4.5 stars

I had a splendid time with Nicked by M. T. Anderson, a short and snappy genre-bending rollercoaster of historical fiction that I don’t think any review will manage to fully capture.

Set in 1087, the novel chronicles the true story of an expedition to “liberate” (without permission) the bones of Saint Nicholas from their longstanding tomb in Myra and relocate them to the Italian city of Bari. Eleventh-century Bari is so alien to our modern sensibilities as to read like the setting of a fantasy novel, and Anderson takes the effect further by depicting life in 1087 not by historiographic standards but as its inhabitants themselves saw the world. Alongside international commerce and political squabbling, we bear witness to the power of saintly miracles and the exoticism of fantastical foreigners, a Tartar no less noteworthy than a cenocephale (dog-headed man).

Said cenocephale is probably my favorite character, by the way. Reprobus (a clever reference to St. Christopher), despite his canine appearance and culture, is easily the most eloquent person on the whole expedition, often in humorous contrast to Italian patricians.

The cast of characters is as eclectic and joyful a mix as you could hope for in a surprisingly touching found-family heist story, and it’s a treat to watch the main character, monk Nicephorus, go from awkward outsider to part of the gang.

I will definitely be reading more from M. T. Anderson. This book is an absolute treat from start to finish, and I will be recommending it to a wide variety of carefully-selected friends (those who appreciate fiction both weird and profound).

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Nicked* by M.T. Anderson presents a fascinating premise inspired by an actual historical heist. Set in the Middle Ages, where biblical mysteries and relics wield significant power, the novella delves into the heist of Saint Nicholas' bones from a church in Venice. This historical nod adds a layer of authenticity and intrigue, rooting the narrative in a real event that shaped history.

The story centers around Nicephorus, a monk whose vision sets the heist into motion. His journey, driven by an unwavering moral compass, contrasts sharply with the motives of other characters, including a roguish saint hunter. Nicephorus is portrayed as a "holy fool," yet his cleverness and determination shine through, making him the heart of the story. However, the dry humor and descriptions made it challenging for me to connect with the characters and become fully invested in the plot.

While I appreciate Anderson's attempt at blending dry humor with historical fiction, the execution fell flat for me. The dry writing style, combined with moments of archaic and purple prose, often left me confused rather than engaged. The romance subplot, too, lacked chemistry and emotional depth, failing to resonate on a meaningful level.

Despite these challenges, *Nicked* excels in its genre-defying approach, weaving together adventure, historical fiction, romance, and a coming-of-age storyline. The backdrop of a plague-stricken city and the belief that the relics could bring salvation added an intriguing layer of urgency and mysticism to the narrative. Anderson's exploration of themes like identity and self-discovery, particularly through Nicephorus' character, provides depth to the story.

While *Nicked* wasn't entirely to my taste, it offers a unique and fresh take on historical fiction, blending various genres to create a distinctive narrative. Readers who enjoy unconventional stories that defy neat genre categories might find this novella appealing. Nicephorus' journey of self-discovery and the interplay between historical and fantastical elements provide enough intrigue to keep readers engaged, even if the dry humor and writing style may not be for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing me with this eARC. *Nicked* is an interesting effort that, while not wholly enjoyable for me, may find its audience among those looking for something different in historical fiction.

1087, a pox is making it's way through Bari, Italy and a naïve monk by the name of Nicephorus has a dream about St. Nicholas which he interprets as a message to help the sick in his city. Now, the legend is that Nicholas' bones weep a healing oil so his Abbot interprets the dream as meaning the Saint is unhappy in his current resting place and he wants to come be laid to rest in Bari where they can dispense the healing elixir to their sick townspeople. They hire a thief and his crew to steal the bones and decide Nicephorus is the one go since he had the dream (plus they think him as dispensable and a bit of a fool).

Tyun's crew includes his first mate which is described as a "dog headed man" and at first I thought it was just a man with an unfortunate face but he was literally a man with a dog head. Which inspired me to look up information on dog headed men in historical myths. I also had a good time looking up the various locations they went to and various historical lore on Saint Nicholas.
It was very interesting!
I loved the characters, especially Nicephorus and the thief, Tyun. I loved seeing Nicephorus and Tyun grow closer and feel something for each other even though they came from very VERY different worlds. This is not a romance even though Nicephorus and Tyun fall for each other. This is definitely a historical fiction adventure story with a heist and pirates.

The only thing I had issues with is the writing. Many of the terms and words I had to look up. Having a working knowledge of historical terms, names and places would be helpful. Switching povs was sort of jarring too. There weren't really chapters just big "parts" so sometimes a perspective would shift from paragraph to paragraph.

In the end I'm really glad I picked this one up and I'm excited my library has already preordered a copy! Definitely going to be putting it on my recommendations list and I'm excited to have something outside of my "normal" genres to recommend to the many, many historical fiction fans we have!

This was a fun, fast paced heist novel that happens to be based off of a real heist of a saint's skull back in the early middle ages, and an innocent holy brother who ends up getting pulled into the bigger political plots and machinations of those above him, and just a grade a group of real weird fucking guys. Definitely a great read for your summer.

Nicked by M.T. Anderson

In 1087, a dream of Saint Nicholas prompts Brother Nicephorus to team up with Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter, on a daring heist to steal Saint Nicholas’s relics, believed to heal the sick, from Myra.

So this book is based on a true story that the author expounded upon with fantastical elements typical of the Medieval ages. And in that sense, this book rides a very strange line between nonfiction and speculative historical fiction. Dont get me wrong. This is not a complaint. I have no complaints about this book. Nicked is wild ride, and one I was not prepared for.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t for this book to be so funny. Because it’s hysterical, but in that kind of way where I’d have to give you context and then read to you about three paragraphs of the book for you to get the humor, or else it would just turn into a “well, you’d have to be there,” kind of situation. It’s a very dry humor, but it’s right on point for me. And also perfectly in tone with how ridiculous this entire venture is, that people were stealing and collecting the relics (and entire skeletons) of saints like they’re pokemon cards. This is a book that 100% recognizes how ridiculous the Medieval ages were and leans so incredibly hard into it.

The characters are great. Even the ones I hated, I loved hating. The ending was absolutely perfect and I loved it. Truly, if you want a short but fun, true-ish medieval adventure that takes some wild turns, I highly, highly recommend this.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

#medievalnovel #nicked #netgalley #knopfpublishing #arcreview #bookstagram

First I would like to thank Pantheon for sending me an ARC of this book!

I devoured this book in one whole sitting, however, I still never felt fully pulled into the story until the last quarter. I found the beginning to be really hard to get into especially since the author chose to dump a lot of new information on readers quickly and without any care. Were I a scholar of religion perhaps I could have picked up on the novel easier than I did, however, that is not the case. Nor will it be the case of most readers. Although I found the text to be unapproachable at times it did not deter me from reading further. I was very interested in the plot, however, I still found myself extremely bored up until the story kicked into gear in the last quarter of the novel. I will say that I was ultimately charmed by the characters once they grew on me, and I especially found the romance to be cute.

I bounced off this one pretty hard. I've read Feed by this author and while that one took me a bit to get into I ended up enjoying it. I wasn't ready to persevere with this one. The writing style, while skillful, kept me at a distance from all of the characters. Mostly it felt like the author was trying to be wryly funny without me being able to get the joke. Might be all my fault! Because of the distance in the writing style, I couldn't immerse myself in the book's world.

A monk, a saint hunter, and a dog-headed man walk into a church to steal some bones. 

I love books that defy fitting into neat, predefined genre categories, and Nicked does this perfectly. In this slim story, you get adventure, a little bit of historical fiction, a heap of romance, and a beautiful coming-of-age storyline. All of this is set against the backdrop of the Middle Ages, where biblical mysteries still loom large and relics have the power to make empires rise or fall. 

Throughout the story, we are introduced to a colorful cast of misfits, politicians, and priests, who all come together to play their parts in a heist of Saint Nicholas’ bones from a church in Venice. The heist is orchestrated by a handful of powerful figures in a city that is suffering from a plague. They believe that moving the bones to their city will cure the plague and bring unimaginable wealth to their own pockets. Caught up in it all is the monk Nicephorus, whose dream is the catalyst that sends the heist into motion. 

We follow Nicephorus for most of the story, and his tireless conviction to always do the right thing makes for a fascinating contrast between the rest of the characters, especially the roguish saint hunter that he finds himself drawn to. Many make him out to be a “holy fool,” but his wit and cleverness shine through time and time again to surprise everyone, even Nicephorus himself. In a story filled with people trying to convince the world that they are something else in order to gain money or power, Nicephorus stands out. He is the true heart and the best piece of this story. 

If you came out to yourself later in life, after your teen years, when you were supposed to be growing into yourself, this is the book for you. This book is also for readers who are looking for something fresh and different.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

This book wasn't for me.

The promised humor apparently went over my head, because I didn't find anything funny.

The language—exposition and dialogue—is an odd mix of old and modern English. I assume this was intentional, though it didn't sit well with me. The setting is supposed to be historical, and the contemporary language kept throwing me off.

The writing, for me, was dry and the characters dull.

I just couldn't get into the story.

This book was wildly funny, morbid, and most of all just wild. The most fascinating aspect of this raucous tale was the fact that it's steeped in historical accuracy--who knew that bones could enjoy such infamy after death! A true page-turner.

I really enjoyed this read!! I truly didn't feel like it started to pick up until about halfway through the book, as well as the written dialogue feeling a bit unnatural - but again, getting to the expedition was my favorite part and the read after kept me wanting tor was more to find out if the bones were real or even there!!!

This book hit me like a twenty pound brick. I devoured this like live prey and Live for the tale of Nicephorus.
Exciting, heated, and quite often so existentially funny and beautiful. Mad props to M. T. For this, I loved this so very much.

Nicked is a fiction novel centered around stealing the bones of of Saint Nicholas, in the hopes that the blessing will stop the spread of a plague in their town, which is sadly lacking in saintly memorabilia. With a light-hearted,satirical tone, lots of action and adventure, and some real Christian theology and history thrown in for fun. I loved that the cast of characters included a dog-headed man - literally - which is a sort of person who figured pretty regularly in medieval stories and illuminations. The poor innocent monk being thrown into this heist adventure was a lot of fun, but generally the characters felt a lot more flat than the world did. The humor was fun, and the religious/political maneuvering was interesting. In general, the writing felt dense and uneven - I was interested immediately, struggled through the middle, and it ended well overall.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for the ARC!

On its surface, Nicked is a totally zany medieval caper about a monk who gets caught up in an outrageous scheme to steal the bones of Saint Nicholas as a cure for a plague ravaging his Italian city. But Nicked is more rich and deep than just its madcap plot.
Anderson's writing is gorgeous, vivid stuff that fully transports you to this gritty, superstitious world of relics and religious fervor. Yet his style also has this sly, modern wink to it that gives the whole book an appealingly satirical edge. I was immediately reminded of the weird, irreverent vibe that made Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series so beloved by speculative fiction fans.
Like those books, Nicked plays with genre in such a fun, unexpected way. It's a fantasy, a historical fiction, a romance, a religious satire, and a queer love story all gloriously mashed together. The relationship between the unlikely duo at its center - a gruff relic hunter and an innocent monk - is so tenderly rendered and touching amid all the madness.
More than anything, what made Nicked so special for me was its joyous, free-wheeling spirit and sense of adventure. Anderson seems to be having an absolute blast upending tropes and expectations at every turn. His imagination and compassion for these characters made me deeply invested in seeing where this wild ride would go next.
Frankly, I think any fans of audaciously original storytelling and richly-conceived worlds are going to fall head-over-heels for Nicked like I did. It's a total gem - quirky and irreverent but also surprisingly profound and moving. An easy contender for one of my favorite reads of the year so far.

i hope to read more from this author. the prose was amazing and i love any heist novel so im glad netgalley accepted my request to read this

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

Another reviewer said this was like Ocean's Eleven meets the Bible and I couldn't agree more. I absolutely loved this! With a truly enjoyable cast of characters ranging from an old bickering married couple, a holy fool and a sarcastic conman, the tale within is truly an adventure and was a pleasure to sit down and escape into.

There isn't anything I can call out as being 'bad' with this book; it just wasn't holding my interest. One thing that kept pulling me out of the story was difficulty grasping the tone; I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be humorous or serious or both. That probably doesn't make any sense, and I apologize, but I found myself stopping to reread sections multiple times.

It's all very Ocean's Eleven meets The Bible, written by Mel Brooks 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this opportunity to read rate and review this ARC book which will be available July 22,2024!

I honestly do not know what to make of this book. It’s raucous. It’s funny. It deals with a saint in 1087 and what to do with their bones. It was fun and there is queer rep but I still don’t have a truly good opinion on it. I am confused.

"O blessed bone. The skull, the seat and throne, the citadel, the watchtower. Then the cage. Let scholars and mystics argue whether the body is integument and tomb or vehicle, vahana, the stilted assemblage that allows us to walk freely in the world, our only perch."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I adored this story so much. Strikingly original, ingeniously comedic, and surprisingly touching - it's been a longggg time since a book has rendered me this speechless and oh how I've missed the feeling. There's no way my puny words can ever adequately describe this phenomenal work.

Nicephorus, a cloistered monk, has been unwillingly recruited into an unsavory band of saint hunters (aka grave robbers) to steal the body of St. Nicholas. The Italian city of Bari is being ravaged by the pox, and the hope is that by bringing the remains of the saint back to the city its inhabitants will finally be healed. And that's all of the story that I'm willing to divulge. The rest you should just experience for yourself.

Nicked is a heist for the ages and such an incredible blend of both historical fiction and fantasy. It ended up being so different from what I was expecting based on the synopsis. When I picked this up, I was fully preparing myself for an evening of mindless entertainment via a humorous historical romp, and while it was all a helluva good time, Nicked was nowhere near as cloyingly slapstick or comedic as the description leads one to believe. Don't get me wrong this book is incredibly funny but never in a way that felt forced. I loved the comedy and the relationships and the adventure. However, what I least expected were the moments of profound beauty that just slowly creep up on you. Just think of any bygone moment when you're just having the time of your life but then suddenly stop and realize all of the small wonders of the world and how lucky you are to get to be here in this very moment to enjoy them. Sounds crazy, but that's the feeling I got at times reading this book. I'm not surprised that M.T. Anderson is primarily known for his children's stories because there is just so much subtlety and nuance and pure magic here that's really lacking in fiction these days. The writing too is absolutely SUBLIME, and don't even get me started on the characters!! Bravo M.T. Anderson, bravo 👏 👏 👏

What a gorgeous, gorgeous book. While there is no great tragedy within its pages (aside from the fact that there is an ending at all and Nicked doesn't just go on forever), I am still getting teary-eyed reflecting on this tale of faith, mortality, miracles and human connection in our vast and beautiful world.

"Look out at the clouds, and how they roil and turn red like Armageddon. Never forget that your life is a wonder. You were dead, and now you live. Never forget that there are miracles everywhere, and you are only present in this world to see them once."

This was a real treat!

I picked this up simply for the grand heist- stealing a saint's bones based on a greedy interpretation of a poor monk's dream? Yes, please! 'Nicked' is so much more than that. It's clever in its humor and historical depiction. I swooned and rooted for our saint hunter and monk at every turn. I can see why some might say there's not much build up or yearning between them but it was nice to have it hinted at and not some sort of huge plot device. The writing is amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I can highlight it to hell and back.

Thank you to NetGalley, M.T. Anderson, and the publisher for the advance copy.