Today, Fanfiaddict is back with our second finalist review. This time we’re taking on Carrion Saints, a sapphic fantasy romance from Hiyodori.
Let’s see what the judges had to say!
Michael Vadney: Carrion Saints is built on a premise unlike anything I’ve encountered in fantasy. A sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance between an immortal saint and a severed head, set in a post-apocalyptic world where the apocalypse happened so long ago that civilization has quietly rebuilt in its shadow. The world is dying, but slowly, and the immortals who inhabit it have nothing but time. That concept alone is worth the price of admission. The worldbuilding is genuinely fascinating and easily the book’s greatest strength. The opening chapter does an excellent job of establishing the landscape, introducing both immediate and long-term conflict in a way that hooks you right away. The distinction between saints and monsters, two kinds of the same species differentiated only by how they sustain their longevity, is a clever and compelling piece of lore. As the story unfolds, the factions, the races, and the geography of this dying world continue to deepen in ways that kept me curious. It’s a unique setting, not something you typically see in fantasy, and Hiyodori clearly put a lot of thought into it. Crow and Magnolia are both interesting characters conceptually. Crow carries strong Frieren energy: an ancient, powerful being with an immortal’s perspective on time and relationships, full of history that surfaces in retrospective moments throughout the story. Magnolia is her opposite in nearly every way, talkative, sadistic, and utterly unrepentant. As individual creations they’re intriguing to spend time with.
Where the book challenged me was in the logic connecting these two characters together. The relationship between Crow and Magnolia is meant to be the story’s emotional core, and I found myself wanting a stronger justification for why these two would grow to care for each other. The story seeds the attraction but the reasoning felt thin to me, and since that relationship is carrying so much of the narrative weight, I needed more to fully buy in. There are also moments where Crow’s decisions, particularly around opportunities to free herself, left me struggling to follow her reasoning. The pacing has a contemplative, wandering quality that suits the premise of immortals with endless time but can feel like the story is drifting without clear purpose. The Frieren comparison cuts both ways: there are fascinating concepts and quiet moments of beauty, but there are stretches where I found myself wondering where things were headed. The prose is clean and stays out of its own way, letting the world and the characters do the work. Carrion Saints is a story brimming with great concepts and genuinely unique ideas. The worldbuilding alone makes it worth exploring, and readers who connect with the central relationship will find a slow-burn romance in a setting that feels like nothing else on the shelf. It’s an ambitious, unconventional book, and I respect what Hiyodori is reaching for here.
Will Swardstrom: Carrion Saints by Hiyodori is a book that was clearly not for me. I was on board for about the first five percent of it. After that — there wasn’t much I cared for. The writing was fine and I actually do enjoy a lot of dialogue in my writing, but I didn’t enjoy much of what I actually read.
First…the book circumvents expectations with how it’s plotted. That’s not always a bad thing, but it really came across poorly to me in this case. What I mean here is that in books there’s an action-packed scene early on that sets up our main character. Shows what they can do, both in term of their physical powers and psychological foundation. For a Jack Reacher book we might see him absolutely house and entire bar fight all by himself, taking on a dozen rednecks in the middle of Alabama and leaving half of them with concussions and the other half with broken limbs. It sets up the character and lets us know what they can do. In Carrion Saints, our opening scene becomes the entire book. We are told that Crow (our main character) is this eternal monster hunter who is tracking down one last kill. But we never actually get to see her actually use her power. In the very first time we see her go into battle, she’s easily defeated by words. I kept waiting for her to outsmart this introductory opponent, but that doesn’t happen.
And, while that was my first problem, ultimately the book just got icky for me.
In the end, I couldn’t get past the relationship between Crow and Magnolia. On page 1, Crow was going to kill Magnolia, but once they meet, Magnolia can suddenly mentally control Crow’s actions. From there, as the book moved from enemies-to-lovers, it just felt wrong. If Magnolia can control everything Crow does, how does Crow end up with any autonomy of her own? At one point, Crow manages to throw Magnolia beyond earshot, but the narrative holds that Magnolia can still instill commands from a distance. The Stockholm Syndrome and the toxicity of their relationship feels weird to me and I struggled to continue.
There was a spot about a third into the book where the two are separated at Crow does have a moment to showcase her abilities — I tried to give the book more leeway for a while after that, but since Crow didn’t have any control over herself, every chapter felt like an extended villain monologue.
I’ll give the book some marks for creativity and for the prose, but I cant recommend this book.
Dave Lawson: This is a difficult review to write. Carrion Saints by Hiyodori Is an incredibly well written book with genuinely cool world building. However, beyond that I found this book to be a slog. The characters are unlikable, their decisions make little sense, and they have the same conversations over and over again. You can see the talent of the author, But this book needed much more in the way of plot, stakes and genuine character interactions. I can’t recommend this book, and have a feeling Hiyodori as an author is not for me.
Isabelle Wagner: I was very curious about Carrion Saint as soon as I saw it was entered into SPFBO and was excited that it being a finalist forced it to the top of my TBR. But while some things worked really well for me, others did not. The book has been called marmite and I can see why, but I wasn’t expecting for my own reactions to fit that same description the whole time I was reading! The world building was awesome. I loved learning about all the details, and the traveling and Magnolia’s lack of personal experience with the wider world lent themselves to some great exposition. Hiyodori’s writing style is a great fit for me as well. I loved the descriptive language and the flow of the words. I don’t always picture stories easily in my mind, but I had no issue with that this time. I did find myself thinking a couple of times though that it was trying to be really profound and that I’m not sure whether it really was or if I was just not understanding its whole depth. (I could see this having a lot of rereading potential though for that specifically.) Carrion Crow and Magnolia were interesting characters. Both had strengths and weaknesses that fit them well, and it was neat to see how they used those in various ways (often against each other). I enjoyed their dynamic most of the time, but I really struggled with the romantic feelings they developed.
I’m a dark romance reader. I see plenty of relationships that develop despite the craziest circumstances. But I said from the beginning that this book had a lot of work ahead if it wanted me to find a romance between those two believable or enjoyable. I think I would’ve worried about it less throughout if I hadn’t know that would be happening, but since “A Sapphic Fantasy Romance” is part of its title, it was there as a reminder every time I clicked into or out of the book on my kindle. “Dung snuffled loudly, as if he found them both ridiculous.” I can’t say I disagreed when it came to Carrion Crow’s decision making. The whole book was from her POV and I really liked seeing her thought processes for a lot of things. But the contrast between her usual depths of thought and her reasoning for keeping Magnolia alive was quite stark. Every excuse for it felt really flimsy until she developed a stronger romantic attachment. It was fun that it was actually enemies to lovers though, not a trope label stuck on a couple that could hardly even be considered rivals. That was great—though they would’ve never gotten to that part if Crow had been a bit more rational! I also appreciated that their… personal meetings didn’t go against the no-romance interest for monsters and saints that was established before. They realized their attachment was unusual, but they expressed their interest in a way that felt fitting for their natures. So overall, I obviously had some very mixed feelings about the different aspects of this book. I can easily say though that I’m more than happy to try more stories from this author. Writing style is very important to me and Hiyodori seems to have the kind of creativity that could draw me in again and again.
With that, our score for Carrion Saints is a 5.
We’ll be back next month with more finalist reviews!
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