From the cover art to the description - this book blurb spoke to my soul and combining my favorites historical romance with romantasy/fantasy subplots. Unusual combination of the church as a backdrop for a murder mystery with multi love triangles and sexual orientations.

The Faithful Dark is a hauntingly atmospheric novel that blends historical fiction with elements of mystery and suspense. Cate Baumer’s writing is elegant and immersive, pulling you into a richly detailed world filled with secrets, tension, and moral ambiguity.

The characters are compelling and layered, each carrying their own burdens and desires, which makes their choices and conflicts feel real and impactful. The plot steadily builds a sense of foreboding, keeping the reader engaged as the story unfolds with both subtlety and intensity.

This novel is perfect for readers who enjoy historical settings tinged with darkness, complex characters, and a slow-burning, suspenseful narrative. Baumer crafts a story that lingers in your thoughts, inviting reflection long after the final page.

A unique and gothic fantasy with dark religious themes, queer rep, murder mystery, and an extremely slow burn. Our three main characters, Csilla (a girl with no soul), Ilan (a trans priest who left his wealthy upbringing for the church), and Mihaly (an Izir, someone with divine heritage - except the church thinks this one is a heretic) become unlikely allies in saving their city from a demonic force murdering its citizens.

Csilla is assigned by the church to kill Mihaly for his heresy, because it won’t leave a mark on her (lack of a) soul. But when they meet, she can’t bring herself to kill him. They talk, he charms her, and makes her an offer to help them both: prove that he’s innocent by teaming up to find the real killer, and he’ll work his magic to give her a soul. But this is absolutely a case where nobody is what they seem and everything you think you know will be unraveled by the end.

The prose is beautiful and the characters are so human and flawed that I felt instantly connected to them. I especially loved Csilla and felt seen by her, her deep empathy for everyone around her, the sense that she’s constantly carrying the world on her shoulders. My heart broke for her over and over throughout the story and her unending compassion for those hurting her made it ache that much more.

This story also brought up so many questions about what a soul is and what it means to have one, while seamlessly critiquing the power imbalance and corruption of the church. It’s a powerful reflection on religious guilt and the lengths we will go to in order to feel “good” or “pure”.

I can’t wait to see what’s in store for these characters and would love to see if anyone makes a comeback in the next book. Thanks to NetGalley & Mobius Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cate Baumer has created a true masterpiece reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo, or Ava Reid ...

This is the city of miracles, but not everything miraculous is good.

The Faithful Dark tells the story of a decadently dark, sinful world ... a world steeped in mystery, in murder, and in the story of a Church that wants all. Of a Church that wants absolute power and moves to have their hand in everything in the holy walled city....

Baumer has created an absolutely powerful and at the same time, utterly terrifying vision of just how bad church corruption can get if left uncontrolled... if allowed to grow and allowed to turn into the bitter and pestilent bloom that it can be....

This overarching theme of the Church & how corruption can affect it is wrapped into a vividly beautiful, and very much living tale of resilience, of religious trauma, of faith, carnage, and loss...

A tale that is full of an emotion that is so raw, and bittersweet as our characters attempt to conquer their own burdens ... satisfy their own desires....

And to be able to see the magic of Baumer's beautifully made world grow more as our characters grow? It just cemented my love for The Faithful Dark even more, and I cannot wait for its sequel....

A story examining what it means to have faith and the depths one will go to carry out that faith.

Focused on an orphaned girl Csilla, who mysteriously has no soul, The FaithfulDark follows her journey as she struggles to find her place at the Church where she has served. Asked to do the unthinkable and unable to carry out the task (even with no soul to stain), Csilla learns to find the power in her own faith and actions to bring about good in her slowly decaying world.

Patience is good to have when initially starting the story as there is a lot of world-building interwoven while the main characters are being introduced. Angels, Saints, Demons, stones that can sense the purity of a soul, among other things... it takes a bit for the pieces to connect and to understand the importance of building the puzzle. Once you've gotten a grasp, the story becomes all the more interesting.

Csilla started off a little weak as the main character- mainly because of her naïveté and general strong longing to belong. Once she begins to interact with Mihály and Ilan as they attempt to solve the murders in the city, she could stand firmly on her own as an interesting and developed character. Mihály was also difficult to initially care about - he seemed a bit untouchable and purposefully mysterious, so he came off as a bit irritating to me. He also achieves redemption with his character development and interactions with others. Ilan was always a fascinating character - we initially meet him as the head Inquisitor using violence as a means to aid people into clearing their souls of darkness. By the end, he came out as my favorite character by far.

Dripping with atmosphere, this is a slow-burn fantasy that has me anticipating the second book!

What I Enjoyed:
- each character is operating under their own scruples and morals with disagreements (multi-faceted characters with depth and development)
- the world-building of how the world is literally shaped by the main faith/religion
- a long-lasting mystery with more than a few twists at the end


Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher Mobius Books | Hodderscape for allowing me an ARC to read and review!

thank you so much to netgalley for providing me with an arc! I requested this book because of its premise and oh my god, it was amazing. I'm glad to say it met all my expectations. I loved the plot, setting and characters. I found it really easy to get into and I found it very enjoyable. I definitely recommend it to those who live adult fantasy books!

Thank you Netgalley, Mobius Books, Hodderscape, and Cate Baumer for the chance to read this arc!
The Faithful Dark is an elegant, immersive gothic fantasy that leans heavily into atmosphere, character depth, and slow-burn tension.
Readers who enjoyed Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright, or who appreciate the richly textured writing style of Leigh Bardugo, will feel right at home!
This is a novel that values mood and complexity over speed, and the payoff is a cast of layered, morally interesting characters. The gothic fantasy elements blend seamlessly with a murder-mystery structure, creating a story that unfolds and rewards a patient reader.

Screaming and crying for book 2!
I loved this one so much, the world building was amazing and the characters were great for a first book, im invested to know where they all go and do!

The lush, dark, sensual world, intriguingly based on souls that Cate Baumer built, pulled me right in. This is for readers who enjoy a slow build with a slow start that steps you fully into this immersive world until you are covered in it.

4/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to review this ARC.

The Faithful Dark has a unique premise and moody, gothic atmosphere. The world Cate Baumer creates feels dark, heavy, and steeped in religious symbolism, and I enjoyed the idea of relics that can physically reveal how much sin a person carries. Religion being a fact rather than a belief is such a creepy, fascinating concept and this premise plays a big role in shaping the tension, power dynamics, and moral questions throughout the story.

I enjoyed how the book follows Csilla as she navigates a world that sees her as less than because she was born without a soul. While this is a major plot point, the explanation felt unclear and underexplored. I don’t mind ambiguity, but I wanted a bit more explanation and background information about how she was born without a soul and if this has happened to anyone else before. The mystery surrounding Csilla, the secrets tied to the church and its relics, and the hunt for the serial killer kept me turning pages; there were several moments that felt genuinely unsettling in a good way.

Overall, the originality, strong atmosphere, and thought-provoking ideas of this book far outweighed my confusion about certain details. The Faithful Dark is an engaging and addictive dark fantasy; I’d definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy gothic settings, morally gray worlds, and faith-based horror elements.

I adored this book. I was sucked in right away and couldn't stop turning the pages. I was invested in the mystery and the characters and absolutely needed to know what happened to them. The world they live in and the way their god/saint system works was also very intriguing and I'm looking forward to learning more about it in book 2! Also really loved the ace rep with Csilla and found her a very refreshing and relatable character. 5 stars!

The Faithful Dark is refreshingly different in the current fantasy landscape, with slow-building atmosphere, subtle character work, and rich prose. The book uses its gothic tropes well, with all the undertones of dread set in sharp contrast against the gentleness of the MC (and underlined in the perspective of the MMC). I would recommend this to fans of books like Juniper and Thorn and The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, or readers of The Knight and the Moth if they'd like similar themes in a less romance-driven book!