yuerstruly

Pour in queer horror, mix it with the medieval times, and you get The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. The narrative centers around three characters—Phosyne, a supposed nun who has whipped up sorcery to save the water crisis in Aymar Castle without any logic or reasoning to back up her work; Ser Voyne, a loyal knight who finds the lunacy of Phosyne a threat to the people and a waste of resources to keep alive; Treila, a serving girl who wants nothing but to escape the castle and find vengeance against Ser Voyne—as the castle succumbs to the control of divinity that have appeared to heal the sickly and solve the food crisis Aymar Castle is under as a result of going without help for months. The Constant Lady and her Saints have charmed nearly everyone, even Ser Voyne who immediately kneels to serve the Constant Lady, at the negligence of her king. Sounds exciting. In execution, kind of a bore at times, with so many plot points unresolved and so many lore drops left unanswered.

Did I like it? Kind … of. I had an adjustment period for the first 20% of the book where I could not quite grasp the vibe. I might be partially at fault here for going into this book blind, not knowing anything about it except for that it's horror fantasy. The book is not structurally sound. The nuns did not show up until ~30% into the story, but they are one of the major things mentioned in the premise! I felt that the buildup to their entrance was a little draggy and blurry. Blurry is fine by all means, especially in the beginning stages of a fantasy story where you are trying to grasp the worldbuilding and the plot. Except, the fog never really clears up so I felt confused half the time as a reader and I could not gauge if it was my fault or the author's—or if I simply did not care about how the author structured the story and perspectives.

In the second half of the book, Phosyne, one of the only ones completely immune to the Saints, actually becomes more and more like the Constant Lady, but the transition feels too sudden. One minute she's fine, and the next she's weird about everything. Was the author going for that because Phosyne was no longer thinking clearly and was succumbing to the darkness? We were getting bits and pieces of her changed self from either Treila or Ser Voyne, but it did not feel that effective because it just felt like a headache trying to piece everything together and a lot of things felt nondescript.

There are things I was okay with not being explained. A primary example of that is the cleansing of the water mentioned at the beginning. I felt a detailed explanation would have just gotten me to overthink the situation, and in fantasy, making up a system of magic and science that makes sense is hard!

The book also contained too many things and left them underexplored. Though the Saints are major antagonists, they're actually not mentioned much despite popping up everywhere. They're just … there and we're supposed to find them scary and evil, except there isn't enough going on to convince me so. I was fascinated by the Loving Saint in particular, especially for his interactions with Treila. What was his purpose? Why was he always specifically in Treila's way? The other underexplored character was the being under the Earth making trades with Treila, nudging her in the direction of sacrifices in exchange for her desires. It was there to bite her finger, bite her ear off, and … pull out the ultra senior card? And then what!! And of course, the Prioress who was looking down on Phosyne one second and losing her tongue the next? And dead? What? Tell me more about her instead of throwing her away! And what's crazier? For how much divinity and religion were involved, no one was really religious. And because of that, nothing felt particularly sacrilegious eithr.

I wasn't super in love with the prose, but there were some lines that made the book sexy. I did like the vibe. I also liked the cannibalism, along with the bees and honeycombs. If anything, this book should be awarded for "most vocabulary words I have ever highlighted in a book." Time for me to crack open that dictionary!

Key Moments:

She presses the flat of the blade to the inside of his thigh.

He goes still as death.

Chapter 33, a scene between Treila and the Loving Saint

She doesn't want to hear it, and so she stoppers her knight's lips with a kiss
…
Phosyne pulls back, looks up, and sees a waiting audience of eyes, a hundred of them, more, all watching, all set above grinning, hungry mouths.

Chapter 37, a scene between Phosyne and Ser Voyne when they are on the throne and realize the Saints' eyes are everywhere

…"Take up your sword, Ser Voyne."

And like a hound let off a lead, Voyne lunges.

She tears into the comb with her hands. The wax is warm, molten between her fingers, but there is so much of it, and the honey that bursts forth from each ruptured cell makes her clumsy. The bees have no such problem; they rise in a dark swarm, their buzzing growing cacophonous. And then the first sting pierces her flesh. The second. The third. She tries to close her hands around the hilt and heave, but she can't grip it. It slides away every time. Pierces deeper into the body below them both.

Chapter 38

Treila wanted Voyne in her glory days, after she had liberated Carcabonne and come to Treila's home to recover. She wanted the woman, strong and beautiful and noble, who had indulged Treila's desires to learn swordplay, who had allowed Treila to fawn and flirt. A kindness to Voyne's host; generosity to his daughter. Treila has always wanted that Voyne precisely for her impossibility. To find her would have been to go back before that long winter. Back before Voyne had sliced Treila's father's head off.

Chapter 40

"You—" he whispers.

And Treila lunges.

Her teeth pierce the pale, lovely column of his throat. They crack through his windpipe even as blood surges into her mouth, coats her tongue, drowns her in sticky sweetness. Sweet. Like honey. There's no trace of iron, and she laughs, fierce and jagged, because of course there is no iron in his veins.

Chapter 46 (we really should have gotten more of the Loving Saint because I'm always down for a little fucked up relationship)

Lines I liked:

Competence. Loyalty. Devotion. What do those taste like?

Chapter 37

Resurrection is not so different from coming back to herself in the cistern.

Chapter 45