Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Seven Faceless Saints

Real Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars

They say true faith is blind faith. I say blind faith is willful ignorance. I think Seven Faceless Saints is about finding the balance between this great divide: You shouldn't be blind in your faith because not even your saints are infallable but having faith in something gives you something to look forward to and something to live for.

Damian and Roz, the main characters of this book, both desperately need something to live for and something to cling to. For Damian, it's his faith in the saints and the belief he has in his father and the war effort. For Roz it's her rage, spite, and drive to overthrow the whole system in the name of her deceased father and all the other unfavored (those without magic), who are treated like dirt by those with magic (Disciples) in the city of Ombrazia.

M.K. Lobb has a lovely, romantic writing style that I fell in love with very easily. At times it feels reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo, but there's no doubt Lobb has made it her own. Her sentence structure is efficient but evocative, managing to put across so much without using a ton of words. That's a talent you don't see much and I love it because it allows for brisk pacing without taking away emotion and imagery.

The book did start off a little slow, but not so slow I minded too much. I also felt the final confrontation was a little too evil-monologue, but it could've been worse. Lobb's choice to make the setting of her world a quasi-Italy is unique for the genre but I felt like it could've been more fully developed.

In place of a more fully-developed world, we got more fully-developed main characters, so I hardly feel like it's worth complaining too much about. I truly love Damian and Roz. Damian feels like a true martyr figure and Roz feels like a true saint figure (which is ironic, given how much she dislikes them). Roz is very much in the grey morality terrirtory, while Damian is full of the tainted light of someone who's seen too much in his short life. Like some of the best hate-to-love-you pairings in literature, their chemistry comes from that continuous push-pull dynamic of, "Don't want you but can't live without you," that a lot of us can't help but go crazy for.

I have a feeling the worldbuilding will become more robust in Disciples of Chaos, which I can't wait to read. I have the eARC for that one, so watch out for my review in about a month or so.
With that, here are some parting words from the book that I found absolutely stunning:

"Every time I looked up at the moon, I remembered when we were nine and I asked you what would happen if it fell from the sky. How you laughed yourself silly at me, and said although space was infinite, the moon never stopped circling earth. How it couldn't stop even if it wanted to. And even back then, I knew which one of us was the earth."

All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Book Series/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/LGBTQ Friendly/Mystery/Suspense Mystery/YA Fantasy/YA Romantasy