The Starving Saints

About the book

USA Today Bestseller! “As brilliant as it is bizarre. From the very first page you know you are in the hands of an author at the height of their abilities. . . . This is the unhinged cannibal book of my dreams—and my nightmares.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning “Enthralling, weird, and brilliant. A medieval pseudo-historical horror tale that explores what happens when our prayers are answered but we’re not sure what has answered them, or what it will demand of us in return. There’s no other story like this, and I mean that in the best possible way.” —Christopher Buehlman, bestselling author of Between Two Fires From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing fever dream of medieval horror following three women in a besieged castle that descends ravenously into madness under the spell of mysterious, godlike visitors. Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. In this isolated setting, food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the survival horror unfolding within Aymar’s walls. As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.5 across 108 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 37% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Horror average of 7.5. That is how 7.5 comes out.

Reader voices

The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).

• “dreamlike: with strong themes, but unclear how they fit together to make a coherent whole”

  ★ 3/5forcefemfatale on Hardcover

• “So this story definitely sucked me in, but MAN is it creepy, in the best way possible. The first thing that happened while I was reading it was that I started comparing the situation in the novel with actual history. The novel isn’t set anywhere in the real world, but it reminded me of some pretty infamous sieges in history. In particular, I was reminded of the Siege of Montsegur and the Siege of Carcassonne, both of which occurred during the Albigensian Crusade. Actually, I was strongly reminded of the Albigensian Crusade as a whole, even though this is set in a fantasy world. I think part o…”

  ★ 5/5kamreadsandrecs on Hardcover

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