Let go of your vengeance, or it will curse us all.
Kingdom of the Wicked
by Kerri Maniscalco
Genre: YA Fantasy
About: When Emilia's twin sister is found murdered with her heart ripped out her chest, there's nothing she won't do to get her vengeance. Even if it means summoning one of the princes of Hell. But the demon she summons has his own agenda and, as more witches die, curses and prophecies start to pull Emilia further down on the way to Hell...
The Good
I really loved the setting of this novel. The Sicilian marketplace with its gossips, the restaurant with that good Italian cooking and the monastery with its secrets - the atmosphere of the place was everywhere and I loved that. I also thought the story itself was interesting. The way it started was very gripping, giving us great lore on witchcraft, devilry and creating a murder mystery with sisterhood at its core. That was all great.
Oh and I loved Claudia's trance state. That was so eerie and effective.
The Bad
But I didn't like the writing, the characters or the plot 'twists'. Being in Emilia's POV was frustrating and often detached me from the story. She very rarely sounded like a grieving sister; most of the time she was trying to impress Wrath or having some sassy banter with him, the whole tone was way too light-hearted given the trauma of discovering her sister dead and mutilated. Even when she went back to the scene of the crime, the focus of that section was how she felt about Wrath and Antonio - she was making jokes like 'don't get your underthings in a twist' in the very chamber her sister was murdered.
I also hated being told Emilia's action plan. She was constantly telling the reader what she had to do next or why she was doing something. Give the reader credit that they'll understand her motivations and goals.
And Wrath wasn't a great love interest. He's a Prince of Hell but for most of the book his actions were all good. There was nothing sinister or otherworldly about him. He was so easily impressed by Emilia and didn't read like a demon at all. I would have preferred him to have been introduced as a human and then have a plot twist of him being one of the Princes at the end.
The Somewhat Iffy
Her investigative work was laughable. She's obsessed with witch hunters being responsible for the first third of the book without showing the reader a single witch hunter or any clues that pointed to them, she asked around about the dagger off page, and she didn't think to question the boy dating her sister, or any of the monks (since the monastery was where her sister was found). She just stumbled across her sister's hidden things and that was really the extent of her 'search for justice'.
Also I couldn't believe the solution of unlocking the diary was a few drops of blood. That spell was set up to be really dark magic so difficult to break.
Her parents may as well have been dead for the impact they had on either of their daughters or the story.
Overall
Great setup and setting but the writing and characters let it down. We're told too much and the tone really doesn't match with the events.
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