grows up and comes into her powers. She is fiercely loyal to those that she loves and extremely intelligent which is what enables her to survive everything that attacks her and her family. She doesn’t always get things right which just makes her more human.
The plot is complex but basically involves the Stones family fighting for their survival against other powerful families. There is a lot of political intrigue and double dealing as well as magic and the gods taking a direct hand in what is happening. The world building is incredibly detailed even down to footnotes in the text. There were one or two moments when I felt slightly confused as there is a lot happening, but these moments did not spoil my enjoyment of the story. I loved Lanie’s magic and the way that the different characters all have their own magical abilities.
The author has created a perfect blend of slightly macabre fantasy with a real sense of humour. For me, there were definite echoes of The Addams Family at the start, especially with the naming of the characters. There is a bit of romance, but this is very low key and certainly not the focal point of the book. The real themes are about caring for and fighting for those that you love and that your real family is those people, not necessarily the family you were born into.
This is definitely one of the best fantasy books that I have read this year and I’m really grateful to Net Galley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney 5 stars!

I swear, I'd rate this book a Milky Way amount of stars, I loved it that much! One of my absolute faves of the year, and up there with those I know I'll return to again and again.

I'm going to try not to wax lyrical as I prefer to keep reviews brief, but I would highly recommend to anyone looking for an exciting, astonishing, diverse, emotive new fantasy read!

Bits I liked:
- felt fresh and exciting, a new experience in both content and style
- thrilling plot, many emotive ups and downs balanced by quiet, gentle moments, and a killer finale!
- strong descriptive writing with poetic flair, and an intelligent, creative use of unusual and unique words
- wonderfully developed characters with fascinating stories & abilities, with diversity across the BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and Disabled spectrums
- interesting magic system, cultural differences and even calendar features
- humourous footnotes giving clever snippets of additional lore

Bits I liked less:
- literally nothing, I adored it
- some people may find some of the content disturbing, with some violent scenes or descriptions, so worth noting
- the writing style really surprised me at first, so it's possible some readers may find it harder to get into or follow at points

I'm pretty sure there's more to come, so I CANNOT wait to immerse myself back into Lanie, Lir, Mak, Datu and sweet Doédenna's world. thank you to NetGalley, Rebellion Publishing and of course C. S. E. Cooney for the wonderful experience!

3.5 stars
Whimsically dark and fantastically creative this magnificently macabre fantasy is possibly the most original and enchantingly eccentric book I’ve read so far this year and I must say, I enjoyed it.

Lanie Stones, the youngest daughter of Liriat’s Royal Assassin and Chief Executioner has never led a normal life. Born with a gift for necromancy and allergic to violence, she was raised in isolation at the family’s crumbling mansion by her friend and revenant Goody Graves.

But when her parents are murdered, it falls to Lanie and her murderess sister Nita to settle the family’s debts or loose their ancestral home—and Goody with it. Appeals to Liriat’s ruler are ignored …until she too, is murdered throwing the entire nation into doubt.

Hunted by Liriat’s enemies, persued by her family’s creditors and haunted by the ghost of her great-grandfather, Lanie needs more than luck to survive the next few months—but when the goddess of Death is on your side, anything is possible.

The world-building was absolutely incredible and so vividly detailed; exploring different religions, cultures, languages and even magic systems that I found myself totally immersed. The history and Lore incorporated was also really enjoyable—if rather dark—honestly, I could’ve spent the entire novel just reading about the darkly humorous conflicts, gossip and overall ridiculousness surrounding the Lanie’s family.

Likewise, I really liked our protagonist, Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones, who suffers from an allergy to violence (on top of her extremely rare gift of necromancy) and thought it was really interesting to see how she navigates life and the dynamics of her family, who thrive off their long and illustrious history of violence. The long cast of supporting characters that seemingly gravitates around Lanie is also really entertaining and thanks to the first person perspective we get a lot of details into them all. My faves were Goody Graves (the long suffering and centuries old Revenant bound to the Stones ancestral home), Canon Lir (Lanie’s friend, confidante and love interest) and Datu (Lanie’s niece & daughter of her incredibly unlikeable sister, Nita.)

I’m unsure if it was intentional , but the Stones’ family really reminded me of The Addams Family (which is something I really enjoyed) they even have a butler-type servant in the revenant Goody—who’s for the most part quite Lurch-like both in proportions and demeanour. Goody is also portrayed as a bit of a surrogate mother for Lanie and I found their relationship/ dynamics were more emotional than any of Lanie’s familial bonds—I just loved these two in their scenes together.

Though I did enjoy this overall, I did feel that the plot could’ve been more concise and the exposition pared back just a little as the pace did slow considerably in the first and middle portions of the book. But, if you love a slowburn, detail orientated fantasy then I do recommend you check this one out.

Also thanks to Rebellion Publishing and Netgalley for the e-arc.

Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney

Pros: fascinating magic and mythology, interesting characters, great world-building

Cons:

Miscellaneous ‘Lanie’ Stones is the first necromancer born in over 100 years in the city of Liriat. Her family has been the right hands of the ruling Brackenwild family since the founding, acting as royal executioners and assassins. Which makes Lanie’s allergy to violence a challenge to manage. So she’s raised by the family’s revenant, Goody Graves. After a series of events leaves her older, sadistic sister Nita in charge, Lanie’s life changes. As she grows both in wisdom and power, Lanie struggles to live up to the expectations of the past and forge her own future.

Lanie is a wonderful character, surprisingly kind and loving despite her limited human contact and dysfunctional home life. Necromancy is usually depicted as evil and gross, so seeing Lanie’s pure joy in her power and love of the creatures she reanimates is nice to see. I also loved this depiction of the goddess of death.

The larger cast is a mix of nice and terrible characters. Nita is simply horrifying, willing to use her power of fascination to force people to do her will. I had real sympathy for Mak and the abuses he suffers. Canon Lir was intriguing, and the friends Lanie makes later in the book were a lot of fun to hang out with.

The world-building was great, with several distinct cultures represented. I was impressed with the depth of detail given to each culture, making them feel very real.

The story is slow moving at times, giving you the chance to really get to know the characters and world.

The ending left me feeling melancholic. This is the first book in a trilogy so while a few story threads are tied up, there are some major threads left unresolved. It’s an ending that I had to sit with for a few hours to better understand and appreciate.

It’s a great book that does some unique things.

I really enjoyed this book! This is an epic new world, with an amazingly intricate magic system.. I loved it.. There is alot of world building through out the first half of the book, but were learning it along side Laine or as she is teaching it to someone else.. I love the stories she tells Datu about her own family members they were completely outrageous and hilarious and awful all at the same time..

This the tale of Miscellenous aka Laine Stone.. a necromancer growing up in a family of well... very interesting people. Assassins, gamblers, and a whole house full of people that have no problem with torture and murder. which is a problem for Lainie, as when she is close to violence in manifests on her own body. So she basically ends up on her own with only the house Revenant Goody, and her ghostly Grandpa Rad (Irradient Stone) as companions and teachers. All Laine wants to do is protect whats left of her family and she will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.. Which they don't make easy.. This is along tale that cronicles Laine and her growing power as she finally comes into her own and realizes her destiny.. While it was certainly wordy at times I really feel like this is how the story needed to be told I wouldn't change a thing even how long it was lol..

I really think that this would make an amazing audio book, the whole time I was reading I kept thinking that this is a story I would love listening to.. Also after that epic finale, I can't wait to see what will happen in the next book.

HIGHLIGHTS
~reliquaries > roses as the Most Romantic Gift
~Do you floomp or do you froof???
~The dog does not die
~Real necromancers love life
~don’t trust the birds
~dress your school up like a brothel to trick people into an education

A very few times in my life, I’ve encountered books that make the universe entire shift into alignment, books that are the culmination of every moment from the Big Bang to now. Books that feel like the reason the Big Bang happened, like everything that has ever existed did so just so that these books could be written and published and put in my hands. Like every moment that ever was has been leading up to this one.

Books that feel like the point; of the world, of humanity, of me.

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek. Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente. A few priceless others.

And, now, Saint Death’s Daughter.

How are you supposed to talk about a book it feels like you were born to read?

*

Take a generous handful of edible candy jewels and mix them into a casket of perfectly-cut gemstones. Stir in the most beautiful sugar skulls you can find. Add red velvet and pink tulle, spangles and razor blades, sequins and silver spearheads. Choose the most perfect, moonstone-gleaming bones and entomb them lovingly with your treasures. Breathe life into little mice skeletons to watch over your hoard. Give them tutus and tiaras and burning blue fire where their eyes would be. Give them cuddles and kisses and names.

Cast royal blood in a circle around it all, and set that blood alight.

Et voilà: Saint Death’s Daughter.

*

<In all her twenty-two years, Lanie had mainly kept company with forty thousand skeletons (mostly furniture), a ghost (megalomaniacal), and a revenant housekeeper (seldom garrulous).>

The thing is, I don’t want to tell you much about this book. I want you to experience it the way I did; a cake whose every layer is more delicious than the last; a gemstone that always has another glittering facet when you turn it over in your hands; a gift that never stops giving. And part of that was the surprise, of going in not knowing what to expect. For once, I have no argument with the blurb being coy with information. This is a book you should go into unprepared.

And unarmed.

Lay down your armour. Your cynicism, your scepticism, your grown-up-ism – set them all aside. The part of you that frets about what other people think, the part that would be too embarrassed to dye your hair rainbow colours or deck yourself in glitter, the part that’s too shy to get up on stage and sing karaoke even though you’d love to – let all of that go.

You don’t need them here. Saint Death’s Daughter is an escape, and it’s an escape because it’s true, because it taps into something real and rare that too many of us struggle to remember: life is fucking wonderful, actually.

*

Saint Death’s Daughter is joy. (Not a joy – although that too! – but joy.) It’s a feast, a banquet, a ball, rich and glittering and strange and perfect. This is a book about a necromancer but it is fundamentally a book about life, about the love of life, about how beautiful and wonderful it is to be alive in the world.

<Love was the Dreamcalling, love the Great Wakening, love the foundation of the Maranathasseth Anthem. It was the finest of all reasons to live–and after death, to live again.>

You would not believe how long it’s taken me to write this review, or how many drafts I’ve started and scrapped. I simply don’t know how to talk about it. But something clicked recently, and I realised what it was I was struggling to put into words about this book:

Saint Death’s Daughter is the opposite of depression. The exact opposite. It is the opposite of depression, distilled.

<She wanted to eat everything and everyone right down to the bone and suck the marrow clean.>

This book is giggles and glory, richness and rawness, sweet and seraphic and swish. It is ornate and orphic, jubilant and jocose, luxurious and luminous and lit. It is flamboyant and fierce, dashing and devious, iridescent and intoxicating, extravagant and effervescent and epic. It is candyfloss and glitter and toe-bones as love-gifts; a literal, physical allergy to violence in a babe raised by a revenant; jewelled nail-talons pricking fingers so you can wield blood-fire. It is rich in everything, and overflows with love and life and gorgeous prose, an ivory cornucopia of unstinting, unending magic. Literal magic: necromancy and shapeshifting and blood-fire-wielding, deities and revenants and ghosts, even one character who can slow down time. But also the kill-for-you die-for-you live-for-you magic of family and friendship, and I don’t care if that sounds like a Hallmark card, it’s genuine and moving and caught my heart in my throat.

It is everything at once, and I don’t know how that’s possible – I don’t know how you can have Epic Fantasy vibes and a school set up inside a brothel to trick would-be patrons into getting an education, how you can have green moustaches alongside terrifying Blackbird Brides, how you can have divine benedictions alongside mispronounced lemonade. I don’t know how you can have Fire Knights next to froofing, how footnotes full of glorious silliness can go so well with scenes that will have you sobbing, or how any one story can juggle so many different kinds of love and make them all balance perfectly, none outweighing the others. I don’t know how a single book can make me gasp and beam and cackle and quake and pother and hiss and whoop and goosebump and cheer and crow and curse and cry, but I can only assume each of the 12 gods of Athe blessed this book like fairy godmothers and these are all the gifts they gave wrapped up in paper and ink.

Saint Death’s Daughter is absolutely a gift.

<“Bless your prism eyes, that see rainbows trapped in the plain plumage of your fellows.”>

(I wish I could take it through a time-machine back to baby!Sia, leave it on her pillow so she’d know that being weird is wonderful, is something to be celebrated, not only is there room for you in the world, the world wants you. You’re going to grow up in a world where this gets written and published and it will be good.)

<“But, as you Lirians say, ‘a salacious selling point is the first friend of social change!’”

Lanie lifted her head. “Wait. We say that?”

“Sex sells,” Canon Lir translated.>

It is delightful. It is whimsy writ large and bolt and brilliant; it is gutpunchingly powerful; it had me breathless with laughter one minute and my blood pounding at the poignancy the next. It is as extravagant as a Guo Pei fashion show, as exuberant as a Pride parade, as stirring and beautiful as Día de los Muertos. It is an exhilerant – an exhilarating accelerant of a book, lighting you up with elation.

It’s impossible to sing its praises too much or too loudly, just as it’s impossible to point to anything – anything! – and call it a flaw.

For real. Usually I’m able to take a step back and admit that however much I love the thing, this and this and this could have been better. I pride myself on my ability to be objective like that. But here? It doesn’t matter how far I step back, I can’t see any stretch marks. I can whip out the magnifying glass, the microscope, and I still can’t find anything to critique. Not one single thing. Not the characters, not the dialogue, not the plot, not the worldbuilding, not the relationships, not the villains, not the quests, not even the outfits. Not even the TIME-SKIPS, and we all know how impossibly difficult those are to utilise well! But not even them.

<Mak was taking all of his daughter’s daytime dreads and re-shaping them into a beautiful nighttime myth, the same way he reshaped his body with sothaín into the very essence of his prayers.>

And I do think I’m being objective when I say that. Why do you think this hit me so hard? Why do you think I’ve been struggling like I have to talk about this book? It is literally perfect. Just thinking about it now genuinely, honestly brings tears to my eyes so my glasses get all smudged up. I have had to take so many breaks, typing this up. I can’t – there aren’t words.

<She felt surrounded by a lifetime of Canon Lir’s letters. It was as if she moved through the world protected by the walls of an invisible library>

There aren’t words, so I made one, because that’s apparently what I do whenever I’m given a new Cooney book. Thus: the only way to describe the world of Athe that Cooney has created, this book she’s written about it? Is athegravagant. Saint Death’s Daughter is athegravagant, and you’ll only understand what that means if you read it.

Just. This is my book, folx. This is The Book, for me. This is everything I ever wanted and everything I didn’t know to want.

(Except a unicorn. I must admit that I did not spot any unicorns, but! This is only the first book in a series and so I will hold out hope that there will be one later, and you know what, even if there isn’t, Saint Death’s Daughter is still perfect.)

I’ve never read anything like this before. I’ve never experienced this sense of – of being seen and loved and celebrated by a book. I don’t know what to say. I want to sit here and write pages and pages of adoring analysis on each and every character, even the villains; I want to write epic love poetry to the worldbuilding, which is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered, or thought possible, or thought was allowed. I want to create altars to the gods of this book, Doédenna and Sappacor and Amahirra and Ajdenia, Kantu and Enjoloth and Wykkyrri and Brotquen, Lan Satthi and Aganath and Yssimyss and Kywit, and that sounds Extra as hell, doesn’t it, but the thing is, I’m not kidding. I’ve never seen gods who feel so much like gods before, I’ve never come across an author who managed to make me believe in fictional deities, who wrote the grace and majesty of them so well that every time they appeared on-page I understood what it was I was supposed to feel in cathedrals as a kid.

So trying to talk about this book feels…impossibly intimate. I want to shove a copy into everyone’s hands, but I feel shy about it too, like it’s private.

I know it’s silly. It’s just that it’s true, too.

It doesn’t take a prince, after all, to turn blood into light.

If you crossed Catherynne Valente with N.K. Jemisin, you might be lucky enough to get something almost as extravagantly epic as Saint Death’s Daughter. You might, just, come close to the wealth of word-love and magic and strangeness and wonder and JOY. You might, almost, brush your fingers against the edges of vast, impossible imagination and creativity that went into this world, these characters, this book.

*

I said there aren’t words, so I invented one – exhilerant – because that’s apparently what I do now whenever I’m given a new Cooney book. But here’s another; because the only way to describe the world of Athe that Cooney has created, this book she’s written about it? Is athegravagant. Saint Death’s Daughter is athegravagant, and you’ll only understand what that means if you read it.

*

Hi. My name is Sia. Here’s my heart in a book. I think it might hold yours too.

You should read it and see.

A very cool premise and and very well done. I liked the characters and the development but I did find the book a bit long overall.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I read 20% of this book and realized it wasn’t for me.

As far as I can tell it seems to be a wonderfully written YA novel and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to readers who enjoy YA. I had hoped that the fascinating premise would win out over my general disinterest in YA, but I just couldn’t get into it.

(I’ve rated it based on what I think a fair rating would be from someone who enjoys the genre.)

Huge thanks to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for the e-arc of Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I’d heard a few descriptions of this book before I started it, which were a little mixed and initially when I forayed into the first few chapters U had my doubts. There was a lot of information to absorb, not withstanding the family history, days of the week, etc, but then it clicked and I absolutely must say this book is an utter f***king delight!

Miscellaneous (Lanie) Stones is the youngest daughter in the family of royal assassins and a necromancer, with a severe allergy to death and violence, she suffers echo wounds and huge allergic reactions whenever she is in the presence of violence or death…the touch of someone linked to any form of violence is shockingly dangerous to her!

Lanie is introduced as a child, and her growth throughout the book is fabulous. She definitely takes a journey physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually and magically! Despite or maybe as a rebellion against her upbringing she is an amazingly loyal, empathic, emotionally strong, fierce survivor, she loves those around her resolutely and applies her intellectual and emotional intelligence to learn and be better!
Saying this, Lanie still makes mistakes, which just makes her more human, but her strength lies in learning from those mistakes and recognising that she isn’t alone and does have allies with the same aim as her.

The world building and plot in this book are complex, but the footnotes (delivering a definite Pratchett-esque vibe,) are supportive and amusing. This is a world of politics, political families fighting for survival amongst a macabre magical society, dominated by Gods, magical seasons and surges, and plots aplenty.

At times the plot is so complex that you do need to step back, think about it and return to reread certain sections, which for some I can see being frustrating. However, I found the complexity to be all the more engaging. This book is an onion. There are layers upon layers of intrigue, plotting, gods and the undead. Talking of which, a total shout out for Goody and Grandpa Rad - amazing characters for totally differing reasons that I dare you not to be enthralled by.

This book calls upon some key themes, including love, familial and to a lesser extent romantic, found family rather than the family you are born into, loyalty and protecting those you truly care for, whilst trying to do what is right.

In terms of how this rates as a fsntasy, it’s definitely in my top 5 overall, nudging some strong contenders aside and I really can’t wait to read the next chapter in Lanie’s story! Definitely grab this one with both hands when it’s released, find your quiet comfy spot and carve out time to be pulled into Lanie’s world!

Thanks to Netgalley and Rebellion for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'd say this is somewhere in the 3.75-4 star range.

Saint Death's Daughter is an absolute sensory treat, with expansive world building and genuinely delightful characters.

This was, however, one of the most challenging reads I've come across in awhile, and I haven't had to work this hard in a long time. For the first third, I found the writing so lyrical and... dense? that I almost felt drunk while reading it. In many ways it is like Terry Pratchett's Discworld had a very bizarre baby with a Tim Burton movie, and I could almost hear a whimsical but also a wee bit creepy underscore of music playing in the background while I read. Don't get me wrong, though, I do think that all of the work I put into reading this was worth it, and I think this work was wholly original—I think that comparisons to Gideon the Ninth are unfair to both books, because apart from the necromancy and macabre vibes, they are quite different (even the kinds of macabre are different: I'd say Saint Death's Daughter is macabre, but if you slathered a layer of whimsy over it). The writing in this is so visual that I am really excited to read this one on audiobook when I get the chance, and I hope there is some sort of visual medium adaption at some point, because I think it'd be absolutely beautiful.

The other thing is that this book is long, and a lot happens. At times I found myself wondering why this wasn't multiple books, but when I got to the end I understood why and how all this fit into one volume. It's a laborious read, but again, I thought it was very worth it. This is the kind of book I want a physical copy of to take highlighters and sticky notes to, to make connections and write theories and so on and so forth. It was a delightful read, and I enjoyed it, and I think if you're ready to work hard and be ready to be delighted as well as bewildered, this one is absolutely for you, and I do think that this is the kind of book that would just grow and expand with reread upon reread. In any case, I sure do hope this is a series because I simply must know more.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! The book definitely seemed very interesting and exciting to me. The world is built very well, the characters are extremely diverse and interesting. But at the same time, it seemed too long. I love the way the author writes. I can tell that she have inexhaustible ideas and tried to pass it all on to a piece of paper but it can definitely be divided into at least two parts so that everything can be built even better. There are gods, undead , and definitely a lot of intrigues , and at times it was very difficult for me to keep an on top with everything that was going on. At times, I was like, "What are you" or "God, what was that, I have to go back and read again." There is definitely more positive than negative things for me in this book so my rating is 4⭐ / 5. I liked it, but as I said I wish it was split into two parts. However, I would definitely recommend it. If you like this genre ,it is definitely worth reading the book and getting acquainted with the amazing world in it! But yes.. You will need more time to read! I'il follow the author with great interest for her next books.

The voice in this book is mind-blowing! I just fell in love! The writing is beautiful, the main character is fascinating and the world is masterfully crafted. This is not for the novice in fantasy, though. This novel will not hold your hand, will throw a lot of worldbuilding your way, a complicated magic system, entire cultures, and will certainly not go where you expect. To top it all off, the atmosphere is totally Adams family-like, vibrantly grim and gleefully dark. I had a blast - definitely one of my favorite reads of this year!

Saint Deaths Daughter is an absolutely fascinating tale. The levels of intricacy that Conney has reached with her story telling is limitless.

This book came highly recommended to me by @across_my_shelves who read it and was convinced I would love it, so I was really pleased when @rebellionpublishing granted me access on NetGalley. However the beginning left me confused and almost ready to give up, it wasn't that the story wasn't good or it wasn't well written, quite the opposite in fact, so I kept going and I'm so glad I did! In the end this diverse, chaotic, high fantasy, coming of age saga enthralled me and left me very much wanting more. I'm invested in the characters and I can definitely envisage a sequel! I can only hope we don't have to wait too long for it! Maybe just long enough for me to have a detailed reread and tab so I know I haven't missed anything!