If necromantic fantasy with plenty of whimsy and heart is your thing, then the Saint Death series has the bones for you.

CSE Cooney’s first entry in the series, Saint Death’s Daughter caught my eye because it promised a blend of literary academic fantasy with necromancy tropes and that seemed like an intriguing blend. Daughter itself was a quirky book with elements that I liked more than others. It left me with enough flesh in my teeth to grab onto the review copy of the sequel Saint Death’s Herald to see this world broaden in scope and continue to push the plot into new and interesting territory.

Herald continues the necromantic adventures of Miscellaneous Immiscible “Lanie” Stones, the heir and sole surviving (let’s call it “alive” because the lines get blurred in this series) to the last family of necromancers in the known world. This time around, she travels to far-off lands in pursuit of the ghost of her ancestor Irradiant Radithor “Grandpa Rad” Stones, who fled his sepulchural prison at the end of the B-Plot of Daughter. Grandpa Rad’s goal is to possess the body/bodies of the Sky Wizards that caused his death in centuries past, thereby unlocking his full magical potential to push forward his plans of world domination.

Necromancy hijinks ensue. Simple enough.

The book continues to dial heavily into the whimsical approach to death magicks wielded by Lanie, who relies on a pure heart and rapier academic wit to get her through the plot. The were-falcon Duantri plays a more key role in Herald, taking the place of plucky sidekick and bodyguard as Lanie plays undead cat-and-mouse with her great-grandfather Irradiant’s ghost as he traipses all over the countryside hopping between creatures’ bodies to his heart’s content. The highlight of this entry for me was the evolution of Cracchen Skrathmandan (who starts off being Irradiant’s first possessed vessel, leftover from the concluding moments of Daughter). His character arc along with his dynamic with Lanie, Duantri, and his brother Haaken, along with his own shifting allegiances were enjoyable.

Completely bafflingly, one of the rising stars of Daughter, Lanie’s niece Sacred Datura “Datu” Stones, the strong willed bent-on-revenge scrappy young lady is compeltely sidelined in the sequel. In addition, her father Makkovian “Mak” also has his role reduced to C-cast at best. The Lanie-Mak dynamic was one of the highlights of Daughter given their complex circumstances together, and their evolving character pairing was something I looked forward to greatly in the sequel, to which I felt quite shortchanged. The decision to narrow down the cast of characters on Herald, felt like a misstep, especially since the diverse set of characters that Lanie encountered on her journey in Daughter felt fresh, unique, whimsically-on-brand, and did wonders to flesh out her world. One can only hope that she gets back to her unresolved A-plot to defeat the Rook in the next installment, and many of these characters come back to centerstage, with Datu playing a major role.

My major complaint is the lack of “teeth” to Herald’s major plotline. The Rook and her Council of Birds felt like formidable antagonists in Daughter, and the reader felt genuine concern for the safety of the protagonists whenever the Rook entered the scene. In contrast, Irradiant Stones felt like a very “fun side-quest to gain XP” villain. Admittedly, his over-the-top arrogance in his necromantic skills was fun to read, knowing that his comeuppance would be strong and swift. However, his journey felt mostly blase, with an utterly anti-climactic final showdown.

Lastly, as a personal “ick”, Cooney indexes very hard into the “love will conquer all” aesthetic on Herald, cheapening many of the tenser moments in the book, as far and far between as they were. Lanie is a “pure-hearted protagonist” to a point of saccharine nausea. The over-the-top sense of empathy and positive vibes that pervade every facet of this series, causes my cynical inner grimdark gremlin to hiss and retreat into the shadows.

To her credit, Cooney’s prose in the Saint Death series is top-notch, with imaginative turn-of-phrase, zest, and poetry interlaced into the world, much of the verses and general cadence of the prose matches the aesthetic she is trying to convey in this series. She also succeeds in broadening the scope of the world, introducing new locations, with the notable addition of the “skinchangers” species, forming key players in Herald. She also fleshed out much of the backstory of her world, giving interesting tidbits of prior history going a long way to cement the motivations of Irradiant and his tussle with the Skrathmandans and the skinchangers.

The Saint Death series continues the trend of “dark whimsy” that has seemed to latch itself on stories about necromancy. With similar stories by T Kingfisher, and more notably, the cult-classic necromancy science-fantasy series, Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir, the trademark atmosphere of gore and darkness that came along with necromancy has been enveloped by a “cutesy” aesthetic with plenty of whimsical bells and whistles taking away much of the visceral horror that was synonymous with the genre. I fully admit, that I may not be the target demographic for this series, with my grimdark proclivities. Others who like whimsical fantasy, with strokes of literary academia will get much more mileage out of this series.

Saint Death’s Herald suffers from middle-book syndrome and a weak plot. Cooney’s decision to forego the major plot hangover from Daughter to follow the B-Plot, leads me to believe that she may be targetting a longer more episodic nature to her serializing. With a mundane plot, lacking the bite that Daughter conjured, Herald felt quite barebones. I hope she gets all her skulls in a row, and raises the stakes in her next book, because Herald, while admittedly having plenty of heart, failed to put enough flesh on the series, leaving a currently anemic product.

This book was tough to get into. It starts right where the first one left off and assumes the reader remembers everything from the first book. I hadn’t read the 1st one recently so it took awhile for me to remember all the different characters and plot lines. Once I did, it was so much fun to read. Lanie and her friends are so unique, and there is so much love and support among them. They are the best kind of found family.

Saint Death’s Herald by C. S. E. Cooney is a delightful and fast-paced fantasy book filled with quirky characters, dark magic, and plenty of adventure. Lanie Stones, a necromancer with a passion for books and pastries, is called upon to serve Doédenna, the god of Death. While Lanie may not be the most traditional necromancer, her growing powers and her ability to lay the unrestful dead to their slumber make her the one person capable of stopping her powerful great-grandfather, the necromancer Irradiant Stones.

Irradiant’s goal is nothing short of world domination, and Lanie is the only one who can stop him. Along the way, Lanie embarks on an epic road trip across the realms with an unlikely group of companions, including an undead flying tiger rug and a former enemy-turned-ally. Their journey takes them through strange and dangerous lands, from negotiating with witches to saving missing children, all while staying one step behind her devious grandfather.

This book is an enjoyable escape into a vibrant fantasy world. It may not be the most complex work of fantasy, but it delivers a fun, engaging adventure with plenty of heart and humour. If you’re looking for a light-hearted, action-packed read with a touch of magic and a lot of charm, Saint Death’s Herald is a must-read.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I continue to be stunned by the lyricality of Cooney's prose, and to see how she chooses to focus on the more alien consciousnesses here and the sheer absurdity of how necromantic powers can work (limestone!!!) as Lanie's story continues to unfold is amazing. There's more to come the way it looks, and I can't fucking wait to see where it goes. Pick this up and read the book before, Saint Death's Daughter, and enjoy the sheer wonderland of the prose.

Picking up immediately where book 1, Saint Death’s Daughter, left off, Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones is hot on the trail of the necromancer ghost of her great grandfather Irradiant Stones. “Grandpa Rad” headed north, possessing the body of Cracchen Skrathmandan. With the help of Duantri, Lanie needs to put her grandpa’s spirit to rest and fulfill her promise to bring Cracchen home. But Lanie isn’t the only one hunting her grandpa. The spirits of the long dead Northern sky wizards he trapped for a century are after him too. And they have a worse fate in mind than releasing the spirit into his god’s rest.

If you haven’t read book 1 in a while, I highly recommend skimming or reading it again before picking this up, as there’s no recap and little to remind you of what’s happened thus far in the story.

The book has plenty of adventure. There’s the hunt, several dramatic fight scenes, and more magical experimentation. We get to learn more about the world, looking at Leech and Skakmaht. The skinchangers and their form of changeling magic was fascinating, especially how their explanation of the world was subtly different from that of the humans.

I was a bit disappointed by some of the characters who had very small rolls. Makkovian and Datu only show up in a few chapters and Lir is mostly forgotten. I did appreciate that Makkovian has his own quest to perform, showing his life isn’t on hold while Lanie is off doing her thing.

The middle of the book felt a bit slow. There’s a lot of great action and fun new world building and then things sort of pause for a while.

I thought the last third of the book, in Skakmaht, was fantastic. Learning more about the sky houses and the wizard magic was very interesting. I also thought the book had a fitting conclusion.

If you liked the first book this one builds on what was accomplished and fleshes out more of the wider world. Lanie keeps learning new ways of using her necromantic powers, and grows as a person. It’s a worthy conclusion.

Honestly, I didnt know its possible for something to be both so cost and so horrific at the same time.

Irradiant Stones has been freed from captivity, and is on a quest to return to life, more powerful than ever before. Miscellaneous Stones, his great granddaughter and the greatest living necromancer currently, is hot on his tracks of her once-mentor to stop him once and for all. But few necromancers have ever been as dangerous or wily as Irradiant, and Lanie is going to need all the help she can get to pull this off.

So this is the forthcoming sequel to the WFA nominated Saint Death's Daughter, and CSE Cooney did a brilliant job of taking the vibes from that book and really ratcheting it up. Let's unpack this macabre, cosy goodness.

So first things first, this book is very plot driven. We have well established characters and relationships, and this information is built on. Characters who made it to this book have undergone changes one and all, but very little time is spent on that side of things - this book is almost entirely plot based, as we race across Athe in an almost constant running clash as Lanie battles Irradiant.

And what a plot it is. Fast paced and action packed, with plenty if incredibly imaginative moments and scenes and skills between these two mighty necromancers. Leveraging the world around them, the gods and the people they come in contact with these two go at it in some entertaining, action packed sequences that were thrilling and fun to read. CSE Cooney's macabre imagination is second to none as we get into the nitty gritty of the blood, viscera and gristle of these two and their messed up abilities.

And then there's the writing. Between one of the languages which is florid and archaic, another that's blue collar, a third that's equivalent to modern English, combined with CSE Cooney's lexicon, her obvious love for words you've never encountered before, this book is just an absolutely fascinating, engaging read that keeps you immersed except for when you have to Google some of the most random things ever.

But the thing that makes this book, and this series, succeed so splendidly is the way it combines a sense of coziness with graphic horror. These are necromancers at their peak at war, and Cooney gets right into the blood and guts of it, with visceral, graphic details and situations bringing joy to both of these characters. And then there's the contrast of personalities - Grandpa Rad is just plain a bad egg, foul and dis likeable to the extreme, whereas Lanie is very much a cottagecore girlie, bubbly and vivacious and a sweetheart to her found family and friends, despite the dysfunctional family she initially comes from. The past is there, but theres no trauma or baggage associated with it. And this personality of hers makes it all the more epic when she decides to go hard and do some incredibly epic shit now and then - this girl is very much beloved of a death god, and all that entails.

A wonderful follow up, and a wonderful cap to the series. I dont know if this is a duology or if there's more to come - there's plenty of threads that can be explored, but for the most part things are wrapped up pretty well. But if you're a fan of the first book, you'll only find more to love here. And if you havent checked that book out as yet, its certainty worth a look.

NB: Youtube link goes public on March 25 2025 @ 3PM EST

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this arc


I was so excited to read what happens next; how Lanie would defeat her Great Grandpa Rad because she has to right?

We get to learn more about about Irradiant Stones to see how he came to be how he is as a person/ghost.

We get to interact with old characters and even get some more background on them as well.

The ending is chefs kiss

A second entry into the world of Saint Death? Yes, please. I absolutely loved the first entry (St. Death's Daughter) where Lanie finds her way as a child and this new entry send to be growing up with her. We're given the opportunity to see more of her world and the relationships not only she, but also Grandpa Rad, had within them.

Everyone seems to have grown a bit from the last book to this, but one thing that hasn't changed is that Lanie remains delighted with her God and her responsibilities as evidenced by her trip across a limestone bridge and an early exchange with a doe.

I would give this a solid 4.5 as it seems like just a little more work this time.

CSE Cooney did it again, a beautiful, lush and lyrical fantasy novel mixing the exactly right dose of gothic and whimsy.
This second volume in Saint Death's world goes deeper into the lore and lets Leni discover and accept more of herself.
The plot itself is less surprising than in the first, and arguably covers less grounds than the first one, but it gives just as much in terms of found family, acceptance, embracing our differences, duty, growth, and just makes me impatient to see the third book.

I am also one of the big fans of friendship books versus romance, especially in adult books, and while this book is absolutely brimming with love, it is very much all about family and friendships.

If you haven't read the first book, get it now, it's a beautiful wild ride.

Oh YES!! this book is absolutely amazing. I was so glad to get the review copy of the second book after devouring the first in a weekend. This book is just as interesting and fun and immersive as the first. Cooney is quickly becoming a favorite author. As with the first book character development is great and world building is done excellently.

I loved book one in this series and so I was so excited to get to read and review book 2 and it wasn't a let down at all. It continued perfectly, I couldn't put it down and I didn't want it to end

This was a wonderful continuation of the storyline after Saint Death's Daughter. I was so excited to be back in this world and Saint Death's Herald didn't disappoint. It's just as beautifully written and I loved every bit.

I loved Saint Death’s Daughter from the first moment I started reading the ARC I received from Netgalley, so it’s been a long, excited wait for Saint Death’s Herald – and it was absolutely worth the wait.

There’s more of all my favourite characters from the first book; Duantri and Tanaliin, Datu and Mak, the Skrathmandan family, Saint Death and the other gods, Lanie herself, of course, and even Grandpa Rad, who is the absolute worst but has such fun and takes such glee in being the worst that it’s impossible not to enjoy him. The only one who doesn’t show up much is Lir, whom I adored in the first book – but, of course, given what happened at the end means them being largely absent only makes sense. And what there is of them, when they do show up in the narrative, is just… *chef’s kiss*. Once again, the wait was entirely worth it!

And then of course there’s more of C. S. E. Cooney’s just blissfully gorgeous worldbuilding – Athe and its various cultures and societies and nations and people and cities and gods and magic is so rich, so layered, so varied and strange and ordinary and beautiful that it feels like a real world, a real planet full of real people. I think there’s something particularly special about seeing it through Lanie’s eyes, because she’s so utterly in love with her entire world, so thrilled to discover new things and learn about new people. Everything is interesting to her and everything that has even the slightest potential to be wonderful is wonderful to her, and it makes travelling with her a constant joy.

Especially I loved the way the world is expanded in this book – the author isn’t just satisfied with the glorious, delicious delights she’s already given us, she brings in whole new ways of doing magic, whole new societies and ways of being a person. I could eat it with a spoon!
And all of this fabulous fascinating detail is hung on a plot that’s simple, yet entirely compelling: find Grandpa Rad and stop him. The complications that happen kept me on the edge of my seat and the way the story was finally resolved was so satisfying and opens up so many intriguing questions about where the story will go next. I love this world, and I love these characters, and I would happily read new stories about them for the next thirty years if C. S. E. Cooney so desires!

Other things I loved about this book but only get an honourable mention because otherwise this review would be as long as a novella:

- Stripes!!!!! I love that lil undead tiger rug nearly as much as Datu does, what a good good boy
- Datu using the Worst Word and the adults finding it hilarious
- the whole skinchanger idea, and their culture, and the characters there, and oh, I hope we come back to them because they’re just so fascinating!
- The love and adoration and gentleness with which death is treated, like it’s something just as wonderful and precious as life, and when you’re reading this book, you really do feel that way
- the twelve apologies!!! I was so thrillied to get a list of them at the end of the book and I love them so so much and I wish English had a list of apologies like that because I think we could use them
- Mister Underwear Stones, another good, good boy
- Lanie being terrible with heights and yet constantly being forced to transport herself in various flying devices
- Hakken!
- Saint Death/Doedenna’s various forms throughout the book; she’s so tender and loving and I would like to be loved by her
- I’m super excited to obtain and listen to the audiobook, the author reading the first book is just wonderful and I know this one will be equally gorgeous

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This was another fun story from C. S. E. Cooney. My only gripes with this was that there was less of a focus on the found family aspect and the relationships between characters than there was in the first book, and compared to the first book, the plot in the second was much more straightforward which made some of the plot points feel like they were there just to extend the length of the story. Otherwise, I completely loved this sequel and C. S. E. Cooney may be one of my immediate buy authors now.

Saint Death’s Herald follows a much more confident, stronger Lanie on her quest to sing her Grandpa Rad back to Saint Death. I truly enjoyed Lanie’s development as a person and as a necromancer. I also adore Cooney’s subversion of the cold, brutal necromancer, to make Lanie filled with kindness and love, and have her work her magic through that love. I’m also so glad that Cooney didn’t create a romance between Makkovian and Lanie, because I hate oppressed x oppressor even if in this case, it was Amanita that kidnapped Makkovian in the first place. I also loved seeing his burgeoning relationship with Tanaliín and Duantri. I do wish we had seen more of Mak, Tan and Datu but their short moments brought warmth to the story.

Again, the world building was expanded wonderfully and brought new lore in beautifully. It didn’t feel forced or like there was a knowledge dump at any point. I wish we had gotten more footnotes because I found them hilarious in the first book. I loved the expansion of Haaken’s and Cracchen’s characters, although I wish we saw more of Cracchen’s character post Grandpa Rad without the ghosts. I also thought that Lanie’s crush on Haaken was well written and I hope to see more of them in the next book. This was a great sequel.

Saint Death's Herald continues the uniquely lush prose and intricate world-building of Saint Death's Daughter, but it's even more complex and slower-paced. Cooney's writing shines, though Lanie's story is denser. This is definitely adult fantasy for those who enjoy challenging, literary reads. If you loved the depth of the first book and don't mind a slow burn, dive in. But its complexity won't appeal to all adult readers, and it's certainly not for the YA crowd.

Loved the ideas on this book and the supernatural world building. The characters were interesting and contains humour. It felt a bit light on plot for books that I normally resonate with and perhaps is marketed to young adult market. Simple plot without intricacies or depth. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Saint Death’s Daughter remains one of my favourite necromancy books despite strong competition in recent years, so I had high expectations for the sequel. I’m pleased to report that every one of them was met. Lanie Stones remains a beautiful, compassionate, distractable delight and the prose as always sings with unrestrained glee. It’s inventive , warm and optimistic as Lanie herself, and I loved it. My only complaint is that there isn’t a third book.

This was a strong sequel in the Saint Death's Daughter series, it had that element that I was looking for from the first book. I thought the characters worked well and enjoyed had that necromancer element worked overall. It was such a great overall concept and was invested in what was happening. C. S. E. Cooney wrote this well and am excited for more.

I felt that Saint Death's Daughter was made propulsive by the continuous twists of the plot and made meaningful by the depth of Lanie's relationships with those she loves, and I felt that this book was sorely missing in both.

At the end of the first book, I would have said that Lanie's most interesting, captivating relationships were with Mak, the man who was also captive to her sister and who grows from thinking of her as an abomination to thinking of her as family, and with Lir, Lanie's beloved who maybe betrayed her. These two relationships are entirely backburnered, and instead we have as secondary characters Duantri, who is a paragon of virtue and unquestionably good, Grandpa Rad, who is pure selfishness and unquestionably evil, and Cracchen, who would be more interesting if he was not forced into a position of allyship by circumstances and was in a position to litigate his relationship with Lanie. None of those three characters, who are the ones who get the most pages, have any of the tension with Lanie that Mak did or that Lir did, and I really felt that loss. Halfway through, we get some old faces flying into the story, but it's still not actually a source of friction or conflict or interest.

Also, frankly, it's a little boring. At about the halfway mark, I realised that there was no hope of the plot zigging and zagging that made the first book so unpredictable and interesting, and instead it was going to be a whole book of tracking down Grandpa Rad, who is quite possibly the least interesting character of all. The problem with realising that one particular problem is going to be the entire plot is that it means that whenever it seems like there is hope for a victory along the way, you know that it's going to be undone by some (sometimes literal) deus ex machina so that the stakes can continue to raise and the plot continue on. When the story finally was wrapped up, I didn't get the sense that the steps taken for that to happen were materially different than any of the steps that had been taken previously; it just happened to be time for that to happen. In Saint Death's Daughter, Lanie had any number of goals to be pursued in parallel, and there were any number of enemies to be concerned about. One enemy, one quest, simply cannot compete. I did enjoy the back half a bit more, but that might just have been because I lowered my expectations and started thinking of it as fluff.

Obviously, the world building continues to be great and the politics of the continent continues to be interesting, with some necessary shades of grey applied to wars we have previously heard about. The prose is lively, though I do miss the sheer density of footnotes about historical Stoneses and their ridiculous names of the first book. I prepared a review of this when I nearly DNF'd it halfway through, and I probably would have left it there but for the fact that I had an ARC and felt obliged to finish. That review exists above with very few changes: the back half did not become so completely interesting that my opinions changed.

It's a pleasant book, and you'll enjoy it more if you think of it as fluff rather than as a complex work of fantasy.

Much like the first book in the series, I found this one to excel in terms of the world building and character work. Both were done with nuance and kept my interest. I found the magic system, as well, to be inventive and fun. Where the book fell flat for me was the plot structure. It was very linear, to the point of predictability. There was one clear goal, and the obstacles that came along the way seemed contrived, merely a means of extending the narrative than anything else. An interesting subplot would have done wonders. As it were, I got pretty bored towards the middle, and skimmed my way through the last half of the book.