Ok first off I found the authors exploration of race and racial violence to be incredibly moving. I loved how the author built a magic system around it, it made it much more impactful. On the other hand the writing for the book was all over the place. When you first start reading you are thrown into this world without a very clear idea as to what is happening, it only becomes clear about midway through. This detracted from the story. One thing I wish I had been made aware of before starting was that the book splits in 3 parts each focusing on a different character. This was really well done, but was unexpected.

Sigh. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. I'm struggling with determining a star rating for this one -

Part 1: 3 stars.
Part 2: 2 stars.
Part 3: 3 stars.
Concept: 4 stars.
Execution: ... 2 stars.

I loved the use of magic "hands" as a way to explore the legacies of exploitation of people of color through American history. The noir feeling in the beginning of the book was perfect too: I was right there in alternate history New York, wearing a trenchcoat and smoking cigarettes and referring to women "dames" and "broads" and speaking at 1.5 speed. But the book kind of lost itself as it went on. It read more like an endless short story than a novel. Morally grey characters are difficult to write in a way that is relatable and likeable, and it just didn't work for me here. I expected more depth from such a cool concept and important message. It's a very topical and powerful message, but the book itself is forgettable.


- Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the ARC! -

DNF 30%
How disappointing...
I don’t even know how to rate this book.

The plot seemed perfect for me.
There should have been magic, an interesting historical setting, a morally gray main character - an assassine, and the underworld of New York.

Unfortunately, I could not find anything that was promised.
The assassine, does not kill anymore, which in my opinion made her lose a lot of my interest. I was also unable to connect with her and any other character.
The magic system lacks explanations or at least a few more details to understand in what it consists off and how it works.
At least in the first part, the one I read, you only know you are into an historical setting because the author keeps inserting sentences that reference what is happing in Europe at the moment the events are taking place. Which, in my opinion, it’s a bit forced. There was no real reason to put those references in, if not to remind the reader that technically they are reading a novel set in the past. However if you had a good setting you should not have to be doing so.
The writing is not bad, just plain. It did not encourage me to move forward and it did not make me want to keep reading.

I was really hoping to find something new and interesting and with those problematic characters that I love so much. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but honestly what I got was even better.

I absolutely adore Phyllis, she’s such a great character, and think so complicated in all the right ways. And Dev and Tamara are just as well crafted. Their character arcs are absolutely fascinating and in places heart-wrenching. A particular character that I loved was actually Walter Finch (known as Red Man). Now I’m gonna be honest, at first I literally flinched because fuck… but I was glad to see that the author actually engaged with it and that Walter was a fully realized character with a backstory, and a family and in the end I really did love him.

And that world building. It’s a perfect mix of familiar with just a touch of magic. I love the concept of the hands. This is one book where the tone and atmosphere are just absolutely on point. It nails the gritty tone of a noir book, while remaining character driven at its core and having sweet moments of pause. There’s the pressing claustrophobia of the impending second world war, and the tangle of racism and trying to navigate in world that works against the characters. And then on the other hand are these quiet beautiful and poetic moments. It’s a book that absolutely captures the multi-faceted ways in which being non-white is so complicated.

Part of why I enjoyed this book so much, is that it was a little quieter than I expected. It’s the kind of book that tackles really important topics in a captivating whisper, and shares important insight into intergenerational trauma, justice, racism, the struggle of passing privilege and so much more.

I absolutely would recommend this book, it’s so much more than a book about assassins or a love story, it’s the kind of character driven book that wriggles into your head and makes you feel in powerful ways. Anyway, fully recommend.

In Trouble the Saints, the same story is being told BUT from three different POVs. Phyllis (Pea), Dev and Tamara. All have “the hands” in some form or fashion.

This story is set in New York after WW2 with the backdrop of Harlem, gangsters, crooked cops and magic...hoodoo, voodoo depending on who’s naming it. Even though the story is broken up into its separate three parts, all three of our protagonists are involved with one another in some way. We read the struggles of our protagonists as they try to make their lives as livable as possible in a America that will always see them as other. But then when you add their gifts into the fray…

Trouble the Saints is a interestingly woven story. The world building was at times a bit convoluted especially Phyllis’s part BUT I truly did enjoy the way this author set it up. What really does this story justice is the unique combination of genres our author takes. We aren’t just dealing with fantasy and historical fiction...Alaya Dawn Johnson is generous with horror and macabre here as well. With magic as the backdrop and History at its doorstep, Trouble the Saints is wonderfully enriching and I believe any lover of historical fiction with a little extra on the side will love it for what it is.

I feel really conflicted about Trouble the Saints. But I also think it's important to say off the bat: While it wasn't the book for me, I would absolutely still recommend this book for its unique exploration into legacies of trauma in BIPOC communities, and to anyone intrigued by preternatural assassins grappling with morality and mortality.

I confess that I struggled for a significant portion of the book. As soon as the first page, we're thrown into the thick of the fantastical world-building and gangster conspiracies without fanfare or context. Many times I'd drift or zone out because the words refused to cohere into any sort of plotline for me. I also found it convoluted and didn't quite understand the magic behind the hands and numbers, making hard to connect with the characters or their stakes.

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Trouble the Saints is a triptych of stories—three sections, three intertwined narrators—that presents an alternate history of New York on the cusp of WWII. It's a noir, too: gritty, dark, embedded within the city's mobster underbelly.

In this world, people of colour are occasionally bestowed strange powers called "hands" (which are indeed tied to their physical hands). Some hands parse out your darkest secrets. Some are lucky with lottery numbers. Others—like those of Dev Patil—sense threats. And the hands of Phyllis Green? Hers itch to mete out murderous justice.

The book is definitely cerebral—literary spec-fic on racial themes (very much like Stephen Graham Jones's The Only Good Indians, which I also highly recommend). And the hands themselves pose an interesting question: how are certain people blessed/cursed with these talents? From where do they arise? Why do the hands even exist?

Perhaps they are a way to empower people who have for so long been disempowered. Perhaps they will tip the scales in favour of people marginalized by white supremacy. As the story unfolds, we come to understand that the hands are indelibly tied to histories of violence and inherited trauma that Black and brown folks faced (and still face) in America. The hands, like this history, are a complicated entity that empower as much as burden their bearers.

To me, though, Trouble the Saints is above all a love story. Among a mostly hazy storyline, this stood out in sharp relief: the complex love that Phyllis, Dev, and Tamara hold for the people in their lives. Alaya Dawn Johnson's prose is so precise and perfect in these moments, it literally snatches my breath away. She writes:

"Sometimes I don’t know how we will survive each other. Sometimes the greatest violence you can do to another person is to love them."

Her characters betray, protect, endear, and hurt in equal measure. They grapple with what they are willing to sacrifice in the name of love. Sometimes the price is too high—sometimes being with someone means owning up to the ugliest truths about yourself.

"There would be no more revelations. No more holding my despised pieces to the light and finding them, improbably, precious."

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CONCLUSION: Even though I struggled with parsing meaning from an often ambiguous plot, the meaning found me anyway. That's the power of Trouble the Saints.

This is a rich, layered and nuanced book filled with flawed and memorable characters. I was engrossed from first to last.

The magical elements served to underscore the plight of people of color in this country. Although it is a historical novel, it is relevant to present day society.

I am thankful for the free ARC I received. I am leaving my honest review.

Welcome to assassins and morally grey characters galore!

Trouble the Saints is a story set in New York just as WWII begins to dawn on America. Phyllis, a notorious assassin, wants nothing more than to escape her killing life, but her past isn’t that set on letting her go just yet. Coupled with magic and a bit of supernatural, Trouble the Saints bases itself off a very interesting premise. And said premise really got me hooked!

What an epic story!!!!!! What can I say about this story? The characters are amazing! Dynamic. Realistic. And relatable. The plot was absolutely amazing! My attention was held the entire time. Twists. Turns. Suspense. I love the entire story!!!! I was sad when I finished. Amparo has an amazing story!!!!

This book--a historical novel with fantastical elements--dramatizes the psychic burden that people of color have endured in white America.

On the cusp of WWII, Phyllis, Dev, and Tamara are all employed by a white mob boss in New York who in different ways takes advantages of their powers, called (for 2 of them) "saints' hands."

The book is full of action and has a noirish feel that kept me turning the page. Assassins and exotic dancers and undercover cops! But it is also a book that expertly draws its characters, through triangulating points of view, and viscerally portrays the reality of African Americans and peoples of color.

For much of the book, the details of the "saints' hands" are obscure. One of the characters, Dev, gives a hint: the Indian Goddess Kali. I googled her, and I'm glad I did, as her mythography added a layer. The author makes sense of the supernatural elements in a series of visions in the final third of the book.

Trouble the Saints is advertised with reference to The Night Circus and The Underground Railroad. I see the comparisons, but I'd also like to highlight the book's "godmothers": Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen, both Harlem writers whom the Harlem-born main character reads, and Octavia Butler, who imagined the effects of oppression transformed in Black bodies to produce a new power.

Thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3408738169

Trouble the Saints is an ambitious novel, but one that doesn’t quite reach all of its aspirations. While I was drawn in by the glittering, dangerous world, with its blend of unearthly magics and rich historical reality, as well as by the intriguingly complex characters, the meandering, uneven pace and confusing structure left me cold until the strong ending.

The book is divided into three parts, each from a different character’s perspective, each concerned with a different character's choices and destiny, though all follow the same story. We start with Phyllis LeBlanc, Phyllis Green, Pea, as she is variously known, a world-weary assassin with saint’s hands (the fantastical element that is left unexplained for large swaths of the book, tantalizing but unsatisfied until near the end) that give her supernatural dexterity with knives, a skill she puts to use as a mob boss’s “angel of justice.” In Pea’s part of the story, we meet the other two characters who will take up the storytelling mantle eventually, namely Dev, Pea’s half-Indian erstwhile lover whose magical hands give him the ability to trace threats of danger and violence to himself or others, and Tamara, a dancer with a penchant for fortune-telling and aspirations of being the next Josephine Baker. These three, along with a few other memorable characters, wind their narrative way through Manhattan’s violent underworld, the smaller-scale but no less violent politics of small town upstate New York, and the impending doom of America’s entrance into World War II. But the winding narrative doesn’t lay out a course as easily visible or predicable as that makes it sound, and the off-kilter pacing made it hard to get a grip on the story’s bones for far too long; for example, just as I thought I could see the direction things were taking, what I thought would be the major story line was abruptly resolved, only a quarter into the book. Pea’s narrative would have been more enjoyable if it hadn’t come first, but it’s spent too much in just trying to figure out what’s going on and where we’re going from here, leaving little chance to really get to know Phyllis, the lethal angel, who's been passing for white to work for a white mob.

It’s Dev’s turn next, and his section is the messiest of the three, with jumps in time that aren’t signified quite well enough, and a sometimes overly would-be poetic voice that was a bit off-putting. By the time we get to Tamara’s story, on the other hand (pardon the pun), we’ve seen her through Pea’s and Dev’s eyes, and that may be why her character and her story are the easiest to grasp and sink into. Tamara’s character feels the most wholly drawn, her struggles and flaws the most real, shot through with a thread of cohesive characterization that Pea and Dev seem to lack. By this time, too, the stylized language feels deliciously dreamy again, as it did in Pea’s first section but not so much in Dev’s; it feels like it serves a purpose, rather than being vaguely symbol-heavy just for its own sake. By the end of Tamara’s section, which is the end of the book, I felt like I’d finally gotten a hold of what Trouble the Saints really is, and what it’s trying to do, and was far more fond of it than I’d been for the first two thirds. The ending, finally, at last, really got me in its hooks, and felt genuinely earned, satisfyingly tragic, heartbreaking and enraging all at once.

Trouble the Saints is ultimately an uneven book, both in the range of quality between its three sections and in the literal pacing of the back-and-forth plotlines, but it’s one that still has a lot of strength in it. The world is captivating, the characters are complicated and sharply drawn, and some of the narrative’s turns of phrases are legitimately exquisite. Its supernatural approach to interracial violence and oppression is both original and fascinating, and gives the whole book an electrifying muscularity despite its slippery plotting and uneven structure. It’s one I’d recommend, albeit with reservations.

Trouble the Saints is truly unique and original in writing style, atmosphere and plot. It's an ambitious book and even though it may not always hit the mark I really admire the skill and effort going into creating something that is different and tackles important issues like race and morality.

We follow Pea, Dev and Tamara as they live, kill and love in a underground criminal network that is thriving in New York's dark corners during world WWII. Pea got hands that never misses a target, Dev can feel threats with a touch and Tamara uses a deck of cards to read the world and people around her. They have all made different choices to survive a deeply segregated society and will have to face the consequences.

As I stated from the beginning the writing style in Trouble the Saints is really unique. At it's best is hard hitting and beautiful, at it's worst... it's really hard to wrap your head around and a bit frustrating. You may have to give it some effort and patience and it will probably not be for everyone. But it's also refreshing and interesting. The magic elements are unique as well and interwoven with America's history with racial oppression in a way that make it about more than just supernatural abilities. The story is divided into thirds, one part from the point of view from each character even though we continue to follow the same narrative. It's a really cool way to build up the story.

I think this book shines in the way it portrays strong and conflicting emotions in morally grey areas as well as the interracial tension. Here the story really benefit from the writing style that is sometimes very symbolic. In the heart of it all is a story about love that is unwavering but never ever easy.

The reason I don't give this book a higher rating is mostly personal, I had a hard time getting into it and it was quite a slow read even though it's not that long. Objectively I really admired the concept, but just couldn't enjoy it so much at the time. Now that I have finished it I really think it will stay with me for a long time though.

Also cried so hard during the end. It was harsh people.

This sounded so promising: A book described as The Night Circus meets the Underground Railroad, set in New York on the eve of WW2. A girl from Harlem who works as an assassin, haunted by her past. If I have a single character weakness, it’s fierce girls with knives. I expected bloody murder, maybe a moral dilemma or two. It sounded fantastic.

I did really like the characters and how Johnson explored race through Phyllis, the main character who can pass for white in order to work for a white mobster and get around in the criminal underworld. There have been many stories of girls who pass for boys to infiltrate certain communities, but I’ve never read about someone passing as a different ethnicity—at least not in such a memorable way as Johnson does here.

However, I found it really hard to get into the story. The writing didn’t really click with me. It wasn’t bland or poorly written; I think the overall structure threw me off, and I really struggled to visualize and stay grounded in the story. It’s a pass for me, largely because of the writing style, but this is certainly a unique novel I wish I could have enjoyed more.

English is not my first language, and this book was a constant reminder of that. The writing didn't flow: it was lots of dumped phrases, that made absolutely no sense to me and got me very out of the story. I think that even if I kept rereading the sentences, it wouldn't make a difference.
I had very high hopes for this one, cause the description sounded so interesting and the cover is beautiful, but where the fantasy world could be interesting (where some people are given hands on their futures), the writing didn't work at all for me.
I'm sure some people are going to really enjoy this, and I can tell that the author put a lot of work into it.

Amidst the whir of city life, a girl from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear amongst its most dangerous denizens.

But the ghosts from her past are always by her side—and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she loves most.

Can one woman ever sacrifice enough to save an entire community?

Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel—a magical love story, a compelling chronicle of interracial tension, and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga. - Goodreads

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. But I am going to be straight to the point. This book was boring. I lost interest by the 7th chapter in the first part of the book. This was a shame because I cannot say that this book, at least the world building, was not creative. It really was but despite the world around the characters having some life, the characters themselves did nothing to move the book along.

I didn't like the book.

1 Pickle

This alternate history meets fantasy is set at the beginning of WW2 set in NYC. Full of magic and questions, Trouble the Saints is a multiple POV novel that features an underworld of crime and revenge. I loved the premise so much. Even as it changes POVs it roughly advances the central storyline, while being interspersed with different memories. My favorite POV has to be Phyllis, the first one, because while she may not be my favorite character, there seemed to be the most cohesion in her story - even if it felt a little anticlimactic towards the end.

As we move forwards in the story and change POV, I began to get a little lost. Not because I didn't understand what was happening, but because I couldn't get a good handle on the momentum of th story. With a lot of stories, there's this clear goal at the end, whether that be "save the princess" or "overthrow the king" there's somewhere we can feel the story moving. In Trouble the Saints, I had trouble figuring out where the story was going. This made me feel like I never had that, "I cannot stop reading I need to find out what's next" feeling, because I wasn't sure how to feel.

Maybe that's a more me problem than the book, but for me, it made it hard to really get immersed in the story. Even as we move onto some of my more favorite characters in the story like Dev and Tamara. The racism that Phyllis - a biracial white passing woman - and Dev - a biracial Indian man- face made me so angry. The microaggressions all the way to aggression. It's sad I never felt truly drawn in by Trouble the Saints because I liked the way that justice and revenge, the costs to the people we love, was handled. A cycle of players and violence and memories

What would happen if in the beginning of WWII in New York City, Black families possessed magical abilities best used for murdering?
Enter Phyllis, a black woman wo works as an enforcer and assassin to a mobster. She has the ability to throw knives and always get her target and her wish is to start a new life and get away from her currently life. At least that's the first third of the book because the other two parts focuses on other characters with their own abilities and desires.

Early on we get to discover how immersive the story is and how easy is to think you're watching film noir instead of reading a book. The author's style and words chosen fit so well with the ambiance, time period and setting of the novel.
I know this book is recommended for fans of The Night Circus; while I hadn't read it I did read A Starless Sea, by the same author, and I can easily make the comparison here because it has a beautiful story and lyrical scenes but the execution is so troublesome and confusing... But it's thanks to its atmosphere and way of putting words together that you're sucked into the book no matter what.

Trouble the Saints also get into other topics like misogyny, race and other important social troubles that are vital for the story as well as for the situation we're living in our own society nowadays.
Although I said before the style was beautiful I had so much trouble trying to focus on the plot because I didn't manage to care for any of the characters; while I think their characterization fits the dark atmosphere, their way of proceeding felt somewhat disjointed and the multi-POV just makes it harder to feel some sort of attachment for any of them.

I give this a 3.5 stars out of five 'cause I really like the direction and style the author took this book in. It also is a really original novel in the fantasy genre and we need more diverse books like this. The noir elements, the alternate history chosen and the magic system are all so interesting and I guess some other readers might enjoy this story more than I did. But keep an eye on Alaya Dawn Johnson cause she's going places.

DNF 30% of the book because it reached its natural conclusion right there and wasn't interested in reading anymore.

Phyllis has the power of throwing knives with perfect aim. With this power she kills bad people for a bad man. This book had very written prose but many things were unclear to me. The hands power was never clearly explained. The book is split in three parts. At the end of the first part, the big conflict is resolved. This second part dealt with vague dread with her vague powers. I'm curious to read what else this author will write but this one lost me.

This review is based on an ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Welcome to assassins and morally grey characters galore!

Trouble the Saints is a story set in New York just as WWII begins to dawn on America. Phyllis, a notorious assassin, wants nothing more than to escape her killing life, but her past isn’t that set on letting her go just yet. Coupled with magic and a bit of supernatural, Trouble the Saints bases itself off a very interesting premise.

The story is split into three parts, each focusing on a different character. At first, I was pretty averse to this format as it usually means that I won’t be able to develop any connection to each character, but Johnson’s characters are just impossible not to adore. They have lovable features, flaws, dual-sided characteristics and are just overall very complex characters. Many of them are very morally grey characters, teetering on the edge of evil, but just because they aren’t good people doesn’t mean they aren’t good characters.

Our first part focuses on Phyllis and her internal struggle that her ‘hands’ makes for her. While she has able to live a somewhat peaceful life under the protection of Manhattan’s biggest mob boss, she now wants out. The second part focuses on Dev, a friend and lover who deals with leading a two-faced life and not knowing whether his love is justified. And finally, the third part, and also my personal favourite, focuses on Tamara, a cheerful, bubbly, friend of the prior two, who’s oracle calling leads her into a mortal dilemma.

The characters are not your typical fantasy cast, but this isn’t your typical fantasy book either. Set more in realism, if you’re looking for a refreshing new take on the fantasy and historical fiction genres, Trouble the Saints is the book for you.

Now while I love the spin Johnson puts on the genres, the fantasy aspect took a while for me to figure out. The book opens up with a card reading and dream sequence sort of scene which only left me confused during the following chapters. It was only until about halfway through when I finally saw what was going on. I wish that this aspect of the book was clarified at the start, as that would’ve made the first part much easier to read.

To give y’all a bit of a head start, the fantasy aspect in this book revolves around a sort of power referred to as the ‘hands,’ in which different people are blessed (or perhaps cursed) with different powers through their hands. The power is most prominent in Black families, and not so much in white. It brings very important racial themes to the book as well, and considering the time we’re living in currently, very fitting.

Not only racial themes are brought up through the fantasy of the book, but Johnson also deals with issues such as morality and choice. Again, Trouble the Saints sets itself apart from others in its genres through the themes and issues it tackles in its narrative. A fact that I think makes this an excellent and thought-provoking read. I’m a big sucker for books that make you think deeper and books with hidden messages, and this ticks all of those boxes.

Anyways, continuing on the subject of confusing writing, the first part was filled with it. Complex sentence after complex sentence, purple prose, one too many adjectives, you name it. The writing in the first part was not only hard to read but also extremely difficult to absorb. I found myself rereading almost every sentence just to get a clear picture of what she was trying to say. The author seems to almost leave all that behind as soon as the second part starts, which was a relief.

While I struggled with Johnson’s writing in the first part, I can’t deny that she is a good writer. This alternate world she has built is sparkling in all its grizzly and bloody glory. She deftly captures the vibe and aura of the 1940s and traps it in this book. Every single aspect, from the way the characters talk to the way they act, just completely immersed me into her world.

The reason I’m giving this book a 3.5 star rating is because of how I rated each part. Part one for me is 3 stars; for all that it is good, I still can’t get over how hard it was for me to get through it. Part two is 3.5 stars; an improvement from part one, but the time jumps just made the writing and pacing too inconsistent for me to enjoy. And part three is 4 stars; I loved Tamara and the complex conundrum she faces. I could honestly read a whole book about her. In fact, I don’t think I would’ve minded if this whole book was set from her point of view!

(For me, a 3.5 is a pretty good rating, so don’t let it convince you otherwise).

Between the fantasy, the complex themes, and the realism, Trouble the Saints is a fascinating read that exceeds the confines of its identifying genres. Highly recommend you give this one a shot!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book felt timeless to me; it was set during WWII but aside from a few details about the draft/soldiers, it could have been taking place today (including, unfortunately, the racism that the characters face). Alaya Dawn Johnson created a magical, heightened reality in which most people are average but a few are given the blessing and curse of 'saints hands', which give the person extraordinary powers (of deadly aim, of intuition, etc.) but at a cost.

I spent quite a bit of time vaguely confused, as I don't know anything about reading cards or what the numbers mean, but it was in a very enjoyable way. Everything that was important for the reader to fully understand was explained, and I just accepted what I didn't understand and went with it. I loved how the novel flowed from one narrator to the next, in a way that made perfect sense for the unfolding story. Even the open ending, which I normally dislike, felt exactly right.