Book Review - Leigh Bardugo's The Lives of Saints
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Imprint
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
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The Istorii Sankt'ya, The Lives of the Saints, is given to children in Ravka to learn about the saints. When Alina was given a copy by the Apparat she brushed it aside as something meant for children. Yet she soon comes to realize that this book full of short lives and brutal deaths might be the key to defeating the Darkling and that saints might be synonymous with Grisha. All the saints are enumerated here, even Alina herself. The tales told are miraculous. Some are self-sacrificing, some are misunderstandings, but each is illuminating. And each only has a small aspect of the truth. Because truth changes over time. Truth morphs and becomes something palatable. Something that can be understood versus the true magic of what was. So even if you think you know what happened, perhaps you don't know the whole truth. Sankta Lizabeta, she of the bees and the blood red roses, she who was killed for not protecting others, she might have a dark little secret that was later revealed...Sankt Juris slayed a dragon or did he? Did he and the dragon become something more? But perhaps the most surprising saint is the Starless Saint, for those who seek salvation in the dark. The Starless Saint is none other than the Darkling. Because while a villain to all logical thinking people to some he is a hero. He did just want to keep Ravka safe and make it a haven for Grisha. If he had to kill a fair amount of Grisha to accomplish his goal, his long life could perhaps excuse his lack of empathy. His lack of understanding that every single life matters not just the welfare of the greater good. But here he is, among the pages of a children's book, there to worship and build alters too, like all the rest. And who knows, in the end maybe some of them were just as misguided as the Darkling...
This companion book to Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse is obviously a bit of a cash grab. They had to produce the Istorii Sankt'ya for use on the Netflix show as it's so important to the plot and figured since they already had it made there had to be fans who would fork over good money for a copy. And they were right. Yet the whole commercial aspect of this book doesn't diminish the fact that it is a beautiful little volume that adds so much to your understanding of the universe Leigh Bardugo has created. We learn the stories of the saints who Inej named her knives after. We get to finally hold in our hand the painting of Ilya Morozova, Sankt Ilya in Chains, that fueled Alina's search for the third amplifier. And we get to see how Alina herself was immortalized in the pages of this book she clung to so feverishly. As she pointed out, all saints live brutal lives that end in death, but it's the ways in which Leigh changes her narrative for each saint that keeps the stories fresh. Sometimes we get a straightforward tale of what happened to them, and other times we get stories that are about the people who worshiped the saint and because of their devotion they were saved, hello Yuri! This second example is what Leigh does with Sankta Alina, therefore giving us a story that is new to our favorite heroine and saint. But this book is full of surprises. As Alina herself pointed out when she was researching Ilya Morozova, there are so many variations and iterations of tales out there that perhaps we've heard it before. And here there is one we have if you happened to have read The Language of Thorns. Sankta Ursula's tale is the tale of Ulla from "When Water Sang Fire" about the creation of the Broken Heart islands off the northern coast of Fjerda. This little callback was a wonderful parallel that shows how perfectly built Leigh's world is. Almost as perfectly built as the Ice Court...but that was a different saint altogether.
Ruin and Rising (The Grisha Book 3) by Leigh Bardugo
