{"id":2571,"date":"2024-01-11T12:07:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T17:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2023-12-30T18:14:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-30T23:14:58","slug":"book-review-saint-deaths-daughter-by-c-s-e-cooney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2571","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: SAINT DEATH\u2019S DAUGHTER BY C.S.E. COONEY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

**Cross posted from The Circulation Desk<\/a>**<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Saint Death\u2019s Daughter<\/em>\u00a0by C.S.E Cooney.<\/p>\n

Solaris, 2022<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 978-1786184702<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook.\u00a0(\u00a0Bookshop.org\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0|\u00a0 \u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>\u00a0)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Miscellaneous Stones, born into a family known for its violence in service to the crown of Liriat, is a teenage necromancer with an allergy to violence that opens \u201cecho wounds\u201d when violence is done or described. When her parents die, her family is left indebted to a banker\u2019s family with connections to Liriat\u2019s enemy, the Blackbird Bride.<\/p>\n

Lanie\u2019s sister Nita returns to renegotiate the debt, and does so by agreeing to work for the Queen of Liriat to kill all 24 of the Bride\u2019s consorts. Nita has returned with an unwilling fiance, a gyrgard, who can shapeshift into a falcon and usually has a soul-bonded partner. The gyrgard, renamed Mak, attempts to poison himself rather than stay with Nita, but Lanie, unwilling to experience the echo wound that would be caused by his suicide, brings him back by calling on Saint Death, one of the 12 Lirian gods.<\/p>\n

In order to prevent having his memories wiped, Mak swears loyalty to Nita, and they have a child, Datu, who is raised primarily by Lanie and Mak, while Nita assassinates the members of the Bride\u2019s parliament. Finally, the Bride kills Nita, pronounces a death sentence on Datu, and tries to seduce Lanie into joining her court. Lanie, Mak, and Datu, along with the family revenant and the entrapped ghost of Lanie\u2019s necromancer grandfather, flee to hide in the city of Liriat Proper to protect Datu.<\/p>\n

In the city, Lanie, Mak, and Datu make truly good friends willing to help with their problems. Lanie also has a romance with Canon Lir, second son of the queen, and a priest to the many-gendered god of fire. Then Lanie has a serious echo wound in public that reveals their location to the Blackbird Bride, and Mak and Datu flee. Lanie has made a promise to her family\u2019s revenant she must follow through, protect Datu, and bring down the Bride.<\/p>\n

I know Harrow the Ninth is the big name in literary necromancers right now, and she\u2019s a much more horror-tinged character, but Lanie is my favorite necromancer character ever. Compassionate and loving to the living, dead, and undead, sometimes unwise, she honors her goddess.The allergy to violence and refusal to enthrall others, and her relationship with Lir, make her unusual.<\/p>\n

This is a long book, but with surprising twists, fascinating world building, great character development, and beautiful prose. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

**Cross posted from The Circulation Desk**   Saint Death\u2019s Daughter\u00a0by C.S.E Cooney. Solaris, 2022 ISBN-13: 978-1786184702 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook.\u00a0(\u00a0Bookshop.org\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0 \u00a0Amazon.com\u00a0)   Miscellaneous Stones, born into a family known for its violence in service to the crown of Liriat, is a teenage necromancer with an allergy to violence that opens \u201cecho wounds\u201d when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,119,53],"tags":[430],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-horror","category-witches","tag-c-s-e-cooney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-Ft","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}