Saint Death's Daughter

Saint Death #1

by C.S.E. Cooney

A blackly funny, gloriously queer coming-of-age fantasy with love, beauty and necromancy by World Fantasy Award-winning author C.S.E. Cooney.

Nothing complicates life like Death.

Lanie Stones, the daughter of crown-appointed killers, was born with a gift for necromancy—and a literal allergy to violence. For her own safety, she was raised in isolation in a crumbling mansion by the family’s mouldering revenant.

When Lanie’s parents are murdered, she and her psychotic sister Nita must settle their extensive debts or lose their ancestral home. When Liriat’s ruler, too, is murdered, it throws the whole nation’s future into doubt.

Hunted by Liriat’s enemies, terrorised by family ghosts and tortured by a forbidden love for a childhood friend, Lanie will need more than luck to get through the next few months—but when the goddess of Death is on your side, anything is possible.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, LGBT, Queer, Magic, Romance

646 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2022

About the author

C.S.E. Cooney lives and writes in Queens, whose borders are water. She is an audiobook narrator, the singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine, and author of World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories (Mythic Delirium 2015).

Her work includes the novella Desdemona and the Deep (Tor.com 2019), three albums: Alecto! Alecto!, The Headless Bride, and Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir, and a poetry collection: How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes. The latter features her 2011 Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride.”

Her short fiction can be found in Ellen Datlow’s Mad Hatters and March Hares: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the Sword and Sonnet anthology, edited by Aidan Doyle, Rachael K Jones, E. Catherine Tobler, Mike Allen’s Clockwork Phoenix 3 and 5, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018), Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 12, Lightspeed Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Strange Horizons, Apex, Uncanny Magazine, Black Gate, Papaveria Press, GigaNotoSaurus, The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

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. Because of these of these things I totally understand the bad reviews even if I'm sad at its suffering rating because of it.

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!

Me: this author is too wordy
Also Me: writes 1k word review of book
I have a problem....

Edit: I just bought the paper back copy of this because it was pink and beautiful and I still love the book.

[Amal El-Mohtar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the blurb I wrote for this book (a portion of which is excerpted on the cover):

SAINT DEATH'S DAUGHTER is a tumultuous, swaggering, cackling story, a gorgeous citrus orchard with bones for roots. Miscellaneous Stones’ journey into adulthood and power, sorting knowledge from wisdom and vengeance from justice, has an ocean’s breadth and depth, its storms and sparkles and salt. Soaring with love and absolutely fizzing with tenderness and joy--I have never read anything so utterly alive.

[K.J. Charles]

I was looking forward to this, I always like a necromancer, but DNF at 65%.

It's well written with a flavour of Pratchett / Jonathan L Howard type humour, especially in the names and footnotes. The worldbuilding is immense but makes perfect sense (I am always put off by fantasy novels that start with a glossary/reference list, but I really didn't feel it was necessary here, the world and magic system are very clearly conveyed). The characters are engaging with some intriguing relationships.

But it's...well, basically, this is a huge, extensively developed world with a lot of characters, many added just for fun, and the author gleefully rolls around lavishing detail and backstory and colour on it. And as a reader, either you sink into this and live and breathe it, and love every moment of it and wish it was twice as long--or you decide you want more than 200pp of plot in 500pp of book, and move on.

Regrettably, I was in the latter camp. I wish I'd read this on holiday, when I might have felt much more in the mood. If you want a massive queer-friendly immensely developed world, and are happy to go at the pace of a story that takes its time, you'll love this.

[Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necromantic, footnote laced fever dream, Saint Death's Daughter is breathing strange magic, exhaling poetry, and humming with heart. C.S.E. Cooney’s prose dazzles, lush and lyrical without ever losing its wit, laced with a narrative voice so vibrant and clever that even the footnotes are a joy. More than just asides; they’re immersive, and funny expanding the world and its history while deepening character connections. It’s like being in conversation with the book itself, and the book has opinions!

The world building is spectacular, full of whimsy without shying away from darkness it's alive with belief, power and magic. The magic is wondrous and fascinating, seamlessly entwined with a complex religion featuring a pantheon of deities who bestow blessings. There's even multiple fully realised cultures including a language delightfully built on rhyme! The result is a world that feels strange, sacred and unforgettable. It's thematically rich, poetic in form and utterly unlike anything else in the genre.

At the heart of it all is Miscellaneous 'Lanie' Stones. A budding necromancer who's allergic to bloodshed and violence. She's thoughtful, sweet but occasionally snarky, often vulnerable, wholly human and utterly compelling. What makes her shine even more is how fully realised every relationship around her is: complex family dynamics that pulse with history and hurt, tender friendships, romantic tensions, and even antagonists who feel as vivid and multifaceted as the heroes.

While the stakes do rise on a national level, and the plot crescendos into moments of grand upheaval, there's something refreshingly intimate about the novel. It leans into a slice of life, coming of age rhythm at times, where the quiet moments of grief, growth, and interpersonal connection are just as powerful as the larger narrative arcs. It reminds you that no matter how magical or monstrous the world may be, it’s still people who shape it — messy, brave, complicated people.

[Siavahda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I AM ONE GREAT BIG MESS OF SPARKLY EXCLAMATION MARKS AND I CANNOT EVEN. THERE ARE NO WORDS. THIS IS THE MOST PERFECT BOOK TO EVER BOOK.

FULL REVIEW TO COME!!!

:FULL REVIEW BELOW!:

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.

Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!

[Charlotte Kersten · Rating 4 out of 5]

So What’s It About?

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…

What I Thought

To start out, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say how much I enjoyed the writing in this book. It is lavish and vivid, clever and quirky, and a really enjoyable way that feels wholly unique. The footnotes, descriptions, and strange details are lush and charming and macabre all at the same time, which I think describes the book as a whole very well.

There is some really unique worldbuilding here as well, and it’s incorporated in a way that makes it digestible and clear despite how much of it there is. We get to see a broad variety of interesting cultures with their own deep histories, perspectives on magic and religion, and stories. I really enjoyed the way magic works here, and learning about necromancy was a joy. In addition, the found family element is absolutely lovely, especially with the core trio of Lanie, Datu and Mak.

At the same time, a few other things didn’t totally work for me. I completely bounced off of the romance between Canon Lir and Lanie. I feel like Cooney wrote lots of lovely phrases about how Lanie felt about them, but despite all of that, their connection just never felt convincing and touching the way Lanie’s connection with characters like Goody, Datu, and Mak were. For me, at least, it didn’t help that Canon Lir speaks in a very formal and flowery way, which made some of their scenes feel a bit stilted and made their connection feel a bit less authentic to me.

The other thing I’m not quite sure about is the core “lesson” that Lanie learns over the course of the book. Lanie makes a large number of really bad decisions throughout - staying to have sex with Canon Lir instead of freeing Goody, showing up to the Bloodlighting without thinking about her allergy to violence, not realizing that Grandpa Rad could get ahold of her orblins, and not considering the danger of Datu and Undies’ bond when creating it. Several of these things have extremely negative consequences. The big turning point of the book for her is realizing that she doesn’t have to be a source of suffering and destruction because of her necromancy magic and her family legacy…but this just doesn’t really ring true to me when she has only really caused destruction and suffering because of her bad decision making/not thinking things through properly. This aspect of things is never really addressed as a character flaw or something to be considered the way her family legacy is.

That being said, I do still dig the overall message of being more than our family’s past, forming new families of choice, and being able to break cycles of harm and violence. It’s a strong message delivered via a story that is vibrant, unique, and pretty delightful (in a deeply macabre way) overall.

[Carolina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a hard time giving up and DNF books, especially when I think they can still get better. Even if they don’t. Saint Death’s Daughter had (and has) everything to be awesome, but we didn’t get to see it (yet).

This book follows Miscellaneous ‘Lanie’ Stones, a necromancer born into a family of royal assassins, who is allergic to all sorts of violence and has a debt to pay to save her family home.

Sounds awesome, right? Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I was SO confused for the majority of the book I couldn’t even properly enjoy the story. Right at the beginning we are introduced to twelve new months, seven new days of the week and fourteen new Gods. As if the author didn’t think that was enough to try to keep up with, she also introduced us to countless new characters, most of them which didn’t bring anything relevant to the story.

We were introduced to around 10 new Stoneses, their story was briefly mentioned in a foot note (that’s how relevant it was; I gave up reading the 30+ footnotes after a while because they were mostly unimportant) and then we would never read about them again. Don’t even let me start on their names.

There was so much info dump that I couldn’t properly grasp how the whole magic system and world building worked because, after reading so much insignificant stuff, my brain just seemed to retain information about the general outline of the story. Which was actually very interesting without all that. I started skipping most of the descriptive excerpts and reading only the dialogues, towards the last few chapters, and I don’t think I missed anything that crucial.

The narrative was so dense it didn’t leave room to properly connect with the characters or root for any of them. The villains and all the magic surrounding them seemed awesome, but since I couldn’t understand most of it, I ended up not really caring about it as well.

It seems like this could be the first book of a series, but I don’t think I will continue reading it.

I received an e-Arc in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Rebellion, Solaris and Netgalley!

[Emma Cathryne · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

2025 reread My goodness the LAYERS to this book.

2022 read

"I promised you an undead army," Lanie said in a stern voice. "Be content."

This quote, this quote there there sums up the entire book IMO.

This book is a delightful feelings cross of the wackiness of Gideon the Ninth mixed with the grieving weirdness of Harrow the Ninth with a solid Terry Pratchett feel and the language/worldbuilding complexity of The Golblin Emperor and the courage to defy epic fantasy genre expectations and go its own way in the end.

The beginning is one of those books where you go: "well fuck, this is going to be an investment."

And it is, because Cooney does not make it easy. Normally I would DNF a book that makes me have to work so damn hard at it, but the humor is there (this book is has bone-crackingly dry sense of humor), the heart is very present, and the skeleton of thing is so complex and beautiful that I fell in love with Lanie and Mak and Goody Graves and even Datu AND ESPECIALLY UNDIES STONES as they stare into the face of an impossible situation and try to make the best of it.

In addition to enjoying being surprised where the plot took me (it's more character than plot driven?the plot is there but it's the relationships that matter), I also was delighted by how the conventions of high fantasy were twisted and turned on their head. Because this book should have been a story about the rise of a dread necromancer into their full power, and while it *technically* was, it also very much wasn't, and that is the point.

I'm going to continue to botch this review, because summing up is hard, but having a main character who is a necromancer be deathly allergic to all things violent, and have her grow up in a family of assassins and executioners steeped in death, is brilliant. And to have the family fall into debt because fo the consequences of their excess (and selfishness, which is a trait bred through the line, along with a distinct lack of empathy), and to have the daughter who is meant to do something great but isn't quite there yet in power (even she's even able to live that long) is another fun tangle to solve. Add that to generational trauma and legacy, and realizing the full depths of the past and how the telling is different than reality, and it's a whole lot of shit dumped into a book where the past matters and comes back to haunt the present, in some cases quite literally.

Much botching.

So. My only takeaway is that if you've invested in the work of The Locked Tomb and are craving for something to hit that same itch of needing complex characters, even more complex world-building, impossible stakes, found family, a solid dose of body horror and wtf-ery, and much queerness, while you wait for Alecto to roll the fucking rock away, then read this book.

OMG OMG OMG THIS IS THE FIRST IN A TRILOGY I THOUGHT IT WAS A STANDALONE

THIS IS GOOD BECAUSE I NEEDSSSSSS MORE ANSWERS

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 2 out of 5]

More is more "cute weird" fantasy book with lots of in-trend elements, and much much too long - and it still could not wrap up plot or relationship stuff decently (sequel to come for sure). I get the feeling the author likes a lot of the same books and stories as I do and this is filled with ideas, and concepts I would normally love but the execution and combo just did not work for me. Like a salad made of trendy stuff all thrown together but which did not work out for me (avocado with pomegranates? I like both but not together all jumbled up with lots of other things...).

It is very long, and I am prejudiced against needlessly long books (planning to start a 1000 page book just after this though...). The book starts with 5 pages of blurbs, long paragraphs, from 13 different authors of which I recognized 2 names. The acknowledgements are 8 pages long (in small font) and thank hundreds and hundreds of people and I recognize many dozens of names (including Ysabeau S. Wilce, more on that later). The book was apparently 13, or 17 years in writing. It is that type of book, by which I mean the author could not get just a couple of the best short blurbs), and nobody could actually get to the point of moving plot and character development along consistently.

The beginning of the book did hook me, an epistolary start, with a charming eccentric setting - by the way I got vibes from two series I love from this book, the obvious comparisons to Gideon the Ninth, necromancers and weirdness, but also a lot of vibes from the Flora Segunda books (a series which is now unduly forgotten IMO), particularly in the baroque family history, supernatural butler/servant eventually even a dog. But it did not live up to those two favorites of mine for many reasons.

Incidentally the structure of the book works as if there are two plots, one focused on grandfather Rad and the sarcophagus of souls and whatever happened to that northern country, another focused on the Blackbird Bride and closer at hand, and while there are some connections between the two plots, it is almost as if the story alternates between one plot and then the other neatly divided into book parts.
Part 1 - sarcophagus!
Part 2 - Blackbird Bride antagonism ..
Part 3 - sarcophagus and so on ..

And this destroys the urgency of any of the plots, it is like the antagonists just stay there and wait for our main character to stumble along, without much plans or feeling or urgency back to whatever the plot is supposed to go. (Lanie read like a quite stupid main character to me and doing instinctively stupid things but which hey turn out ok!). And in the middle, hey interludes with cozy found family scenes with over the top colorful side characters...

Then there are the relationships and it is again full of ideas, possibilities but which did not feel developed enough. There is a twist in one of the relationships, which I think is supposed to be the one true love but that relationship is quite baffling mostly because Lir is shown all pompous and pedantic whenever on page and Lanie's infatuation with them has the marks of teenage infatuation. There is a lot more give and take and grudging respect and relationship development with Mak, though at the ending them treating each other as brother and sister is to firmly reassure the reader that relationship is purely platonic and the other person is the OTP, with relationship stuff to be resolved on a sequel?.

I kept reading hoping for a twist, and arguably there might be, just it was not enough payoff . While there is a proper ending to the story (over the top. Literally), a lot is left loose, relationship and plot wise. 600+ pages apparently were not enough but they were more than enough for me, definitely not touching any sequels or spin-offs.

[Spencer Orey · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s some great language and magic here and some beautiful questioning about living together, family traumas, and power over other people.

[Natasha Leighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am biased toward CSE Cooney's prose, for it is beautiful and intricate and glowing and I love it so. This book made me fall in love with her characters, too, particularly Lanie, who goes through rapid growth and an emotional roller-coaster over the course of this book that had me crying and flinging the book across the room. Only good things for Lanie from now on, PLEASE. This book is full--not really dense, but detailed and worthy of full attention given to it. It's no less complex and necromantic than Gideon the Ninth, only with a historic, second-world fantasy lens over it instead of a weird sci-fi fantasy one. For that strange cross-section of readers, like me, who find themselves loving both the softness and heart of something like Witchmark as well as the crunchy, juicy, dry wit and intensity of Gideon the Ninth, this book will most certainly tickle your fancy.

[Iona Sharma]

This book is NUTS. Just a wild, strange, epically detailed world with wild and strange characters to go in it. It's brutal and violent, done with an almost cartoonish relish, with footnotes full of yet more rich nonsense. It does tread the line of self-indulgence in terms of style--I got a bit irritated at its habit of using straight-up archaisms, I don't think good writing entails reaching for a dictionary every few pages - and I didn't know if I was enjoying it until I was halfway through. But it came together for me. It isn't a book with much plot, interestingly; it's a slow unfolding of a story rather than a rollicking adventure which is what it seems to be at the start. I liked it.

[Lata · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

Fantabulous!

And that's what my impression of this book was for days after finishing this funny, frenetic, rich, and beautiful book.

Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is a necromancer, from a long line of necromancers who work for the ruling Brackenwild family in Liriat (in Athe). Interestingly, though her family are assassins for the Brackenwilds, Lanie cannot tolerate being around violence: she experiences allergic symptoms ranging from sneezing to copious nosebleeds.

Her elder sister (and longterm bully) Aminita Stones takes on the family mantle after their parents and aunt are dead (maybe murdered) and the sisters are saddled with their relatives massive debts.

Nita secures a longterm contract with the Brackenwilds to murdering the twenty four wizards of Queen Bran Fiakhna of a neighbouring land. On one of her trips back home. Nita brings a man back with her, Mac, whom she has kidnapped and glamoured into compliance, with the intent of using him to create the next generation of Stones. He's naturally furious about this.

Some years later, Nita returns in a panic, and with the queen's wizards hot on her trail. Not only does Nita have herself to protect, but there's also her sister Lanie, her captive mate, and the next generation of Stones, her daughter (and scene stealer) Datu.

Needless to say, things don't go as planned, and Lanie, Mac and Datu go into hiding. At the same time, Lanie and Mac also want to give Datu the opportunity to spend time with other kids and to go to school.

And that's the beginning of this big, gorgeous, detailed (did I forget, there are numerous footnotes(!) adding bits of context or history to a situation), and fantastic story. C.S.E. Cooney brings Lanie, Mac and Datu to glorious life, as well as a supporting cast of quirky individuals, and has Lanie work terrifically hard to keep Datu alive against assassination threats from the queen.

Despite its length, the book's pacing is good, with events moving along nicely, and Lanie's evolution as shy daughter of the Stones, to a caring aunt and sister-in-law, a powerful necromancer, and finally a friend to this small family's circle is great to watch.

I loved this book so much, and struggled to articulate how I felt about this effervescent, bright and totally enjoyable book.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Solaris for this ARC in exchange for my review.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lanie’s family serves the royal family of Liria as torturers and executioners. She is the odd one out, as her magical talent leans towards necromancy instead, similar to her grandfather. It makes her oddly susceptible and allergic to all things concerning death, which has led to a lonely childhood of being considered weak and ill. Her fairly nasty older sister has gone the beaten path of her family, but with a fairly narrow and not very strong magical ability to charm others into doing her will. Their parents have died and left them in dire straits. They are indebted to another family and might loose everything. The royal family is not much help. And while all of this is happening, 15-year old Lanie is practicing her necromancy.

So much for part 1 of this doorstopper! Part 2 catapults us forward by 7 years. I am not necessarily a fan of larger jumps of time in a narrative, because it tends to mean that all the beginning was just set-up and backstory, bringing me to the main event. In this case it also led me to a part of the narrative that felt even slower than the beginning. The plot thickens in Part 2, as expected. And some horrible things happen. The writing is not bad, I like the story. There is just so much… stuff? Honestly, I have lost interest. I keep putting the book down for a day or two and then, when I pick it up again, I don‘t care and can‘t remember what happened. I‘ve been reading this for almost three weeks now and I am not even halfway. I keep wondering what the point of this book is, because the plot is not going anywhere quick. DNF at 46%.

3 of 5 🦴🦴🦴, because it was a good book so far, I just don‘t have the patience for the slow pace and the padding.

[Amy Imogene Reads]

DNF, not giving a rating

[Jacq.and.the.readstalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listen. I love fantasy. I love big books. I love dark stories... but this just did not land for me. I am a little sad about it.

As a concept, this is interesting. The issue I have is in the execution. I wish I had done some more research before buying a hard copy. Booktok did me dirty by comparing this to the Locked Tomb. This isn't a bad book, it's just. Not at all what I was expecting or what I wanted.

There is a LOT of focus on worldbuilding - past the necessary point for the story. Pages and pages of lengthy paragraphs on characters that are long dead. Family histories that aren't relevant to the plot. Scene setting description that tends to drag. Footnotes that don't really matter to the plot. I'm a reader who likes description, but not this much of it. I found myself skimming some of the histories because it was destroying my momentum... which makes me question whether I should count this toward my reading goal. There's so much in this book and it's so densely packed that it's hard to get through. I felt like I was walking through mud most of the time... and my enjoyment wasn't enough to propel me forward. I was forcing myself through this even though I was miserable because "I already made it this far."

Character names are incredibly strange to the point where it felt intentionally "quirky" and they grated on me. Miscellaneous or "Lanie" was an odd choice I could get over... some of the others, not so much. The dialogue to description ratio was not to my preference. I had a hard time figuring out which details were important and which weren't. I never really attached to anyone in the book, so big moments just didn't land for me.

I did like some of the familial relationships and side characters. I wish this had been a little less dense and a little more action-packed. The way the family was described I expected there to be some super cool magic action, and I just don't feel like that was ever delivered. There is definitely an audience for this - it's just. Not me.

[Aly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bear. There are so many things to keep track of: new months, days, gods/goddesses, places, and characters. There are footnotes about historical events and characters that don't really matter to the main story. They're funny, but in a story with so much going on, it just made me more confused. I applaud the author for diving so deep into the world, but this should be scaled back a bit so things aren't as bogged down. Maybe some of these characters we could learn about in the sequel?

The main character is Miscellaneous "Lainey" Stones. What I liked most about her is that she sometimes makes mistakes, chooses wrong, and needs to learn to stand up against others. It made her more real and relatable and her love for her family helps show that Lainey is trying her best. I also thought Lainey's niece Datu was a funny character, even when she wasn't trying to be. She's very ambitious and always up for a story about past Stones family members and what they got up to.

There were parts I didn't quite understand because there's an overload of information. There's a lot of information and some names and titles I struggled to pronounce. I did think it was a fun book overall and maybe listening to an audio of it would be helpful. I am still interested in what the sequel will contain and maybe now that I have the layout of everything, it will be an easier read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Solaris and NetGalley for the copy

[Allison Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my book club, I spend the last few months of the year reading with the specific intent of finding things I think will appeal to our readership. It means I try and toss many, many many books and finish but am frustrated with at least a dozen others in the attempt to find a handful I can recommend with no reservations.

This is one of those books. It's well written with darling characters, a very cool world, and a compelling set of issues for a plot. Is it groundbreaking or breathtaking? No, but dammit it is a good story well told from an angle I do not see much of, despite my over-saturation on books.

CONTENT WARNING: non-consensual relationship / kidnapping, child abuse, lots of death and blood, slavery

Really this book just ticks all the boxes. The characters were varied and interesting. The world and magic were fun and hung together well. The writing was masterful. The plot was multi-layered and there were consequences to character choices. The character choices made sense and were followed through with consideration of how those choices might change things. There was plenty left open but the story itself came to a conclusion that felt earned.

My small gripes are too much talk about kissing and a few times the baddies wobbled into moustache twirly territory.

I think this book would appeal to a wide variety of fantasy readers and should be one on the TBR if you like stories of plucky heroines who do cool magic.

[Vavo ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ☆
This book was definitely a commitment. It is long and it is dense with a lyrical kind of writing, an extensive worldbuilding, a big cast of characters and a lot of footnotes.
My problem with it was that I loved all the components (especially the footnotes) but didn't love the whole. The plot felt lost inside all the magic and lore to the point I wasn't eager to pick it up every day. I did however enjoyed Lanie's story and her relationships, especially the one with the reverant Goody and I really liked the ending. I just wish I was more hooked with the actual plot.

[Jennie Damron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man did I struggle with this book. Starting with the things I liked. The writing was good. The overall crux of the story I enjoyed. Lanie was a great character and I thought her growth was believable. Now I love big books. They don't intimidate me in the slightest so I am shocked that I feel this book was waaaay too long. So much detail on things that were not pertinent to the story. It became a chore to read and I dreaded having to pick it up. I wanted to love this book, but it was just ok. I do think there are people who will adore this book, sadly I am not one of them.

[Katie T]

Dnf 16%

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. 3.5 stars rounded up. It is, as many of the negative reviewers mention, quite long (it's funny how an e-arc can really turn that into a surprise) and took me longer than expected to read, but I found the writing lovely (mostly -- it did drag a bit towards the end). I also REALLY appreciated that the book is a contained work that left itself open to the possibility of a sequel, but did not end on a cliffhanger and is satisfying in and of itself. If there is a sequel, I would read it.

I received an e-arc from the publisher via Edelweiss in return for my honest review.

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a breathtaking book Saint Death’s Daughter is. Truly magnificent in all respects: its exciting, imaginative story, its absorbing, immersive worldbuilding, its soaring writing, and its sharp, compassionate observations about human nature. I loved it completely.

It’s been a long time since I walked into a book and lost myself so entirely in it, so much so that I wanted to bring pieces of it back with me into this world. Can we have sothaín meditations, please? Can we have these twelve gods? … But just certain select pieces! Because the other thing about the world of Saint Death’s Daughter is that it’s cheerfully vicious and merciless—not always and everywhere by any means—but plenty enough. Take the fact that our protagonist, Miscellaneous (Lanie) Stones, comes from a family of assassins and torturers. And there are similar people in high places throughout the story. But the folks Lanie’s drawn to are nothing like that at all. We’re more than our family history, and we can make different choices—that’s the grounding hum that vibrates through the story. Lanie sets herself to make amends for the harm her family’s done: tries, fails, and tries again, all while growing into a powerful necromancer with a deep devotion to Doédenna, Saint Death.

Now I never thought I would love a necromancer. Necromancy is not my thing! Not into the undead, thank you very much! But I loved the thoughtful way necromancy works in Saint Death’s Daughter--what it means. The revenant dead are dreaming they’re alive. And they can be sung back to sleep. I loved Lanie’s tender relationship with the revenants she creates (and one who was created before her time).

I think maybe it’s this: my impression from a distance about necromancy in novels, games, and visual arts etc. is that it’s used for its thrill and horror value. Unstoppable, mindless troops. In my mind it also drifts into zombie territory, since zombies are revenants, but not through necromancy (except when they are), and with zombies, there’s the body horror of decay and putrification.

But Saint Death’s Daughter doesn’t treat it like that. It profoundly honors the mystery that is death and explores, delicately, thoughtfully, what it means to be the wakened dead, dreaming they’re alive. And the difference between that and living. And how the dead are our past, our personal past, and the past of our planet, and how that’s part of us, I guess? Remarkable. Like this description of Saint Death’s invisible cloak:

The cloak’s infinite but invisible train spilled down the sides of the tower in a cascade of interlocking bone and shell and chiton, in a hundred million fossilized leaves from trees that the planet Athe knew only in its youngest days, in chains of long-extinct insects trapped in amber, in festoons of fangs that once had studded the jaws of leviathans, in the lacework of the claws of dragons—or things out of which dragons were dreamed; in the beads of embryos that had died when they were yet too tiny to be detected by the naked eye … it fell, and though no one alive could hear it, it clicked and clacked and creaked like winter branches in a winter wind. It dragged the city streets and sank beneath the stones and trawled the catacombs below.

More generally, CSE Cooney’s way of writing gods/magic/Mystery is right up my alley (and always has been: I loved her Twice-Drowned Saint)

“When people gather in great numbers, holding festivals across the land to celebrate the gods, the gods can’t help but hear us all. They hear and remember Their creations. Their attention brightens on us, even as our attention summons Them nearer, and, and…” …

Tan finished for her “… and all creation grows more marvelous with the All-Marvel. And thus, the magic surges for all true believers, for magic is the memory of the gods.”

Now I want to swing the spotlight round to something entirely other: CSE Cooney’s affectionate and perceptive way of writing about people. Like this:

Haaken’s was not a warmth like Duantri’s, nor was there in him much evidence of the tenderness Mak was capable of. Haaken was more like Tan, with her beacon-black eyes that shone their penetrating lights on everyone with equal curiosity. Or like Havoc, ready with her wry smile and dry wit and her life’s load of hard-bought wisdom. Or like Canon Lir, who, when you stood in front of them, no matter how you babbled, listened as if you were the only person in all of Athe.

(About Havoc, another character says, “bless your prism eyes, that see rainbows trapped in the plain plumage of your fellows.”)

And then there’s just the beauty, exuberance, and humor of CSE Cooney’s language:

About a dress: “If lava were kindly, if rainbows were warm, if stars smelled of orange blossoms—these, then, Lanie felt, would be the raiment she stood up in.”

About an expression on someone’s face: “so clear and shining it was like a window you could fly right through.”

Havoc upbraiding Duantri: “Tits and pickles, Duantri! Yaknow I don’t speak high heathen. Talk urchin, wouldja?”

About a way of walking: “Even blunted by soft-soled house slippers, orange with gold embroidery, [Tan’s] stride implied a bright herd of stampeding beasts.”

So those are some of my reasons for loving Saint Death’s Daughter. It’s doing so much that it’s impossible to cover it all in a review. Lanie eventually learns to speak with more than one voice at once, with a surface voice and a deeper one (kind of like throat singing, where you sing more than one note at the same time, only Lanie’s deeper voice isn’t audible in the usual way of things). The novel is like this too: it’s speaking in a surface voice and in many other voices as well. It’s broadcasting on many frequencies; you can hear many, many things.

[Becca (Horners_book_corner) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saint Death's Daughter was a great read - for me it felt like the (threeway) love child of Discworld, Gideon the Ninth and Nevernight, with less cussing and more bones and science textbook terminology. It took me a little longer than usualy to read due to COVID zapping my bandwidth, but this is no reflection of this brilliantly dark and intriguing book.

[Holly (The GrimDragon)]

This isn't holding my attention, which I so desperately need right now. The constant barrage of information bogged down any chance the storytelling had of flowing.

DNF @ Page 123.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Where to begin with Saint Death's Daughter. Well, I enjoyed it quite a bit but there were aspects of it that really brought my enjoyment level down. Lets start with the things I liked about the book.

I really liked the main character Lanie Stones. She was fun and complex and it was great watching her grow and develop into her own person and not that which others expected her to be. The journey she takes throughout the book to learn and develop her own abilities was interesting and engaging. I loved the world building. There is so much to unpack in this book. Many different kingdoms with different languages and religions and even different magic systems. Lots of politics between the kingdoms as well within her own kingdom. Politics between the great houses of which she is one. It's really incredible, this world C.S.E. Cooney has built. I can just imagine how much more in depth things will get in future books of the Saint Death trilogy? Series??? All of these things made me really enjoy this book but there were elements of the book that really brought my rating down.

The first, and most detrimental, is the pace with which things occur. Because a lot of time passes throughout the story, events occur at an incredibly rapid pace that keeps the book at arms length from the reader. And a lot happens, I mean A LOT. It felt like Cooney fit over 600 pages of material into a 480 page book. I think the fast pace also kept me from feeling attached to any of the characters, including Lanie. When terrible things happened to characters, and they do, I didn't care. When characters died, I didn't care. Because of this, I just didn't love this book as much as I was hoping to.

There is a time jump toward the beginning of the book. It's a seven year jump that really threw me out of the story and its where I became disconnected to the characters. Prior to the jump I felt connected to Lanie and was really feeling for her and the situation she was in. Then the time jump happened and so many thing had changed and we are told about the changes but at this point I felt disconnected from the story and the characters. I was never able to get that feeling back. From that point on the book was not as good I thought it would be, based on the beginning. I was really wish Cooney could have written the book without that giant jump, it really left a hole in the story.

I still enjoyed Saint Death's Daughter despite these elements and would recommend it. But, borrow before you buy.

Oooh! Also, before I forget. Footnotes... loved them... so funny. I did enjoy the humor.