The Twice-Drowned Saint

by C.S.E. Cooney

World Fantasy Award winner C. S. E. Cooney takes readers on a journey of wonder, terror, and joy in this mind-bending, heartfelt novel. Contained inside impassable walls of ice, the city of Gelethel endures under the rule of fourteen angels, who provide for all their subjects' needs and mete out grisly punishments for blasphemous infractions, with escape attempts one of the worst possible sins.

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Ebooks, Fiction, Horror, Magic, Angels

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 6, 2023

About the author

C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: first, for Bone Swans: Stories, and most recently for Saint Death’s Daughter (on Kirkus Review’s list of Year’s Science Fiction and Best Fantasy 2022). Other work includes Saint Death’s Herald, second in the Saint Death series; The Twice-Drowned Saint; Dark Breakers; Desdemona and the Deep; and poetry collection How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, which includes her Rhysling Award-winning poem “The Sea King’s Second Bride.”

As a voice actor and proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Cooney has narrated over 130 audiobooks, as well as short fiction for podcasts such as Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Podcastle. As singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine, she crowdfunded for two EPs: Alecto! Alecto! and The Headless Bride, and produced one album, Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir.

Her plays have been performed in several countries: most recently, March 2023, a collaborative sci-fi musical Ballads from a Distant Star at New York City’s Arts on Site. Her short fiction and poetry can be found in many speculative fiction magazines and anthologies, most recently: “A Minnow or Perhaps a Colossal Squid,” in Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Fantasy Volume 1, “Snowed In,” in Bridge To Elsewhere, and “Megaton Comics Proudly Presents: Cap and Mia, Episode One: “Captain Comeback Saves the Day!” in The Sunday Morning Transport—all in collaboration with her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez.

Cooney and Hernandez (collectively: the Hernandooneys) co-designed a table-top roleplaying game co-designed by called Negocios Infernales. It crowdfunded on Kickstarter in under 12 hours, and is out now in 2025 with Outland Entertainment. Order your copy here!

Find C. S. E. Cooney here at csecooney.com, on Substack at https://csecooney.substack.com/, on LinkTree, at @csecooney on IG, on Facebook at facebook.com/cscooney, on her Amazon Author Page, or at Goodreads.

MEDIUM BIO

C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: for novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Other work includes Saint Death’s Herald (second in the Saint Death Series), The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. As a voice actor and proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Cooney has narrated over 130 audiobooks, as well as short fiction for podcasts like Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. In March 2023, she produced her collaborative sci-fi musical, Ballads from a Distant Star, at New York City’s Arts on Site. (Find her music at Bandcamp under Brimstone Rhine.) With her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez, she co-designed a GM-less TTRPG called, Negocios Infernales (“the Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!”), out now from Outland Entertainment, with the companion collection Infernal Bargains, poetry and prose inspired by the game’s “Deck of Destiny.” Find her website and Substack newlsetter via her Linktree or try “csecooney” on various social media platforms.

SHORT BIO

C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author, a Rhysling Award-winning poet, a game designer, a SAG-AFTRA voice actor, and the singer-songwriter Brimstone Rhine. Find her on social media via her LinkTree https://linktr.ee/csecooney

Reviews

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think CSE Cooney is becoming an auto-read author for me.

This was AMAZING. I don't know how my brain is fritzing and releasing. It's weird, it's angelic, it's gross and engrossing and altogether a feast for the mind and the soul and it's definitely not for the faint of heart, but like the best BDSM it ends with a whole lot of comfort.

I received an ARC from the publisher

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella-length story is one of the most imaginative mashups of story concepts I've ever read. You definitely have to jump in feet first and then just let the current of the story take you for a ride. Good thing it's a fun one.

I have flirted with reading C.S.E. Cooney before. I almost read her Tor.com novella, Desdemona and the Deep (and still might!), and definitely considered her recently published novel, Saint Death's Daughter. But somehow, when visiting this book's publisher's table at a recent SFF con, this slim little book was the one I picked up. I mean, THAT COVER. Amirite?

The story is about as wild as the cover indicates. Ish, a 38 year old woman in a raised city made of salt (and YAY for older protags!), is a secret saint. Unlike most of her fellow citizens, she can see the 14 angels that run and protect the city of Gelethel, and one in particular, Alizar, who talks to her. Although Gelethel has the pretense of holiness, most of the angels have taken up the unfortunate practice of requiring human sacrifice from refugees seeking shelter from the war raging outside the city walls. Ish is obviously not into this, and wants to get herself as well as her parents out. She has some uncles that might help - and the appearance of a second saint for Alizar, a woman named Betony, could provide the opening she's been looking for.

That summary makes the story sound more straightforward than it actually is. It's broken up into 15 chapters, each of which use a filmmaking term (e.g. "Interior..." "Dissolve to...") which is a reference to the fact that Ish runs a movie theater in Gelethel and is interested in filmmaking, which she got from her father. Each of these chapters offers a slightly different perspective on advancing the story, and information is revealed as you go along. If you're one of those readers that is annoyed by explanations being revealed down the line at a convenient moment, this might not be for you.

But WOW, the breadth of the world that Cooney creates is kind of...awe-inspiring. For a novella-length tale there is a LOT we learn about Gelethel, the surrounding world, Ish and her family, the history of angels and gods. And it is a very action-packed and explicit tale! That is to say, the author herself in the afterword describes it as "body horror" and I wouldn't disagree, for parts.

I enjoyed it but sometimes I felt like, whoa, what am I reading?! Nonetheless, I definitely think I'll try more from C.S.E. Cooney.

[Sunil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a story in this anthology so I feel that it would be weird to write a review of it, so I will not! It is an anthology! I liked some stories and did not care for other stories! That is how anthologies generally work for me! I do enjoy how the stories fit the general aesthetic of "beauty and strangeness." It's an interesting collection of tales.

[Amrita Goswami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enthralling, disturbing and very readable, despite dense world-building and lush descriptions. I will definitely check out more books from C. S. E. Cooney.

[Siavahda · Rating 5 out of 5]

HIGHLIGHTS
~38yo MC with 38yo knees
~undercover saints
~the police are possessed (no, literally)
~angels: “BE AFRAID.”
~the waste collectors are a crime family
~holy popcorn

I was so determined to write this book a review that did it justice, I actually ended up reading it twice – once over a period of weeks; the second time, I gulped the whole thing down in a single day.

I REGRET NOTHING.

For real, though: this is a book that lost none of its lustre on a reread, which is a noteworthy accomplishment all by itself. I wasn’t bored for a moment, even when I knew exactly how everything was going to go down; I still felt all the Feels; I still got thrill-shivers at the breathcatching parts. I still loved getting to see an older (‘older’; 38 isn’t actually old, but you know what I mean) protagonist who is equal parts cynical and hopeful, snarky and smart; I was still gleeful over the system of holy benisons-as-currency; I still adored Betony, from her platinum crown to her dusty feet. I still wanted to watch movies at the Quick and wander beautiful, fruitful Bloom and take a peek at what books a public library in a city ruled by angels might hold.

But.

Cooney routinely leaves me speechless, and The Twice-Drowned Saint is no exception – despite having read it twice, I have no idea how to describe, never mind explain, this brilliantly, beautifully bizarre little novel, with its properly unbiblical angels, a possessed police-force, and a sacred cinema of silent, black-and-white movies! What am I supposed to say???

I loved it. Obviously.

I was not completely sure I would, at first! I dove in as excited as I could possibly be, but I was not expecting first-person narration, and was a bit disappointed, since first-person makes it hard to justify the gleefully ostentatious syntactical and lexical extravaganza that is Cooney’s prose in third-person. But I shouldn’t have doubted her; she’s established in multiple short stories that her first-person writing still glitters and gleams and glitzes, and so it does here in The Twice-Drowned Saint. In fact, I might actually recommend this as a good place to start if you’ve never read Cooney before and are wary of the purple prose (a term I use not derogatorily but with love) that I’ve raved about in her other books, because here, the dial’s turned down on the logophilia, but the story still sizzles and sears with Cooney’s signature quixotic whimsy and vivid, fantastical weirdness.

There were two things every Gelthic citizen knew.

One: only saints could see the angels who ruled us.

Two: Alizar the Eleven-Eyed, Seventh Angel of Gelethel, had no saint. He hadn’t had one for a long time.

Now I will tell you what the angel Alizar looks like.

Neither of which would shine quite so brightly seen through the eyes of a lesser narrator, but Ishtu Q’Aleth is a main character whose personality and voice are every bit as uniquely distinct – and perfect for the story she’s telling – as were Maurice’s of The Bone Swans of Amandale or Mar’s of The Witch in the Almond Tree (short stories that can be found in Bone Swans and The Witch in the Almond Tree: and other stories respectively). But rather than being a shapeshifter (Maurice) or a witch (Mar), Ishtu is a little bit of both; a saint hiding in plain sight, having refused the call to serve the angel Alizar – at least, in the traditional way.

I was the Seventh Angel’s best kept secret.

And he was mine.

Instead, she and Alizar are secret besties, while Ishtu runs the only cinema in a literal city of angels and Alizar does his best to mitigate the bloodthirstiness of his peers, the rest of the angels who rule over Gelethel, a rhombus-shaped city surrounded by a ginormous wall of ice in the middle of the desert.

Oh, and there’s holy popcorn.

Are you intrigued yet?

Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Clockwork Phoenix anthologies that I've read. I largely enjoyed it, and even the stories I struggled with contained nuggets that I liked. If I had to pick some favorites, off the top of my head the list would include the stories by Barbara Krasnoff, Sunil Patel, Cassandra Khaw, Keffy R.M. Kehrli, Patrica Russo and Rob Cameron.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Claire Cooney's work. Her fantasies are immersive, well-thought-out, with compelling characters. You can see my GR reviews of her other work, 'Saint Death's Daughter', 'Dark Breakers', and 'Desdemona and the Deep'.

This one is flat out stranger than the others, and that's saying something. But strange in a good way. She's created a pantheon of angels that rule the central city of Gelethel, surrounded by an impenetrable ice wall, where immigration is strictly regulated and nobody is allowed to leave. The angels are, basically, an autocracy, occupying the bodies of humans to assert their will. Each one also has a mortal who is their 'saint', in constant communication.

Ishtu is a secret saint of Alizar the Eleven-Eyed (see the book's cover for a rendering – if anything, it's understated). Alizar is sort of on the outs with the others and is hiding the fact he has a saint, which already makes him a rebel and potentially treasonous by their standards. Ishtu is desperate to get her parents out of the city, but how?

The book starts off with a bang when an applicant for citizenship is willing to sacrifice his sister to get in. (Angels love sacrifices – sadists, in effect.) Things don't turn out the way he (or we) expect, for either the sister or the brother.

This short novel (190 pages) clips along at a rapid pace, with surprises and twists galore. The book is dedicated to Gene and Rosemary Wolfe, who befriended Cooney, and who died in the past few years. Cooney has written an engaging work with lots of complexity in honor of the Wolfes. It may not be quite like Gene Wolfe's work (what else is?), but it's a lovely homage.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t even know how the hell to describe this, except amazing. Apparently my unintentional theme lately is biblically accurate angels—see Pet, see Freydís Moon. Here, Cooney makes the mythology its own thing and the worldbuilding is fiendishly clever. A refugee crisis in the midst of a celestial city with bloodthirsty angels who must be overthrown by two secret saints, a newly-sprouted godhead, and a family of filmmakers and waste collectors—that’s the best stab I can take at the plot. What makes it sing is the sheer originality, the dialogue (the dialect!), the relationships and alliances, the comfort, the justice.

It’s dedicated to Gene and Rosemary Wolfe, and rightly so. Although at the risk of blasphemy, the way Cooney writes her spiritual elements are way more appealing to me. (Less heavy on the Catholic overtones, and way more deeply humane.)

BRB, off to read everything else that she writes.

[Kaila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something is about to happen, he’d told me in his inimitable way, humming behind my eyelids and in the pits of my teeth. Something is coming from beyond the serac.

This was a joy. As beautiful as, or maybe even more than, the cover promises.

Strong golden fumes that I associated with the Seventh Angel- honey, pollen, warm berries, savory herbs, cherry blossoms- seeped from our skin, our mouths…

Fall in love with this twisted angelic city, a loving and poetic protagonist, and Cooney’s incredible prose.

My heart belled within me; I became a cathedral.

I can’t wait to gift it to a few friends and read it again myself.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glorious, bizarre, tremendous, compassionate, vigorous, beautiful. I loved every single perfectly chosen word.

[abi · Rating 5 out of 5]

god i love a cse cooney book. basically an automatic 5* at this point.

[Harley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book. I thoroughly loved the world, the characters, the plot - all of it was fabulous! Whilst it doesn't hesitate to touch upon darker subjects, it is a surprisingly upbeat and joyous book. I strongly suspect that I shall be re-reading it sometime, and probably sooner than later!

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle of “The Twice-Drowned Saint” tells us it’s “A Tale of Fabulous Gelethel, the Invisible Wonders Who Rule There, and the Apostates Who Try to Escape Its Walls.” The invisible wonders are angels—originally fifteen, but one forsook the city, so now there are only fourteen. Gelethel is surrounded by an impregnable wall of serac (I looked it up—it means iceberg ice) that protects it from the wars raging in the outside world. Half-starved refugees will do anything to be granted sanctuary, and the angels have developed an unfortunate addiction to human sacrifice as an offering in exchange for citizenship:

It was like nothing they’d ever tasted before, the death offering of a human being. Oh, the jolt of it! The juice! The effervescent intoxication!

Only one of the angels doesn’t participate in this feeding frenzy: Alizar the Eleven-Eyed. He and his hidden saint, Ishtu (herself the daughter of an immigrant), aren’t down with the status quo, and although they aren’t actively plotting anything, change it is a-coming.

But the story isn’t just or even mainly about overthrowing an unholy city; it’s also about family bonds, forgiveness, sacrifice, bravery … and how gods are born.

I like the wisdom of Ishtu’s sister-saint Betony, who announces at one point, “Weakness is killin’ someone for their bread. Strength is splittin’ your last loaf with them.” Not much later comes this sweet moment between her and Ishtu:

“Always wanted a sister” [said Betony].
My heart belled within me; I became a cathedral. “Me too.”

Totally my jam.

[L S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't necessarily know whether I liked it or not. It was an unusual read, with regard to both the content and the prose. Very descriptive, which I liked. But it was also very confusing and there were a million names. For example, only near the end I understood the concept of good and bad uncles. At points it also felt like info-dumping, but it was still quite interesting. I like being confused while reading but it felt tiring here at some points. It was also not so clear what was at stakes and why some people did what they did.

Despite the many flashbacks, everything at the point 'now' happened too fast for my taste. I couldn't really root for the characters, although I liked Alizar. I also liked that the protagonist was a bit older, but it failed too feel that way, it could as well have been a twenty-year old MC. Also the uncles were like sixty, but they could have been late twenties or anything.

The 'body horror' was at times slightly shocking but only at like two points. It underscored some points in the book.

Overall, I like the concept and the idea, but it felt a little unfinished. But I still enjoyed reading it.
(Honestly, why is it twice-drowned?)

[Daniel Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I love the genre as a whole, individual fantasy books are a bit of a gamble for me. The writing style, themes, and use of tropes has to be right or I get distracted from the story and stop enjoying it. This means I approach each book with caution, reading the back cover, the first line, and just a snippet from somewhere in the middle. Most of the time this gets me a suggestion of whether or not I'll like the book, but with The Twice-Drowned Saint I got an overwhelming feeling of curiosity.

A bit part of it was because of C.S.E. Cooney's writing style for this book. The prose immediately made me think of the old Ray Bradbury stories I grew up reading. I loved carefully crafted sentences and word choices are filled them with subtle implications, and The Twice-Drowned Saint has both. Add to this a fantastic setting that is revealed in its strangeness step-by-step, reminiscent of the surreality in the works by Roger Zelazny.

But The Twice-Drowned isn't just style. I quickly got pulled into the story and the lives of the characters, and I wound up with the sign of a great book: I keep thinking about it long after I've finished reading.

[Starling Wolfrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5* I read the St Death's daughter books by this author and enjoyed them, so I decided to read this one as well. It has a lot of similarities - human connection to deities, divine magic/intervention, body horror/transformation, and powerful main characters. The story was interesting and the world-building was really fun to read. I am a person who really likes intricate worldbuilding, which is not always for everyone. It was also a fantasy novel, but included aspects of 20th-century modernity, like film, electricity, and motorized vehicles. The whole novel was structured around early film-making concepts, and the chapters were often described as shots or styled as a film-script, which was an unusual juxtaposition with fantasy writing. It was a little bit confusing to me at the end, but I got the idea pretty well.

[Jenny T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very strange and dark, funny and sad -- I dropped everything to finish reading it. It's sort of... dystopian with a healthy dose of cosmic horror?

Gelethel is an isolated city created by a god and surrounded by towering walls of ice -- it's ruled by fourteen angels who thrive on human sacrifice and routinely possess of their chosen followers to enact their will. Except for our hero, Ish, the reluctant (and secret) Saint of Alizar, one of the more benevolent angels. Ish runs the local movie theater and plots to help her family escape from the city, while helping Betony, Alizar's new (and official!) Saint (who's delightful and sarcastic and rather steals the show.)

This one will stick with me for a while, that's for sure.

[Nina Holm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it. It is creepy, it is beautiful, it is in parts incomprehensible (to me and the protagonist alike). Cooney has an amazing talent for evocative details, making the city of Gelethel feel vibrantly alive despite its alien nature.

I bought it as part of a "Twisted folklore" story bundle, and this book absolutely delivered. Cooney manages to write about angels as strange, terrifying creatures whose inhumanity can be either beautiful or terrorising.

Fair warning, though: It is heavy on the body horror content. That didn't bother me, but I know it's a dealbreaker for some people.

Overall, I adored this book. I already bought her other novel, and I can't wait.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever have an author that you adore so much that you avoid reading their work until you're ready to check out of the world for several days? A tighter tale than Saint Death's Daughter but equally engrossing, this wonderfully personal journey of an angel's "saint" (aka a human who can see them) is gorgeously written, heartrendingly human in its portrayal of complicated family relationships, and so weird that it should be savored slowly. However the story is also a rocket fast suspense plot of an entire city trapped under the "kindness" of angels who provide but also destroy. How the saint escapes...or not...will keep you occupied until after midnight. Then, the next morning, flip back to the beginning and marvel anew at the writing of a true artist of the fantastic.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine, but I found it kind of disappointing. The descriptions were so over the top that they didn't have the visceral feel that they should have to me, the pace meant that character relationships feel unearned, and we're chained to the POV of one of the least interesting characters involved. For some reason the world building is loaded into the second half. Despite the content it really feels like there are no stakes as (aside from one near the end) all losses are immediately reversed and most problems are solved without much intervention from the main character.

The angel descriptions mostly felt imaginative and the setting was interesting enough.

2.5 stars rounded up

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about what might happen when gods are part of a society and have an active involvement, with wants and needs that sometimes feel very human. The narrator is the saint of one of these gods, but no one knows this, and she has to navigate the complexities of living her life while also helping both the god she is saint for and her family. Not to mention the larger situation the gods are getting tangled up in. This story wasn't quite my kind of story, but the worldbuilding was fantastical and unlike anything I've ever read before, and the descriptions were downright visceral.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating little story. I admit I don't quite know what to do with this one. The body horror shockingly did not bother me, nor did the drowning, two things that historically give me Problems. But I found the things this book had to say about faith, religion, angels, sisters, and gods was infinitely more interesting than most other takes I've seen on faith. And, god, I just love CSE Cooney's prose. Just beautiful.

[Ursula Fricke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book, I flew through it, rushed my chores to be able to pick it up agin this morning.
I didn't immediately warm up to Ish, but Alizar? Insta-love.
It took me some time to realise what happened with the uncles, what a genius idea. The body horror though... If I read horror it's usually by mistake. Made me a bit nauseous, especially during the end. But I never considered dnf'ing, the rest was so amazing.

[Ry Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inventive, intriguing, and wild. Diabolical angels rule an ice-encased city in the desert. Criminals divide their minds because they're also the possessed police. Cinephiles suffer from having to view the same silent films over and over. And honestly, it's even stranger than I'm making it sound. Great stuff.

[Beth Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is beautiful, but the whole thing felt, I dunno, unmoored, like there was no real world to fasten the plot to, with the author making it all up as she went. Not, as they say, that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not my sort of book. (This was an iPhone book, which is why the reading time was so long; it's actually a rather short novel.)

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella is not easy to review because it's so unusual, original and creative that it's hard to find the right words.
The author is a great storyteller and the world building is outstanding.
Please read it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[Nighteye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy one of the most memorable stories and best books of this year. Sett in a vibrant, alian and cool world with saints, angels who possess the jost and glimce by glimce you get to know and ferl how the Angels rule their city. Now curious on the short story who started this world.

[John Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant Fun

Exceptionally inventive world-building that drew me in from the first page. 15/10, highly recommend. Unique in the best way. Having a hard time finding something to compare it to, maybe Roger Zelazny or Ursula K. Le Guin.

[Cheryl L. Ploegstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

So different.

I enjoyed how thoroughly different the world created for this book was from anything I’ve read. Then again, it was also rather violent and often difficult to read because of that. But all’s well that ends well, or semi-well (don’t want to give away the ending).

[Marci Baranski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A middle-aged cinema owner faces an ice-walled city ruled by bloodthirsty, godless angels. A true fantasy novel with fantastic worldbuilding, but also embedded (literally) with "body horror" and a few fun twists.