The Lives Of Saints

I recently finished reading Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

  Rating: 3/5 stars

"Dive into the epic world of international bestselling author Leigh Bardugo with this beautifully illustrated replica of The Lives of Saints, the Istorii Sankt’ya, featuring tales of saints drawn from the beloved novels and beyond. Out of the pages of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, from the hands of Alina Starkov to yours, the Istorii Sankt’ya is a magical keepsake from the Grishaverse.

These tales include miracles and martyrdoms from familiar saints like Sankta Lizabeta of the Roses and Sankt Ilya in Chains, to the strange and obscure stories of Sankta Ursula, Sankta Maradi, and the Starless Saint.

This beautiful collection includes stunning full-color illustrations of each story."

The stories were not bad at all but as I mentioned above, I don't think I will remember any of them in a year for example. Bardugo is a brilliant writer but her writing abilities are not shown in this simply because there is not much dialogue and character development. Most of the stories are created using the same mold. Someone does something to help the village and then they either become a hero or they are accused of dealing with the devils and are killed thus becoming saints of something. 

I should point out that the illustrations were very good though and I think it was a smart idea to include them because the book would have been very bland and short without them so it was definitely an incentive to read the book just to enjoy those different illustrations. Every turned page was like...gasp! Wow! Paparazzi, get over here!

You do have to hand it to the Grishaverse, though. Not many other series could write a complete theological text with examples of saints from each fictional country in said fictional universe. That's some damn good world-building.

Check out The Lives of Saints, and discover what happens in order to turn into a saint.

Happy Reading :)