Seven Faceless Saints

Volume XXIX / Issue 33 - April 28 / 2023
Seven Faceless Saints
Seven Faceless Saints
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Seven Faceless Saints

Author: 
M.K. Lobb
Series: 
Seven Faceless Saints #1
New York, NY: Little, Brown (Distributed in Canada by Hachette Book Group), 2023
390 pp., hardcover, $29.99
ISBN: 
9780316386883
Grades: 
Grades 9-12
Ages: 
Ages 14-17
Review by: 
Tara Stieglitz
4
Excerpt: 

Roz had never paid much attention to the statues in the garden, though she knew they are meant to symbolize the six saints. She also knew there was a patch of dead grass where Chaos once stood.

Today, however, there was something occupying that patch of grass. Something that looked horribly like a person, lying flat on their back.

Despite the jolt of panic that shot through her, Roz continued her approach, squinting at the figure. When she reached the center of the garden, her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

“Shit,” she forced out, stumbling backward.

It was obvious the woman was dead. She was too perfectly still to be anything else. Her head was tilted back, as if to look up at the sky, though her eyelids were closed. Roz felt for the woman’s pulse nonetheless, unable to help herself.

Nothing. She couldn’t have been dead long, though—her color was still relatively normal. With that thought, Roz swallowed her disgust and peeled back one of the woman’s eyelids.

She was met with only blackness. Just like the rest of the victims.

Seven Faceless Saints mixes magic and mystery with a bit of romantic tension. The city-state Ombrazia is a deeply segregated society. Disciples of the saints, who are able to use the magic of the saints, are at the top of the hierarchy, and everyone else, the unfavored who lack magic, are beneath the notice of the elite. Roz is a disciple, but she has never felt she belongs. She is more comfortable with her friends among the unfavored, and she is committed to ensuring greater equality. Damien does not have magic, but he is the son of a powerful general. After three years as a soldier fighting an endless war in the north, he returns to the city and is appointed head of Palazzo security. Damien and Roz were close once, but a deep betrayal has left them estranged. When a series of murders occur, first among the unfavored and then escalating to the killing of a disciple, Roz and Damien find themselves working together to find the killer. As the body count mounts and it becomes clear that these are no ordinary murders, Roz and Damien find that the only people they can trust are each other.

Seven Faceless Saints is an exhilarating read full of twists that will keep readers desperate to know what will happen next. The mystery is well-plotted, and the world of Ombrazia is detailed and intriguing. Roz and Damien are fully-drawn characters, each with their own traumas and demons that shape how they see the world and react to events. M. K. Lobb’s writing is vivid. Through the eyes of her characters, the reader comes to understand Ombrazia and its god-like saints without resorting to lengthy exposition. Seven Faceless Saints will be enjoyed by fans of mystery and fantasy alike.

Highly Recommended
Reviewer: 

Tara Stieglitz is a librarian at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.