Spoiler-Free Review

If you’re looking for a totally unpredictable horror novel set in a medieval fantasy world, where unnatural forces tip the scales and nothing is as it seems, you’ll like The Starving Saints.

Click here for content warnings.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

What’s The Starving Saints about?

In a castle under siege with the looming threat of total starvation, three women must confront and fight a supernatural takeover.

This book was wild, and only got wilder.

There is so much to dissect about this story. It was at once unpredictable, visceral, and engaging. Rarely do I find a story where I can’t see what’s coming next, and this one managed to actually keep me guessing.

It’s a fantastical horror taking place in a besieged castle where the inhabitants can’t leave. And they’re running out of food fast. I was hooked on our three main characters: Phosyne (the so-called “madwoman” and a sort of mage tasked with generating an impossible miracle to feed the castle), Voyne (the woman knight whom the king assigned to be Phosyne’s minder until that miracle is produced), and Treila (an outsider with a deadly grudge against Voyne).

It seemed that every time I felt I knew what this book was about, it upped the ante a little more. And then when the truly supernatural occurred, I could no longer predict anything.

I thought the main theme would be the desperation that occurs when humans are backed against the wall in this way, when survival becomes the main objective while no one can run away. And yes, that was definitely true. But also, I was delighted to see how it presented a critical look at unfettered obedience in the context of religious beliefs. It also turned a critical lens upon the corruptibility of power.

My only real critique is that I could feel myself losing the thread in places during the last third or so, and perhaps because it seemed to be running a bit long at that point (and things had truly become the slippery sort of fantastical). This was not unlike my experience with The Death of Jane Lawrence by the same author. However, that didn’t stop me from loving the book over all, and finding the premise and execution very interesting.

Should you read The Starving Saints?

If fantasy horror with a sapphic undertone would be your jam – read this book. It felt sort of like Caitlin Starling took inspiration for the setting and demons from Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, sprinkled in her particular flare for messed up logic, and added in a little misplaced romantic yearning and cannibalism. And lots of bees and honey and nuns. An absolutely wild combo.

This book releases May 20^th, 2025!