We have a decently-sized cast here that slowly came together, but they were all Extremely Cool with each other for no reason other than Duncan wanting everyone to get along. Nadya and Malachiasz inevitably, unfortunately, reunite, and my interest plummeted.

This was all sorely missing from Ruthless Gods.Īnd then I realized I had read over half of the book, and nothing was happening. I was even happy to have many chapters where Serefin and Malachiasz were forced to interact and navigate their whole brother thing. I was so happy to have her back and away from Malachiasz for an extended period of time. Nadya is finally focused on what matters now that she thinks that Malachiasz is dead. At last, our characters are focused on the actual plot, namely how to stop Chyrnog and set the world back in order. Whatever enthusiasm I had left for this trilogy was slowly chipped away as I read, to the point where even if other books were planned to be set in this world, I wouldn’t reach for them.Īs with the first two books, the strongest feature here that I found was with the focus on its lore: the gods, the magic, and all the facets of life that are affected by them, especially now that the world is apparently ending as Chyrnog slowly takes over Malachiasz. Whatever weight those had before gets beaten to death in this book. Neither author nor editor has gotten a handle on the comma splices, either, so they were beyond annoying, along with the “noun and noun and noun and noun” description style.

So my brain did what it does: imagined whatever it wanted with nothing to ground its imaginings. Characters would be at a nondescript palace, manor, safe house, graveyard, capital city, etc., and then they would be at the next nondescript place. Descriptions of cosmic horrors and eldritch monsters were emphasized vastly over setting, so I never got a clear sense of where we were in Kalyazin. Duncan? Well, it turns out it’s better than Ruthless Gods, but it’s still not good. So what’s the deal with Blessed Monsters by Emily A. I have, frankly, read much better from much worse people. If you’re curious about the former, plenty of folks on Goodreads have already done so for me. My Reviewįor the record, I’m not going to be reviewing the author and her behavior here but the book. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Recommended Readers: No one I fear we’ve jumped the shark Notable Notables: Dark, gothic atmosphere with eldritch horror descriptions villain romance diverse LGBTQA+ cast

Blessed monsters