The fifth order is taking over the land and banishing everyone they consider a “heretic” to compliance camps. There are a band of rebels trying to stop them and this is who we follow.
This story has a nice blend of historical, horror and fantasy genres and pretty much everything you could want in a story.
The writing is so absorbing you feel like you can smell the places the rebels are hiding out in.
Normally when I’ve had to stop reading a book and then pick it back up again it takes me a minute to get back into it, remember what’s happening etc. it didn’t happen with this book. The second I started reading I was dragged back into their world without abandon and didn’t want to leave.
The physical description of the crimson fathers was my favourite part of the whole story. So gory and so great.
That’s not to say the writing is only gross, some of the humour was fantastic. My favourite being, ‘He yelled and cursed like a eunuch in a whorehouse on half price night.’
The story culminates in an ending that is satisfying but also sets everything up for the third instalment.