The Six Deaths of the Saint (Into Shadow #3)
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pub Date: 15 November 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:
(5 pandas)
📖 SYNOPSIS
The Saint of War spares the life of a servant girl so she can fulfill her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior in this short story of love and loyalty by New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow.
Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story?
⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
War and everything that comes with it (blood, brutality), death of a child (briefly recounted)
*This review was first posted to Goodreads in January 2023*
TL;DR: Stories such as this make me realise that I can love short stories and novellas just as much as full-length novels because what a masterpiece! I can see why some people won’t find it enjoyable—whether it’s the POV or writing or “slow” pace—but I found myself awed by the fact that all of this is packed into a story that’s 30 pages long. Long story short, read it or at least give it a try; I highly recommend it! Also, it can definitely be read as a standalone so you can dive right in.
This book has been all over book Twitter lately and now that I’ve read it, I’ll be adding my voice to the masses too because it’s definitely for good reason! I admittedly went into this not even reading the synopsis so the first time I actually read it was when I was drafting this blog post. 😂 I would recommend going into this knowing little, even though the synopsis doesn’t give much away either, but it made the journey more surprising and personally, more enjoyable for me!
I’ve also not read anything by Harrow before this but she is truly a master of the craft because this was only 30 pages long, friends. 30 PAGES! In that short amount of time, she managed to not only create a FULL story with rich characters written with such heart, but she also managed to evoke a wide range of emotions from me. From shock, anger, sadness, pain and bittersweet joy, you can say that I very quickly became invested in The Saint of War and her character journey, love story, and personal victory that was not without much pain and loss. I can’t believe I teared up reading this but hey, I put that down to the power of this author’s storytelling abilities!
I’m genuinely amazed by how she managed to pack so much in such a small package. This was brutal and wonderful and entirely captivating! I’ll definitely pick up her earlier works this year because based on this short story alone, Harrow has the potential to become a fast new favourite and an auto-buy author for me!
Have you read The Six Deaths of the Saint or is it on your TBR?
dinipandareads 
I have read some great novellas and shorts. It can be done, but I do think it’s a challenging task for an author to do that in so few pages. I am impressed that 30 pages made this big an impression. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things comes to mind, but it was twice as long as this book
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I am definitely always a little wary and sceptical when starting short stories or novellas and have lower expectations than if I started a full-length novel. I guess the good thing about that is that I’m always so pleasantly surprised when an author does it well but I’m not overly disappointed when they don’t cos it’s definitely challenging. This author did it SO well with this one! 😍
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AGREED ON ALL FRONTS! I also didn’t really know anything before I started reading and BAM! That short story hit me like nothing else. I still love it so much and think about it frequently. I admittedly have tried to read something by Harrow before, but didn’t get into it as easily. This format suited the author really well!
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Omg, YES! Absolutely BAM! It just hit! I started reading this on the train to work thinking it would be harmless and then I found myself getting teary-eyed like, HELLO WHAT’S GOING ON??? It was so goooood 😍 I can’t wait to read more by Harrow—hopefully, her full-length novels will have the same effect on me 😂
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I’ve never read her books either but I keep seeing this one and I am so intrigued! I might just have to go buy it.
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This short story has made me so excited to read her full-length novels because if she can have me this invested in 30 pages, what is she gonna have me feeling with a whole book!? I can’t wait to find out 😍 I hope you enjoy it if you do check it out!
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I’ve got this on my kindle right now and am excited to read it, especially after your review.
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Omg, yes! I hope you enjoy it 😍 Happy reading!
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Great review!! I really want to read this now. Going into a book blind or knowing little is my favorite way to read books these days! ❤
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YES! Do it! I hope you love it if you check it out, Leslie 😍
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LOL it’s def. added to the TBR!
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I don’t read a ton of novellas or shorts, but I usually enjoy them when I do. I’ll have to check this one out!
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I haven’t heard about this before but now I seriously want to check it out 😋
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Omg, yes, please do! It’s SO good. I can’t believe this was only 30 pages and the author had me out here FULLY INVESTED! 😍 I hope you love it if you do check it out!
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Great review! I read this one because you loved it and it was so worth it! Actually, I listened to it. I loved it. I wished it was longer.
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OMG YES! I love to hear it, Deanna! 😍 I think after seeing your review for the audiobook I need to check it out myself. I definitely wished this was longer too. Such fantastic storytelling for something so short!
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DINNY THE SIX DEATHS OF THE SAINT HAS KIND OF BEEN BLOWING UP THE ENTIRE INTERNET LATELY SO OBVIOUSLY I HAVE TO READ IT?? But also your review is HUGELY CONVINCING IM SO GLAD YOU LOVED IT!!!!!
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[…] MY REVIEW […]
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