I am in tears - I can't believe this series has ended! I can not imagine a more perfect ending. In this book you get to experience more of each character and that brings the level of this book so much higher than the others in the series. The entire series is dark, monstrous and morbidly beautiful. Emily A. Duncan could not have done a better job of ending the amazing world!

I've started out each of the books in the Something Dark and Holy series wanting to love them. They have a lot of the elements of YA books that I really enjoy, and I really like the influence of Slavic folklore and the saints' lives that Duncan uses. However, <i>Blessed Monsters</i> just falls flat for me. There's so much repetition (as other reviewers have pointed out) and that makes it tedious to get through, especially the conversations about how bad things are for the characters. I also just get squicked out that the main romantic interest has eyeball clusters popping up all over his body.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC of this book.

“...𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛, 𝑚𝑎𝑑 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑑𝑜 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠.”

What an ending to an incredible series... I’m sad to say goodbye to the lovely Nadya, Malachiasz, and Serefin. These terribly broken characters are some of my favorites that I’ve read about.

Their journey to defeat gods, end a war and bring peace to their lands has been exciting, heartbreaking, and most of the time stressful. This third and final book has wrapped up their journeys in a way that gives the reader some hope for each and every character.

Blessed Monsters started off a little slow but then quickly increased in pace. I was a little disappointed in the majority of action happening off page but besides these two things the only other con was the series ending. Some questions were left unanswered which hopefully means Duncan will explore this world with either side characters or new ones. I thoroughly enjoyed this series and fell in love with Nadya, Serefin, and Malachiasz so I hope they pop up again if Duncan continues writing in the Wicked Saints world. Last book I didn’t care for the interludes of side characters since their thought process didn’t relate to the story. This time the interludes perfectly weaved in which I was glad to see.

A finale as bloody, eye-filled, a godscursed as you wanted it to be. Ever since reading Wicked Saints, the world of Tranavia and Kalyazin has been carved into my little demonic heart. I can't tell you how many days I've woken up thinking of my bloody babies in a pool full of blood and how it was simultaneously the creepiest and hottest thing I've ever read. On those days, my brain spiraled through all of the terrible things that had happened to my children in this book and might still happen to them. I mean, many of them had died before! How likely was it they would die with a finality not yet seen in the series? Knowing Emily Duncan, extremely likely.

Alas, being a simultaneous hater and lover of Reylo, Duncan gives us the ending Reylo never got. And that's all I'm saying about that. The ending fight is one of my dreams, filled with all of the big baddies and old baddies we loved from the start. Pelegeya is still wrecking shit up. It's a jolly good time dealing with our faves turning the flirting up to 11 and getting through crisis after crisis in my favorite way: processing horrible moments with oddly inappropriate humor and affection.

There are times where I feel Wicked Saints was written personally for me and the dark love story my heart craves, but can never find. If so, then Blessed Monsters was the finale my heart begged for and was glad to receive. If you still love eyes, mouths, meddling gods, too much blood, and broken, but perfect relationships, then this is also the book for you. Thank you for a worthy finale, Emily Duncan. It'll have a permanent place in my torn apart heart.

All the chaos, betrayal, and tragedy of the first two books in the Something Dark and Holy series comes to a head in Blessed Monsters and there are repercussions to be had. The eldritch gods have been freed and are ready to take of the world. Malachiasz is alone and struggling to fight the ancient god who has possessed him and is intent on destroying the world. Nadya is struggling with the hope she has in her gods and the darkness that threatens to overtake her. And Serefin is struggling to be the king his people need in order to bring about peace. This is an epic culmination in everything that’s kept us reading: the gods, the monsters, the war, the relationships, and betrayals.

The dynamics between the main and secondary characters have been artfully woven for the entirety of the series and you can’t help but desperately want each of them to find fulfillment. Emily A. Duncan has done a masterful job of tying all the characters, their histories, and experiences together, and making us feel for each and every one of them. This is a series of an epic scale and she has done a fantastic job in bringing it all to an explosive, bloody, and satisfying conclusion. And now, I must start the entire series again—and read slowly to savor it.

Blessed Monsters will be released on 4/6/21.



*I received a copy of Blessed Monsters from St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Emily A. Duncan is back with Blessed Monsters, the final book in her Something Dark and Holy trilogy, and she is bringing all the eyes, blood, and angst with her.

After the events of Ruthless Gods, we find our characters a bit worse for wear and scattered across the land. Nadya and Serefin wallow in regret and Malachiasz is barely holding on to who he is, but something was released on the mountaintop when they last saw each other, and it wants to destroy the world. Through the love and blood and betrayal they’ve endured, our monstrous trio must find a way to come together or watch their world fall into eternal darkness.

One thing Duncan has excelled at throughout the entirety of the Something Dark and Holy trilogy is the atmosphere. The moment you crack open one of her books, you are instantly transported into a bleak world of gods and monsters and blood. Each novel feels all encompassing and coming back into the real world after a reading session feels like a physical transition.

That said, Blessed Monsters, like its predecessors, has some pacing and repetitive issues. The first 200 or so pages of Blessed Monsters dragged a bit, even though the atmosphere and character growth was on point. But when the plot picked up, it really picked up. The ending sneaks up on you like a rip tide, but somehow you enjoy getting pulled under. The only other annoyance is Duncan’s propensity for repetition of words in her writing. It may be a stylistic thing to refer to characters and the “boy” or the “girl”, but this leads to a lot of repetition and no benefit that I can see.

So let’s talk about the boy and the girl, the monster and the cleric, the toxic couple that you can’t quite help but root for: Nadya and Malachiasz. From the safe distance of reality, the reader can revel in the angst and betrayal of this dark duo, and there is no shortage of that in Blessed Monsters. Duncan layers these characters so well, and while they are definitely disaster children in the truest sense, you can sense the depth of love she has for them. While Nadya and Malachiasz may be the main characters people think of when talking about this series, Serefin’s development is a thing to behold. The care Duncan put into each character, big or small, is evident from the start.

What stands out the most is Duncan’s ability to make a big, bloody, epic story of gods and monsters feel very human. There are times when readers may get a bit lost in the magic and mythology, but our main trio act as a human touchstone. Experiencing the story through Nadya, Malachiasz, and Serefin’s POVs brings the colossal scope of the world back into a manageable plot for us mere humans. Duncan walks the line between easily consumable story and over the top saga that readers get lost in, and she walks it well.

Endings are always hard. It’s what I lament on in nearly any review I write for a final book in a series. But Blessed Monsters stays true to the vibe and atmosphere of the Something Dark and Holy trilogy. While you need to have a hearty constitution, and preferably no arachnophobia, to survive this book, I can say that you will most likely be satisfied with the conclusion. I, along with many other readers, have enjoyed this dark and twisted tale of a cleric, a monster, and a prince. And now that they can rest, readers will be eagerly awaiting what darkness Duncan crafts next.

This series quickly became one of my favorites that I've ever read. Sad that it's come to an end but I'm happy with the way everything fell into place.
I felt like this one was a bit slow up until about half way through and then it started to pick up. There were also some moments where I just felt like I was missing something like one minute this was happening and then all the sudden were somewhere else and something else has happened.
All in all I still really loved this book and this trilogy will forever have a special place in my heart along with the characters.

Whew. This is book 3 and the end of an amazing series i hold dear to my heart. I can't believe its over but the author did such an amazing job with that ending.

I loved this series so I was so excited to read the 3rd book. I love where the author took the story and dark themes of the book. I will be purchasing the entire series for my library's YA collection.

You know you finished a great book when you put it down and the world seems a little different to you because you been sucked into another for some time!! I was so ecstatic to receive a free arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This series is easily one of my favorites and as sad as it is for a journey to end I couldn't be more happy with how this one ended. With the destruction and betrayal that ended book two I needed to know what happened asap. This book was just as bloody, horrific, and filled with Devine nonsense as the last but with the twist of a lot more unlikely unity. I feel like all the questions I had were answered and as a conclusion it was perfect. Definitely keeping this series on my rec's! I also highly recommend the audiobooks, I listened to book two and the narrators were great, it they are the same for this one I will def get the audiobook version.

The twisty and weird and gothic and romantic end that this trilogy deserved! I don’t want to be too specific in this review to avoid spoilers for those just finishing Ruthless Gods, but this is a deeply satisfying end to the Something Dark and Holy trilogy. Duncan’s writing grew stronger (and stranger) with every subsequent book, leading to this masterpiece of YA fantasy horror. I was so delighted to get a chance to read Blessed Monsters early. Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Emily A. Duncan's Something Dark and Holy trilogy is a bit of an anomaly in the world of YA fantasy. The pitch-black series is a disturbing tale of blood magic, vengeful gods, and tortured relationships, with an unrelenting affinity for madness and gore.  Yet it is also compulsively readable, emotionally rich, and utterly surprising in almost every way.

The series concludes with a third and final installment, titled Blessed Monsters, that ties everything up in a way that ultimately feels satisfying, even if some of the edges remain a bit jagged. This was probably never going to be a tale that had a truly happy ending, but Blessed Monsters feels necessarily complete, what with almost everyone having died, come back to life, and sacrificed various bits of their bodies along the way.

As a finale to a trilogy, there's not a tremendous lot that actually happens in this book. Oh, sure, there are eldritch horror-style old gods rising, and the various horrible mistakes all three of our leads have made -destroying Tranavia's blood magic, killing a Kalyazi god, and becoming chaos itself - may have broken the world beyond saving. 

Yet, the bulk of this story is about love and forgiveness, and the relationships between a group of desperate people who care about one another in spite of the horrible things they've done (and often to one another.)

This series is exceptional. Blessed Monsters is dark and morose and I loved it all. Sad to see this series end.

ARC from NetGalley

I need to organize my feelings. I enjoyed this book, but it had some failings. There were too many jumps, too many times when what happened went unsaid and left me a bit confused. The overall tone was dark and depressing, like the entire thing was in sepia tones, but that's sort of the point I guess. It's not meant to be bubblegum and lollipops. Still, it was definitely not my favourite of the three. It reminds me a lot of the Kingdom on Fire series by Jessica Cluess. I definitely got a lot of the same vibes from this book as I did with the last book of that series with the gods and their being all grotesque. In that series as well I felt it started off strong, but then the last book was just a bit too depressing. There wasn't really anything that had me at the edge of my seat here, eager to see what happens next. All of the romances have essentially resolved, and none in a satisfying way, at least for me. There wasn't a lot of mystery. I mean there was, but it wasn't enough. Eh.

I did enjoy the banter. Serefin was the highlight. There were some things introduced that made me feel like there are more books to come, though I thought this was a trilogy. As per usual, I have bitched for this entire review, but I did enjoy it. I think I just had high expectations.

I just finished Blessed Monsters and HOLY GODS!!!!! I’m going to leave a raving review after I pick up my jaw off the floor. Maybe this will just be my review. It’s so good and I can’t wait for the rest of the world to read it.

(A Thousand years later)
Ok I think I can finally put into words a review for this book.

Usually you get to the final book and you know what's going to happen. However, this book was full of so many surprises. I got to chapter 17 (NOT SURE IF THIS IS A SPOILER) and I knew I had to put the book down because I was reading at work. If I kept going I knew I would get fired for reading and not seating people at the restaurant (it was a slow night).
I knew I would love the girl, the monster and the prince, but to fall in love with all the other characters in this ragtag family is a pleasant surprise. The story was just the right pace. I loved getting the view points from Nadya, Malachiasz, and Serefin (who might be my favorite). But I also loved all the bonus chapters from some of the side characters as well. I feel like Emily didn't dwell on unnecessary filler. Everything you read was important either for the character or the story. The humor, love and other emotions you get from this book is just *chefs kiss*. I also learned new words and forced my brain to pronounce Malachiasz right after listening to the audiobooks to refresh the story.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and hope others enjoy it as well.

Blessed Monsters wrapped up this series so well and I'm so sad that it's over. I didn't want it to end.

I love these characters so much and I was so happy to see that they stayed true to themselves in this book.

The pacing throughout the book was perfect. I didn't feel like anything felt rushed or too slow but still left me wanting more. And just the right amount of snark/sarcasm/humor that kept some moments from getting too dark.

One of the things that I loved the most in this book was the friendships that developed between the characters. There were real intimate friendships where they weren't afraid to show affection to each other. I can't think of another series that has done this as well as Emily Duncan has.

Overall, Blessed Monsters is an excellent novel to finish out the Something Dark and Holy trilogy. I can't wait to reread it in April.

When - not if - you sit down to read Blessed Monsters, I recommend having a blanket (for shock), a warm drink (for comfort), and a friend no more than a text message away (for emotional support). Blessed Monsters kept me STRESSED at almost all times in the best way. SO MUCH HAPPENS.

The first two books in the Something Dark and Holy trilogy set such an epic stage that it's daunting going into the finale and not knowing how it could possibly all end, but Blessed Monsters does a fantastic job of living up to its predecessors. The stakes are higher, the fear is greater, the eyes are impossibly more numerous, and Serefin is more sarcastic than ever. What more could we ask for?

And while the SD&H series is a grand scale of gods and monsters and war, it's the characters themselves - both individually and through their connections with each other - which are the driving force of everything. Not one of the characters we see in Blessed Monsters is the same person we met in Wicked Saints (with the possible exception of Kacper who was perfect from the start and remains perfect, if anything he changes only to achieve a higher level of perfection) and that level of growth throughout these books is the beating (bleeding) heart of it all.

I'm just fully in love with this entire series, what a joy this has been from start to finish. Well...maybe joy isn't the right word. A stressful, bloody, magical, fanatical time that I loved all the way.

The pace of this book does move very fast and there were times where I wish things had slowed down a bit, where I got lost in everything moving so fast and five things happened before I'd fully processed the first, and there are some loose threads that I wish had been more explored by the end so overall I give Blessed Monsters 4 creepy eyeballs out of 5. This is definitely a book that will hold up well to a re-read in the future and I already can’t wait for it.

I was over the moon when I got the email from Wednesday Books telling me I had received an ARC of Blessed Monsters. Like, Cloud Nine, all day. Now I'm just sad. Gutted, really, because I finished one of my all-time favourite series and don't know what to do. *Warning* This review will contain Ruthless Gods spoilers.

Straight up, no one is having a good time in this book. The story picks up pretty close after the end of the second's finale. Malachaisz (I finally know how to pronounce his name properly ya'll!) died after killing Nadya's god and came back to a few problems. One, Nadya stripped Tranavia of its blood magic, which means Serefin and Malachaisz are both powerless. Well, sort of. Malachaisz's other problem is that a certain old god of chaos has left Serefin to dwell in his eyeball-riddle body with the intent of covering the world in darkness. And Serefin only got said god to leave by tearing out his own eyeball, really messing with his barely functioning depth perception. And now he has a new visitor in his head. While Malachaisz and Serefin team up, Nadya believes her beloved monster boy to be dead, and she is headed into the heart of Kalyazin with far too many gods in her head and the very real possibility of turning into something dark and holy. Hopefully none of the trio will be responsible for letting the world be devoured by hungry old gods. Or they all will be. Who knows?

At over 500 pages, this bloody book has a lot going on for it. As with its predecessors, the story unfolds through multiple POVs. The three main characters, Nadya, Malachaisz and Serefin get their own chapters, but we also get shorter interludes from Parijahan, Rashid and Katya! Mad props to Duncan for striking the perfect balance between alternating the POVs. I whipped through this because I <I>needed</I> to know what happened next to each character.

As for the other cosmic fantasy horror things we get with zero context:
🩸 Mad old gods!
🩸 Star magic!
🩸 Swamp corpses!
🩸 Sexy times!
🩸 God graveyards!
🩸 Ginormous spiders no one asked for!
🩸 Travelling cabins!
🩸 So. Many. Eyeballs!
🩸 Icons weeping blood!

As for the ending itself, I do believe that I am satisfied. I wasn't too sure where it was going to go, and a reread is definitely in my future sometime, but I think Duncan ended it how it needed to. These teens have made enough messes that the right ones get cleaned up. However, there are still a few loose ends that leave it a little open to interpretation. But overall, I think it was worth the pain and love of this trilogy. Have I been vague enough for you?

I think my only regret about this book is that I did not reread Ruthless Gods beforehand. It did keep me a little at arms' length in the first half while I tried to remember what had happened. Turns out when you read 100 books in between you don't retain information the way you should. Funny, that. The book is a little lacking in recaps that outlined the previous events, so I highly recommend you reread the series for maximum enjoyment.

Look, this series is utterly bizarre. It is bloody, dark, and so unbelievably effed up ... and yet I love it with every inch of my cold black heart. Emily A Duncan will be an automatic read for me with whatever she chooses to publish next!

This was such an amazing end to an delightfully creepy trilogy. When I first read Wicked Saints I was blown away by how well it was done. The pure imagination, the darkness, and the horror were so perfectly executed. The characters were all wonderful and the settings were so atmospheric. It was such a great horror fantasy and I loved every minute of it. I really can't wait to see what Emily A. Duncan comes out with next.

I will be posting this review on my blog and retail sites two weeks before release date.