20 upcoming YA books we can’t wait to read in 2020
By Lacy Baugher
A year ago today, ARCs for @glitzandshadows’s WICKED SAINTS arrived, so of course we had to take out RUTHLESS GODS to celebrate! Don't forget to order your copy ASAP because holy monsters is this sequel amazing. 🖤https://t.co/6VcQzvQuPZ pic.twitter.com/e19BiAPBDc
— Wednesday Books (@WednesdayBooks) November 21, 2019
Ruthless Gods – Emily A. Duncan
Emily A. Duncan’s Wicked Saints was one of the most original – and successful – YA novels of 2018, combining lush world-building, complicated anti-heroes, and a relentlessly dark, dark story. (All of those things are compliments, by the way. This series is metal as heck.)
Sequel Ruthless Gods aims to turn the stakes in that tale up to 11. Nayda, Serefin and Malachiasz find themselves struggling to deal with the fallout from the first novel. Nayda doesn’t trust her magic anymore. She can no longer hear the gods she spent her life serving, and fears she has been cast out. Serefin is the one now hearing voices in his head and Malachiasz is busy battling his own inner nature – which at the moment is a lot more monster than man.
Where can any of them possibly go from here?
The official synopsis certainly makes it sound as though dark doesn’t even begin to describe this story.
"Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become. As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer."
Ruthless Gods is available April 7.