Name: Julie Rubens's review of The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo
Item: The Lives of Saints
Rating: 4
Author: Julie Rubens

Leigh Bardugo

Enter the world of the Grishaverse and Shadow and Bone, soon to be a Netflix original series! 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-colour illustrations of each story. Read all the books in the Grishaverse! The Shadow and Bone Trilogy Shadow and Bone Siege and Storm Ruin and Rising The Six of Crows Duology Six of Crows Crooked Kingdom The King of Scars Duology King of Scars The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic Praise for the Grishaverse "A master of fantasy." -The Huffington Post "Utterly, extremely bewitching." -The Guardian "The best magic universe since Harry Potter." -Bustle "This is what fantasy is for." -The New York Times Book Review "[A] world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp." -NPR "The darker it gets for the good guys, the better." -Entertainment Weekly "Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down." -USA Today "There's a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo's original epic fantasy that sets it apart." -Vanity Fair "Unlike anything I've ever read." -Veronica Roth, bestselling author of Divergent "Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery!" -Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series

The Lives of Saints

Enter the world of the Grishaverse and Shadow and Bone, soon to be a Netflix original series! 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. An Imprint Book. Read all the books in the Grishaverse! The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (previously published as The Grisha Trilogy) Shadow and Bone Siege and Storm Ruin and Rising The Six of Crows Duology Six of Crows Crooked Kingdom The King of Scars Duology King of Scars The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic Praise for the Grishaverse “A master of fantasy.” —The Huffington Post “Utterly, extremely bewitching.” —The Guardian “The best magic universe since Harry Potter.” —Bustle “This is what fantasy is for.” —The New York Times Book Review “[A] world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp.” —NPR “The darker it gets for the good guys, the better.” —Entertainment Weekly “Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down.” —USA Today “There’s a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo’s original epic fantasy that sets it apart.” —Vanity Fair “Unlike anything I’ve ever read.” —Veronica Roth, bestselling author of Divergent “Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery!” —Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series

Chiara 

"Erase my name. Indelible is a word for stories."

Samantha

Julie Rubens

Such a nice and simple book, the illustrations were absolutely beautiful!!

As always Leigh Bardugo does not disappoint. Another beautifully written book with short stories and illustrations for each one of them

June

Nessa Luna

Oh, the artwork in this book is beautiful I couldn't stop looking at the images! The stories were amazing too and I enjoyed reading each and every one of them! Also, this book will make an amazing cosplay prop for when I finally get off my ass and start making my Alina cosplay... XD

Jantien 

The Grisha books really weren’t my thing and this isn’t either. The book and drawings are beautiful though (illumicrate edition).

Courtney

Anna

Étant une fan incontestée de l’univers Grisha, j’étais obligé de me procurer ce livre pour le lire. Un recueil de légende sur tous les Saints et Saintes de l’univers, c’est vraiment quelque chose à ne pas louper en tant que fan.

C’est juste un recueil, avec différentes histoires courtes, mais c’est super intéressant d’avoir des petites histoires présentées comme ça, hors contexte des livres officiels. Ça permet vraiment de plonger encore plus dans l’univers, de voir d’autres aspects du monde et de profiter encore plus de l’univers Grisha.

Bref, c’est vraiment un livre à avoir en tant que fan du Grishaverse. C’est collector et magnifique !

riven

Good companion book for the rest of the series in the Grishaverse! Recommend reading after the three main series.

(Bre)anne✨

While I liked some of stories, some didn't make any sense to me. I know this book was supposed to be structured like a children's book but it wasn't really good at emulating it.
Audiobook version however had a big plus of male saints stories narrated by Ben Barnes! And "Starless Saint" explains why Yuri was so devoted to Darkling.
It's a short read and nice addition to Grishaverse.

Ella Neeman 

cheyenne 

I’ll always be biased towards anytbing grisha but I did enjoy this. I liked how short the stories were. They didn’t drag on forever but got their point across. It was the perfect amount of length for my attention span right now. The illustrations were also very beautiful! There were a few stories I didn’t care for but the majority I loved. Also it was so nice seeing Alina mentioned! 🥺🥺🥺🥺 I love her.

4.5 stars

favorite stories of the saints ✨

° Sankta Anastasia
° Sankta Vasilka
° Sankta Lizabeta of the Roses
° Sankt Vladimir the Foolish
° Sankt Valentin
° Sankt Lukin the Logical (Most hilarious story for me)
° Sankt Ilya in Chains
° Sankt Dimitri (Creepiest story for me)
- The Starless Saint

Celeste Richardson

I received an audio copy of this book from the publisher, Macmillan Audio, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
“I was never truly awake until I began to dream of other worlds.”
The Lives of Saints is a fascinating collection of short stories about, well, the lives of saints, that I’m sure will add greatly to the world building of Bardugo’s Grishaverse. Incredibly reminiscent of books about the lives of Catholic saints, but with more of a fairytale feel, I found the collection charming.  I loved the combination of religious and fantastical. The stories are formulaic in the best sense of the word. A collection like this in the real world is supposed to be for spiritual edification first and entertainment second, so I can only assume that’s the feel that Bardugo was going for. However, these were far from dry, and were without a doubt entertaining. 

The saints presented in the collection were wonderfully varied, though most of the tales adhered to one common trope or another. There were pious youths who find themselves persecuted, superstitious citizens who killed what they didn’t understand, cowards who took their blessings so much for granted that they refused to protect them, and greedy nobles who insisted on draining a gift completely dry. The inclusion of these tropes imbued the collection with a timeless quality that reminded me of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Even the cover art hearkens back to Butler’s Lives of the Saints.

Honestly, I haven’t read most of the Grishaverse books. My sister-in-law has read them all and loves them. The only one I’ve read is Six of Crows, which I enjoyed. But, while I have yet to return to Bardugo’s world, it has always been my intention. I thought this audiobook would be a perfect way to dip my toe back into the Grisha waters, so to speak. 

The Lives of Saints is a book that features in the main series, and I love when authors pull out fictional things like this from their world building and make them real.  At 128 pages in physical and a little over 2 hours in audio, it’s a very fast read. The audio version is narrated by Lauren Fortgang and Ben Barnes. BEN BARNES. I usually try to always read things in publication order, but BEN BARNES, Y’ALL. Both narrators did an impeccable job conveying these short stories.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the audio, I was very glad to have a digital copy on my phone because the illustrations were gorgeous. There’s something about being read to while also reading the words yourself that reminds me of fairy tales from my childhood, which did nothing but improve my experience with this book. I have no doubt that The Lives of Saints will be a 5 star read for those who are already enraptured with the Grishaverse.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.

Caroline Boone

the illustrations included to each story are gorgeous - the whole book would be a lovely edition to any collection, whether that of a fan or of a casual reader who likes to collect beautiful editions (see: me).

however, i did not find the stories particularly inspiring - rather short snippets that could not fit within the language of thorns and could be neatly separated since the lives of saints exists within the universe of the series.

for what is worth, i must admit that overall my impression of bardugo's work, where inspired by orthodox christianity / eastern europe, has been influenced by my own lived experience. i mean this in the negative since it somehow manages to feels distinctly like the point of view of an outsider who is just not familiar with the culture. i feel like this has greatly impacted my enjoyment of the grisha series in general (which is why the series excel where they limit how much they borrow from russia / eastern europe) but i still think this companion in particular is an okay, quick read.

Nimet Akiturkmen

This was a cute addition to the grishaverse books. Read this book w the audiobook (having ben barnes read to you is the best thing ever). I honestly just bought this because i wanted my grishaverse collection complete haha. It was cute, the book and it's illustrations are absolutely gorgeous!! Dont necessarily think it's good but definitely recommend it if you love the grishaverse books! :)

mary

4⭐️
io di leigh bardugo leggerei anche la lista della spesa. e so che amerei anche quella

Sophie 

Loved it ! Perfect for people who want to learn about the Grishaverse and their saints!
My favourite stories - Saint Alina (obviously) & Saint Mattheus <3

Elizabeth Neill

I loved this book and the narrators, they brought the saints to life. Now I really need to read more of the Grishaverse and finish the first series. I love the world Leigh Bardugo and you can almost feel that it is a realy place with all the love she has put into it. I would 100% recommend it for anyone who is a fan of the Grishaverse and anyone who loves to see worlds come alive.

Laura

aleksander and ulla morozova being the starless saint and ursula of the waves we love a power sibling duo

Alexa Jade

cover: basic
stories: amazing
art: out of this world

Sahi K

I was pretty excited when I saw the announcement for this book and I would have loved to have it in my collection but unfortunately, I can’t afford it right now so I had to settle for reading the ebook from my library. 

After listening to a glimpse of the Shadow and Bone tv show’s score yesterday, I was feeling a little nostalgic, so it was nice to be back in the Grishaverse. The stories of the Saints in this book are just little incidents of their miracles in life and while they were interesting to read, I don’t think I would remember most of them. It was still a joy when familiar names of places or characters showed up. But as with many dark fairytales, most of these stories end in brutal ways for the Saints despite their benevolence because it’s human nature to misunderstand people and their good actions while they are alive, but revere the same ones after they are dead. So, this did end up being sad and bittersweet on many occasions. However, the illustrations for each of the Saints are beautiful and I’m sure they’ll look even lovelier in person. Hopefully I’ll get to buy it someday soon.

Overall, this book is perfect for you if you are missing the Grishaverse and want to delve into it again, and have a little time to indulge. Here’s hoping it’ll satisfy me till we atleast get the trailer of the show.

Samantha &
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo

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