User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
A common belief held by many people, formerly myself included, is that when people are very beautiful they are often not that interesting. Because they are immediately somewhat interesting due to being fun to look at, they did not need to develop much beyond that.
That is not how I feel about people, but it is how I feel about this book.
This is one of the most crazy beautiful books I have ever held in my hands. Every turned page was like...gasp! Wow! Paparazzi, get over here!
But the writing...left something to be desired.
Have you ever read a book that fails so completely to get you into it that you can't really focus throughout?
This is a very short book and it took me hours to read it, for that reason alone.
You do have to hand it to the Grishaverse, though. Not many other series could write a complete theological text with examples of saints from each fictional country in said fictional universe.
That's some damn good worldbuilding.
Bottom line: They can't all be hits! And if this book being slightly worse gets Ninth House 2 finished even days earlier, then so be it.
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pre-reviewi've probably said this before but i don't care. i'll scream it from the rooftops.
nobody is doing it like leigh bardugo.
review to come / 3 stars
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i just received this as a gift and threw the horrible half dust jacket away immediately.
merry christmas to all
clear ur sh*t book 56
quest 24: a book in a series-----------------
tbr reviewi am forced to assume that this extremely exciting book is this ugly solely to teach me not to judge books by their covers
Rating: really liked it
charming, magical, inspired, with just the right amount of darkness.
this is a wonderful companion book to a brilliant world with phenomenal characters and captivating stories.
i am such a believer.
favourite stories - sankta vasilka, sankt valentin, sankt mattheus, and the starless saint (
obviously)
↠ 4.5 stars, overall___________________________________
saints included (*tag yourself - im sankt vladimir lol):
sankta margaretha | patron saint of thieves and lost children
sankta anastasia | patron saint of the sick
sankt kho | patron saint of good intentions
sankta neyar | patron saint of blacksmiths
sankt juris | patron saint of soldiers
sankta vasilka | patron saint of unwed women
sankt nikolai | patron saint of sailors and lost causes
sankta lizabeta | patron saint of gardeners
sankta maradi | patron saint of impossible love
sankt demyan | patron saint of the newly dead
sankta marya | patron saint of those who are far from home
sankt emerens | patron saint of brewers
sankt vladimir | patron saint of the drowned and of unlikely achievement
sankt grigori | patron saint of doctors and musicians
sankt valentin | patron saint of snake charmers and the lonely
sankt petyr | patron saint of archers
sankta yeryin | patron saint of hospitality
sankt feliks | patron saint of horticulture
sankt lukin | patron saint of politicians
sankta magda | patron saint of abandoned women and bakers
sankt egmond | patron saint of architects
sankt ilya | patron saint of unlikely cures
sankta ursula | patron saint of those lost at sea
sankt matteus | patron saint of those who love and care for animals
sankt dimitri | patron saint of scholars
sankt gerasim | patron saint of artists
sankta alina | patron saint of orphans and those with undiscovered gifts
the starless saint | patron saint of those who seek salvation in the dark
saint of the book | patron saint of storytellers
Rating: really liked it
yes I hate the Grisha trilogy yes I will still be reading this weird ugly half blue half red book
(edit: I know it’s a half dust jacket cover that comes off, I will still call it ugly for no other reason than the fact that I want to)
Rating: really liked it
I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO READ THISSSSSS!!! LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL IT ISSSSSSS!!! <333
Leigh also said:
"I’m a habitual doomsayer, so if ten years ago, you’d told me we were going to end up here, I never would have believed you. In fact I'd have shushed you because I'm not about tempting fate. But, as soon as I wrote the Istorii Sankt’ya into Shadow and Bone, I started dreaming about getting to create a collection like this. Seeing it in Jessie’s hands as a prop in our Netflix adaptation? I never could have imagined it. I hope you’ll love this dark, strange collection of stories, some macabre and some hopeful (but also still macabre)."I’ll be honest. In terms of her novellas, I much prefer the
Language of Thorns. While this had pretty illustrations, the stories were rather lacklustre, whereas the Language of Thorns shined in both departments. This is still a great addition to any Grishaverse collection though! <3
Rating: really liked it
buzzword:
✧ Ben Barnes ✧this is like reading a collection of prophet stories in the Quran. its beautiful and magical and has a dark edge. some of the tales end in hope, others in tragedy. however, unlike the Bible, the Quran, or other holy books, this one is rather unmemorable imo.
there are about 28 to 30 short stories. each detailing the origin of the Saints from the Grishaverse in a summarized version with lots of telling and minimal characterization and dialogue. my favorite stories are probably Saint Mattheus and Saint of the Book.
i know people are excited about the Starless Saint chapter, but honestly i dont think it offers anything that you dont already know from reading the S&B series or the KoS duology. as much as i love (view spoiler)
[The Darkling (hide spoiler)], i freakin HATE the plot twist in KoS.
anyway, this book (some parts of it) is narrated by
BEN BARNES. the whole audiobook is amazing, but his sections of the book, his voice... his accent... ah... it emanates classical vibes. idk its like youre listening to old tales being read to you during bedtime at night.
unfortunately, i dont own a copy of this book (yet). so, i havent seen all the gorgeous illustrations featured inside. theres not much to gain from reading this, but do it if youre a fan of this universe or just plain curious. im sooo ready for the Netflix adaptation in April 2021.
heres the
TEASER if you havent seen it.
(read as an audiobook)
Rating: really liked it
Actual Rating: 3.5 starsLet's just ignore the fact of how ugly the cover is and jump into the book itself. I should point out that I had been told that the blue part is like an external cover and is removed so the book is completely red and it is actually shown in the last short story in one of the illustrations as that.
Short stories like this are among my earliest memories of reading, I remember getting Aesop's fables as a gift from my English teacher because I got a perfect score in that semester and I still have my copy of that. Short stories were very vital for my love of reading but now as someone who consumes novels on a daily basis, I find it harder to enjoy these short stories because they lack the depth that novels do. I think of those more like a delicacy that can be consumed in small bites when you're bored. This books offers 28 short stories (Hope I counted right) and each one is 2-4 pages long so it is a very fast read.
The stories were not bad at all but as I mentioned above, I don't think I will remember any of them in a year for example. Bardugo is a brilliant writer but her writing abilities are not shown in this simply because there is not much dialogue and character development. Most of the stories are created using the same mold. Someone does something to help the village and then they either become a hero or they are accused of dealing with the devils and are killed thus becoming saints of something.
I should point out that the illustrations were very good though and I think it was a smart idea to include them because the book would have been very bland and short without them so it was definitely an incentive to read the book just to enjoy those different illustrations.
Summary: I will always like short stories like those because of the nostalgia that they give me and because they are such light reads. I think Bardugo did as a good job as could be done for a book of this kind. The illustrations were beautiful and a smart choice. I know you all are gonna read it for The Starless Saint but don't expect too much it is a very short story that won't add much to what we already know!
Rating: really liked it
Loved these stories 💖
A wonderful collection of short dark tales regarding the Saints and how they got their Sainthood.
With all the magical elements you’d expect from Bardugo and lovely illustrations. I highly recommend these - you’ll whizz through them.
Rating: really liked it
I don't really know what to say about this, given that I can't compliment the characters. Or the plot.
I just.
I don't even know.
It was okay. In the trilogy, it's said that The Lives of Saints is basically a children's book, so it kind of read like a children's book (besides the brutal deaths, but let's not talk about that).
WELL.
I think my favourite story was the Darkling, aka the Starless Saint. I guess it was more about Yuri, but I found it interesting.
Some of the other stories were kind of boring, but it didn't really matter because they're so short.
But my favourite was definitely the Darkling.
The art was really nice.
See?? What else am I supposed to say about that??
It was colourful and nice and...I don't know??
Overall, a decent book. May or may not reread.
3/5 the half dustcover is very triggering.
Rating: really liked it
My first reaction: Ohhhhhh!
Followed by the exclamation: Ahhhh!
Continuing with: ADSFJKLMNÖ!!!
Ending with: NEED NOW!!!
No, seriously! I didn't even know this is going to be a thing!
But we all know how I am with Leigh's books: I really dunno how that ended up in my shopping cart but if it's already there... *lool*
The insta-buy is strong my friends! XD
Rating: really liked it
Listen, this book is what it is. The binding is gorgeous. The illustrations are stunning. The stories are decent. If you’re looking for something pretty for your shelves or are a
Grishaverse completionist (me), then
The Lives of Saints does the job.
It’s shorter than it even looks, because the font is larger and the illustrations take up at least half the number of pages, but for me that was a selling point. If you’ve read other
Grishaverse short story collections you may expect something similar here, though I can’t say that’s completely the case. These are more like little asides than any actual lore that adds to the world-building. Even the familiar faces don’t seem to have much relevance to the rest of the books.
Ah well, at least it can count towards my Goodreads challenge!
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
Rating: really liked it
RATING: 3.5 STARS for the beautiful prose
Conclusion: the townspeople are the real enemy
Rating: really liked it
fulfilling my 2021 goal to read one book each month by an author i love that i haven’t gotten around to reading yet
Rating: really liked it
"There have been too many stories in between, miracles and martyrdoms, too much blood spilt, too much ink. There was a war. There were a thousand wars. I knew a killer. I knew a hero. They might have been the same man."
°•*⁀➷
I listened to this simply to listen to Ben Barnes.
- Paige
Rating: really liked it
“You know the problem with heroes and Saints? They always end up dead.”
Rating: really liked it
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge sticks.
PSA: if you haven’t read King of Scars, that last story is going to go right over your head, so hold off until you do.
IS IT MARCH YETTTTT
.
.
This definitely isn’t as strong as The Language of Thorns, in my opinion. In fact, I had been leaning towards 2 stars until the last two stories sucker punched me.
This is definitely a beautiful book in the physical sense. And the illustrations are so lovely. But it’s definitely more for hard core fans of The Grisha Verse.
It also reminded me that I’ll need to reread KoS before RoW drops in March.
