Ruthless Gods (Something Dark and Holy, #2)

Darkness never works alone...

Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who--and what--he’s become.

As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

In her dramatic follow-up to Wicked Saints, the first book in her Something Dark and Holy trilogy, Emily A. Duncan paints a Gothic, icy world where shadows whisper, and no one is who they seem, with a shocking ending that will leave you breathless.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a review copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

I really enjoyed Wicked Saints, and I confess that I absolutely love the tagline between the two: Wicked Saints worship Ruthless Gods. Umm … yes? So much yes. Obviously, this is a series that was written just for me.

Ruthless Gods expands the world of Wicked Saints with a larger, more disturbing world, higher stakes, more sarcastic characters to love, and aaaall the betrayal.

In the end, I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first book. Serephin continued to be a high point, and I was surprised that I did enjoy Malachiasz still to some extent. Nadya, though? Unbearable. I’m also of the opinion that you can’t make betrayal the main basis of two books. Where it worked in the first book, it didn’t work in this one, because it was so dang obvious.

This was a buddy read with Dini @ DiniPandaReads, so you can find our (spoiler free!) discussion questions at the end. You can also find her review here.

This review may contain spoilers for Wicked Saints.

Duncan expands the world from the first book, making it bigger, more dangerous, and really putting the “dark” in dark fantasy.

Sooo … I obviously loved it. Duh. Dark is my thing, and this book definitely delivered on that aspect. If you’re looking for something dark and devious, with unapologetically horrible characters (and I mean that in the best of ways), this really scratches that itch.

The thing I loved the most about this was a deeper exploration of the gods and creatures in this world and the way they’re not quite what you’d expect.

I feel like, as a society, we tend to really glorify gods, so it’s such a shock to find that the gods may have a dark side. It’s not exactly a stretch, but I really love the exploration of this in the book.

In a lot of ways, this book is half Serefin’s, and his arc is just glorious.

I mean, he may have gotten into a teensy bit of trouble at the end of the first book, yes? You know, what with the dying and power of gods and all of that. In this book, he has a lot to work out … and the collapse of his monarchy is really the least of his worries at this point (though, rest assured, it still is a worry).

Serefin was every bit as entertaining as he was in Wicked Saints, but I feel like this book really delved into his character with a new depth.

He’s got a lot going on, none of which I can actually say without spoilers. Needless to say, it’s complicated, and I enjoyed that. There was a lot of inner turmoil for him, and I was so freaking shocked by the way his arc ended in this book.

Speaking of Serefin … he gets his own little LGBTQ romance, and I’m so for this.

I won’t say who, because spoilers, but I do think it was hinted at in the first book, so I was thrilled when this became a thing. As much as I love Serefin and totally think we should get married and rule our kingdom with a bloody iron fist … I’m all for this ship, too.

Actually, I wish this romance had been the focus of the book and that it’d gotten more attention. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

Taken on his own, I actually kind of like Malachiasz as a villain.

I’m no stranger to rooting for villains or loving villains. I’m probably predisposed to it, in fact. Malachiasz is neither of those, though. What I liked about him as a villain was that he had a purpose that made sense, and he was honest about his awfulness.

Okay, hear me out. I’m okay with characters being lousy people, as long as they’re honest about it. I can get behind that. Maybe I don’t support your quest to kill all the unicorns, Random Villain, but if you say from day one that that’s your intention because they’re draining all the magic from the world and you think it’s the only way to save the world … well, okay, then. I can respect that.

There are aspects about Malachiasz that I wasn’t a fan of (particularly his relationship with Nadya), but the one thing I can appreciate, if nothing else, is that he’s consistent.

I understand his actions and motives, regardless of whether or not I agree with them, which made me appreciate his character all the more. Also, while I may not appreciate his means … I kind of support his goal? Definitely interested to see where this goes in book three.

Pelageya plays a larger role in this one, and that can be both good and bad.

I confess, I’m actually really curious about Pelageya and what role she plays in everything. She clearly knows more than she lets on, and thus far, she hasn’t actively done much of anything. In this book, she provides a lot of (sometimes heavy-handed) foreshadowing, and I do love me some foreshadowing.

Pelageya tends to be a bit of a mixed bag, because her cryptic way she talks can get old really quickly, and she spends pages saying something that should’ve taken three sentences and foreshadows something that you probably could’ve already guessed.

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that she has a bigger role to play in the third book, because she’s obviously … powerful? Important? I don’t know. I want her to do something other than spout unhelpful prophecies and confuse the characters, even while I do enjoy her foreshadowing from time to time.

While I enjoyed Nadya in Wicked Saints, she was downright unbearable in this book.

Which is problematic, considering she’s the main character. In this book, Nadya basically had two functions: pining over Malachiasz and his betrayals, or whining about how she’s useless. That was it. Because Nadya without her magic is apparently nothing, which was such a disheartening message, considering everything she went through in the first book.

The most annoying thing, though, was her relationship with Malachiasz and how much time was spent in her head going back and forth on this. Because she loves him (for reasons that the book doesn’t get into or give reasons for, despite her telling herself repeatedly that she shouldn’t … and I agree).

Nadya was so fierce in the first book and had so much growth, but here, she really stagnated, and instead of being a character on her own, she only existed to pine after the villain.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good villain/hero love affair dynamic, but it doesn’t work here if the “hero” has no personality outside the villain. Nadya, for reasons unknown to me, completely throws out any and all logic and ability to reason, and by the end, I didn’t even understand her thoughts and actions, to the point where I was kind of just yelling at her, hoping my words would seep into the page (okay, Kindle) and maybe do some good.

The Nadya x Malachiasz romance is just … a dumpster fire.

And let me be clear … I like dumpster fire romances. I loved it in the first book, because ill-fated lovers is totally one of my things. Here, though, it’s a dumpster fire in a bad way.

First, I’m not buying the romance at this point. There is literally no reason for them to be together, and the book does nothing to convince me of their feelings for each other. It’s basically just a manifesto of all the reasons they shouldn’t be together, repeated by the characters themselves over and over … followed with, “But I love him/her.” Yeah, okay, but that’s not enough, guys.

The entire basis of Nadya and Malachiasz’s relationship is betrayal, from the first book, and the biggest problem is that the theme extends into this book, so how can I possibly buy into a romance where both parties are planning on stabbing each other in the back?!

Not even in the fun, sexy way of enemies-to-lovers. The entire romance in this book boils down to each character using the other as a means to an end, while feeling tortured about it, and I just wasn’t feeling this dynamic.

In my opinion, you can’t have two books in a row where the big “plot twists” are based on betrayal, because it just cheapens it the second time.

Especially when the characters spend the entire book talking about how they’re going to betray each other. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good betrayal. I found it super effective in the first book, even though I low-key expected it, because hey, I want to hope for the best in people and that they can change. So I was fine with that. In this book, though? It just wasn’t working for me.

From almost page one of this book (so it’s really not a spoiler), the characters talk about their motivations and what they’ll do for their people and what their end game is, going so far as to blatantly tell other characters … who then act surprised when they do it?

This is a dynamic that I just couldn’t get behind. You can’t whine about someone’s betrayal when they’ve been telling you from day one what they intended to do! That’s your bad, not theirs. Certainly not when you intended to do the same and are just mad that they beat you to it and did it better, despite them telling you their intentions and you lying to them the entire time.

Buddy Read Questions

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I just ABSOLUTELY LOVE the tagline “Wicked Saints worship Ruthless Gods” because how clever is that to work both book titles into an awesomely dark tagline like that? So in keeping with that, if you could write a trilogy to represent yourself, what would your tagline be (with the format Book 1 + verb + Book 2)?

Sammie: Restless Bookwyrms meet Wayward Travelers. Because obviously any book about me would have to have dragons and adventure and swords. Preferably the talking sort. Also probably betrayal, even if it’s accidental. Oh, and books! Lots and lots of books.

Dini: Oh man, I really suck at these name things! It’s like my brain just shuts down whenever these “make a name/title” prompts come up, full with !ERROR! messages flashing through my mind 😂 Hmm… How about… Third Culture Panda discovers Book Lover’s Paradise? It’s lame and a lot cheesy, I know but… It’s what I got! Haha (sorry, your tagline is so much cooler!)

Would you choose blood magic or patron saints? If you choose saints, what one saint (from real life OR the book) would you want to be your patron?

Sammie: I’m really not big on the sight of blood, much less my own, and that seems like a pretty big hassle for casting magic. So I’d go with patron saints. I’d like to think my saint would be something totally cool and badass, but I’d probably go with Babalu-Aye, an Orisha of disease and healing. Only because I love his lore. Basically, the gods threw a party, and Babalu-Aye was so bad at dancing that the other gods laughed, so he swore his revenge, like you do, and attempted to give them all horrible diseases. At which point, they beat him to within an inch of his life, and he retreated into solitude for years, and came out deciding maybe that wasn’t a great approach. So now he walks with a cane and also heals people. And if that doesn’t sound like the perfect patron god for me, I don’t know what is. xD

Dini: That patron saint you picked sounds really cool and also perfect for you 😂 And you know what? I thought I’d totally choose a saint but I think I’m going to go for blood magic! Is it lame to say that I’m choosing it because it just sounds cool? Haha no, but really I think I’d like to have that kind of control over my own magic instead of depending on a saint to bless me with their powers? I’m not awful with blood either, so I think I’ll manage just fine (watch me faint the first time I try to use blood magic)!

Since there’s a lot of romance in this, we’re going to play an old game, but a bit of a cleaner version of it: woo, marry, or kill! Choose one character for each.

Sammie: I’m pretty sure Nadya is going to be the kill for both of us? Just get that out of the way right off the bat. I won’t shed any tears for her. Serefin is going to be the marry for me, even though his heart lies elsewhere. It’ll be a marriage of convenience, and I’ll just be a beard for him. I’m cool with that. I’d get to be a queen, at least, and Serefin would be a heck of a companion. And as for the woo … I’m gonna go with Rashid. Probably not marriage material. He’s a little hard to nail down. But he’s got that super suave, laid back thing going on that makes me think we could at least have a good time together for a while and still be friends afterwards, and that works for me.

Dini: Yep, definitely killing Nadya and I don’t think we’re even gonna be sorry about it, right? After that I honestly think it’s kinda slim pickings in this book! 🤣 I thought I would choose to marry Serefin (we’d totally have to have a patron vs. blood magic duel here) and woo someone else but I actually think I’m going to go the opposite of you. I’d marry Rashid, even though we hardly know anything about him but he’s definitely loyal, and I’d woo Serefin because it would just be so much fun with all the banter! Then I’d try to get all his blood magic secrets out of him… 🖤 Haha

Since the first book, Serefin has earned himself a few new fancy titles (like a proper gamer): King of Moths, King of Blood. Now that we’ve finished the book, we deserve fancy titles, too. What should your new title be?

Sammie: Well, Mother of Dragons is taken (and let’s be honest … Minion’s not cool enough to be a dragon yet, sorry). I’m not sure I have many qualifications, to be fair. I could definitely be a Slayer of Naps. I’m maybe a little overqualified for that. How about we go with Sammie, Weaver of Tales?

Dini: Ooh, Slayer of Naps sounds really cool! LOL sadly, I don’t take many naps anymore (*crying in the club*)… I think what would be really fitting for me over the last month (or so) is: Dini, Reader of Nothing LOL I mean…

So, there’s a really creepy forest in this book with a suitably dark, evil name, and it’s filled to the brim with eldritch horrors and supernatural monsters (only sometimes the human kind) like strigoi. If you were faced with said forest, what one monster would make you nope the heck out of there right off the bat?

Sammie: A zombie. Don’t come at me with that nonsense. I don’t play. I know they make no scientific sense, and logically, zombies are an impossibility. But I will take out a zombie if it comes for me with no hesitation. If I took one step into that forest and a zombie popped out at me, I’m gonna have to let the world die. Sorry, guys. I tried.

Dini: I mean, ALL THE MONSTERS?!  I don’t know if only one in particular would do me because just the sight of any of them would definitely have me noping the heck out of there. I think if I had to choose I’d say anything ghostly– like a banshee or something. I mean, that sounds so lame but I’m honestly the worst with ghostly things. Like any of that The Ring, Annabelle, House of 13 Ghosts schnitzel is just not my jam…