The magic is tied into race and race is very much explored here, the difference between the way light skinned and dark skinned people are treated, how hair and speech affect the way Pea is seen and heard, there’s segregation in hospitals and restaurants and neighborhoods and the prejudice that Pea and Dev experience in their quest for a quiet small town life. While it didn’t bother me that the magic often takes a backseat to other aspects of the story, it should be noted for those readers expecting more of a fantasy novel, there are elements of fantasy but this doesn’t entirely fall into that category.

This novel lost a little something for me when it stepped away from Pea’s point of view, had it stuck with her until closer to the end this may have been five stars, as it is, it’s still a memorable read with an ending that packs an emotional punch.Blessed or perhaps cursed with magic hands that make her an elite assassin, Pea spent years believing that the hits she did for a mafia kingpin had honor in them, that she had only killed those truly deserving of it, but as the book unfolds she learns that everything wasn’t as it seemed. Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel-a magical love story, a compelling exposure of racial fault lines-and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga.Īt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late-is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice? Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side-and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. Ten years later, Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything-not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams.

The dangerous magic of The Night Circus meets the powerful historical exploration of The Underground Railroad in Alaya Dawn Johnson's timely and unsettling novel, set against the darkly glamorous backdrop of New York City, where an assassin falls in love and tries to change her fate at the dawn of World War II.Īmid the whir of city life, a young woman from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear among its most dangerous denizens.

Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Season “Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story.in a word: awesome.” -N.K.

Trouble the saints