As brilliant as it is bizarre. From the very first page you know you are in the hands of an author at the height of their abilities. Truly one of the most inventive, audacious, immersive novels Ive ever read. Grips you like the cold sweat of a fever and doesnt let you go until the final moment of dizzying, gut-shot revelation. This is the unhinged cannibal book of my dreamsand my nightmares. Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
Holy crap on a stick, this book is messed up in the best way. The Starving Saints broke my brain. Its cannibalism like youve never seen it before! T. Kingfisher, bestselling author of Nettle & Bone
The Starving Saints is a rich, strange, deeply medieval novel that left me astonished and delighted. Starling expertly dismantles our expectations in this perfectly rendered puzzle box of a world. I would follow these women anywhere, which would probably not end well for me. Kate Heartfield, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Embroidered Book
This fantastical story is transfixing on its own, but it also serves to underscore that humanitys obsession with power may be the biggest horror of all. . . . A brilliantly constructed and thoroughly unnerving fever dream that Starlings fans will gulp down. Library Journal (starred review)
"This medieval fever dream is seasoned with sapphic romance but thoroughly marinated in cannibalistic body horror. . . . Starling cleverly balances the carnage-filled surrealism with three women who show their love in ways both passionate and deep." Booklist (starred review)
"A masterful medievalesque fantasy . . . . Starling expertly balances the plots contrasting aims, offering gruesome horror and sweeping fantasy worldbuilding in equal measure. The dextrously delineated human hierarchy in the castle and the creepy saints bee-based faith system undergird the increasingly shocking events of the plot. The pace is fast, the twists are unexpected, and the complex queer characterseach of whom narrate in wonderfully distinct voicesare easy to root for. This is a feast." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Caitlin Starling is an author who seemingly refuses to be boxed into any one genre. . . As the tension increases, you, dear reader, might also feel like youre spiraling deeper into a sinister fever dream of your own. And, truly, what more could you ask for from 2025s best anti-beach read? Book Riot
Packed full of everything youve come to expect from this author: atmosphere for days, queer women being awful (complimentary), body horror, unpleasantly small spaces, and extreme acts of fealty. If Shirley Jackson had written A Game of Thrones, I like to imagine that The Starving Saints is what shed have produced. Reactor
A magnum opus level hybrid between haunted, sapphic, culty, witchy, and cannibalistic. Crime Reads
Starling is one of the new leading voices in horror, Locus
A delicious Gothic romance.... It has to walk the line between romance and horror and not flinch away from either. The Death of Jane Lawrence is up to this task. By the time the book reached that point of no return, I was so invested that I would have followed Jane into the very depths of hell. NPR