Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco Series: Kingdom of the Wicked #1
Published by Jimmy Patterson on October 27, 2020
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Wizards & Witches
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780316428446Two sisters.
One brutal murder.
A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself...
And an intoxicating romance.
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden. Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia's side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems...
I remember the day I was browsing the bookstore and came across Stalking Jack the Ripper. It was a recently released book—had been out for a week, maybe two—but I had never heard of it. I’m obsessed with the Jack the Ripper murders, as basic as it is to say, it’s the case that really pulled me into true crime. A book about a young woman who wants to follow her uncle’s footsteps into forensic medicine and soon starts investigating the Whitechapel murders. I was hooked immediately and Kerri Maniscalco became one of my auto-buy authors.
Which leaves me in the uncomfortable position to say, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as her previous ones. I’m still going to finish the Kingdom of the Wicked series and continue to support her. However, I didn’t finish Kingdom of the Wicked with a burning need to tell everyone and their dog to read it.
To start off, the story, the atmosphere, the setting all of the background and world building aspects was delicious. Maniscalco definitely knows how to write a dark academia, gothic book that I feel like I’m in Italy, walking alongside Emilia. I also especially loved how she explores this theme of grief and the fact that it’s not a linear line, Emilia goes through many stages of grief and revisits some too. Along with the fact that each person grieves differently. There’s no right way to grieve, especially when it comes to a violent death like murder. Some go the path of remembrance and forgiveness, and some go the path of anger and vengeance. As someone who has immersed herself in true crime (and periodically wonders if she even should), the gamut of how people grieve when a loved one is murder is as varied as there are people in the world.
With Emilia going down this path of anger and vengeance, swearing to find who killed her sister, I was here for it. I love angry female characters and definitely think we need more of them. I also love female characters who are bad or wrong or villains, as I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. But as the novel went on, I was a bit disappointed by Emilia’s character. She was truly just annoying by the end, and I didn’t care what happened to her. In terms of plot, most of the novel felt like things were happening to her instead of her having any actual agency (besides summoning Wrath, I guess but again she did that once someone murdered her sister).
Speaking of Wrath, I want to be besties with him. Is that bad to say? Well, if it is, I don’t care. I love Wrath’s “I hate everyone and everything” attitude and cannot wait to see what happens. He was the one, maybe even the only character, who felt fully fleshed out. Unlike Emilia, who’s entire personality is she loves to cook food, she’s a witch, and her sister is murdered. Wrath is more of a mysterious and complex character who you never really know what he’s going to do.
While the atmosphere and setting were all amazing, the plot itself could have gone through a few more edits. The beginning was engaging and page-turning, I kept wanting to read to figure out how they were going to get to the end. (Sidenote: I did figure out the mystery early on who killed Vittoria). The middle of the book was slow and was more of a set-up for the next novel with introducing all the different princes. It was a bit tiring after a while going through the rigamarole of each prince’s introduction. The last 100 pages I both flew and slogged through them. It was exciting and heart-pounding while at the same time, felt like I was never going to finish the book and each confrontation felt like this is where it would end (even though I knew there were more chapters). The pacing and concluding actions became too convoluted to be engaging or memorable. I know I keep saying this but again, by the time I finished most of the novel felt like filler for the next in the series.
Again, I love Kerri Maniscalco as a writer, and I’m going to continue buying her books. I’m excited to see what will happen in Kingdom of the Cursed and if Emilia will be able to survive in the court of the Wicked.
The premise is definitely eye-opening. I don’t read much urban fantasy, though I did start the Dresden Files series last year.