“If he were dying from a poison only my piss could save him from, I would sooner die of kidney failure than urinate on him.”
In a corrupt kingdom where the king has been killed and magic runs unchecked through the city, it is up to his Wraiths to command order. Seven immortal beings, snatched from the void and made to obey the monarch’s every wish.
Among them is Esme, the most ruthless of that lot and when a competition is announced for the throne, Esme will stop at nothing to make sure her chosen competitor wins the kingdom.
This was an incredibly ambitious debut, so much so that at times there was a bit too much going on for me to wrap my head around. The world Olivia has created is so vibrant and brash, and so I had a tendency to forgive any moments that felt nonsensical or underdeveloped. It’s chaotic and it’s meant to be (which definitely won’t work for everyone! Even I found myself at times thinking ‘what am I reading here’, but then some super cool action sequence would happen and I’d be like, okay cool).
A lot of the characters morality remains murky (even Esme makes a lot of questionable decisions) and I enjoyed how the author didn’t seem compelled to make any of the cast conform to our expectations. It also had a lot to say about power and its misuse and I thought it did so in a very nuanced way.
I also loved the magic system in this (or the lack thereof, because magic is this chaotic, almost malevolent force ripping through the kingdom and thriving off disorder). As you can probably tell from the quote I included at the beginning of this review, it also had a signature humour that I don’t think will work for everyone but did occasionally make me chuckle. It had a similar feel to Jay Kristoff’s darkly cynical humour, so if you enjoyed Nevernight and Empire of the Vampire, I think you’d enjoy this too.
Overall, super unique and unlike a lot of the fantasy I’ve read, though definitely not a perfect novel. The most similar comparison is probably The Raven Scholar, with both Neema and Esme machinating to control the successor to the throne.
Have you read A Viper Among Kings? I will definitely be reading the sequel and would be interested in whatever this author releases next! Thank you to Daphne Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy.
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