I was really excited to start Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco once I had seen its cover. Okay, truthfully, I hadn’t read the summary and thought it was going to be a pirate book, so chapter one came as a bit of a surprise. Nevertheless, I could really feel the potential radiating of the pages.

Update: my series review is now available as well!

Warning: This review contains spoilers!

The Seven Circles of Hell

Kingdom of the Wicked tells the story of two twin sisters with magical powers, Emilia and Vittoria. As of an early age, they are taught to stay away of anything connected to black magic by their grandmother, out of fear that they might draw the attention of “The wicked”. The wicked are the seven princes of hell, representing the seven deadly sins of Christianity: Pride – Wrath – Gluttony – Envy – Greed – Lust – Sloth. Each has their own Royal House in Hell.

“There are seven demon princes, but only four di Carlos should fear: Wrath, Greed, Envy, and Pride. One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life.”

When Vittoria is brutally murdered, Emilia sets out on a quests for vengeance that brings her into contact with Prince Wrath, who is on a mission of his own. Can she trust him to combine forces to solve the murder? Or is he as devious as her grandmother always said he was?

Kingdom of the Wicked

I quite liked the idea of hellish nobility with their own concepts of politeness and social rules etc. Give me a dashing devil any time of the week 😉 And the book definitely succeeded to capture my interest as of the beginning. I liked the sense of foreboding. For example, the first X chapters all end with a dark premonition that keeps you wanting to read on.

However, I sometimes felt confused by the story (and so did the author, she famously confused which sister was murdered on page 50). I thought you had the seven princes and they answered to the king, but the king is actually one of the seven? Did I understand that correctly? Emilia’s confusion doesn’t really help the reader either. She constantly switches ideas and beliefs and comes across as an unreliable narrator, but I’m not convinced that was actually what the author was going for. All in all, I’m not convinced by the writing style.

I did appreciate the excerpts of grimoires, diaries and documents however. In my edition (the Premiere Collectables edition), they were rendered as images of pages and it really broke the text a bit, which is always nice. The only one that disappointed me was an example of a contract to sell your soul. Really. It looked like something I would have written when I was 12 to get out of PE the next day. Like I said, I love the idea of excerpts, but they need to look the part.

Or not so wicked

I also quite liked the focus on kitchen witchcraft. I agree with some reviewers that the focus on food is maybe a bit over the top, but it’s refreshing to encounter this type of witchcraft in a novel. It’s not one you would typically be introduced to unless you are reading non-fiction witch books. Kerri Maniscalco clearly did her homework, because the spells she mentions made quite a lot of sense.

What I don’t understand though is how badly the grandmother prepared the two sisters. Emilia literally seems to be learning everything on the fly. I get not wanting your granddaughters to meddle in dark magic, but really, a bit more info would have come in quite handy. This also contributes to the confusion the story causes. Emilia believe X, then is proven Y and hop, we start again. It felt a bit like the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (you know, True Blood). Interesting, but do we really need so many new types of creatures to be introduced as the story progresses? Suddenly there are vampires, werewolves…It starts to feel as too much icing to hide that the cake was a bit burned…

“My true name doesn’t concern you. Address me by my House title. Unless you’d like to call me His Royal Highness of Undeniable Desire. That’s always an acceptable option. If you want to bow, I wouldn’t mind that either. A little groveling goes a long way. I may grant you a boon and make your death swift.”

Sexy dark princes, who doesn’t love them? And especially if they start saying things like the quotation above. Wrath reminded me of a more self-confident and demonic version of Nasir from We Hunt the Flame (Hafsah Faizal). But to be honest, he just couldn’t capture my attention for very long. He’s really not as devilish as you would expect. And the passion between him and Emilia didn’t feel believable to me. But maybe that’s also due to the fact that I really did not appreciate Emilia.

All in all, I wasn’t convinced, but the story clearly shows potential so I think I will eventually read part two, Kingdom of the Cursed after all. Attention! This second book will be published on October, 5th! I give this first part three out of five gemstones:

Age Category: Young Adult, suitable for 14+

Trigger Warnings (click here, may contain spoilers)

Warnings for death of a sister and violence. And for each of the Seven Sins, of course.

Do you want to discover more?

If my review inspired you to pick up the book, don’t hesitate to check it out at Goodreads or at the below online stores. If you decide to buy it via one of the following links, I will receive a small percentage at no extra charge for you!

Amazon.nl: Hardcover edition

Amazon.nl: Paperback edition

Similar to this

I have to say I find it rather difficult to recommend similar books, which is either a point in favour for Kingdom of the Wicked or a good excuse to go to the bookstore.

As I mentioned, I got a bit of a Sookie Stackhouse vibe, so in case you haven’t read the Southern Vampire Mysteries series by  Charlaine Harris, I would recommend you to check it out. Also known as the Sookie Stackhouse Series or True Blood, this series follows a young girl from Bon Temps in a world that is getting used to the presence of Vampires. This book series is suitable for a wide audience (I read them when I was about 16 and my grandmother read them when she was close to her 70s already).

Prince Wrath also somewhat reminded me of the Prince of Death in We Hunt the flame by Hafsah Faizal. I was OBSESSED with this duology for so long. It tells the story of a huntress and an assassin prince and is set in a magical, Arabian inspired setting. My full review can be found here!

And finally, if you are into wickedly handsome devils, check out Lucifer on Netflix. If only Wrath would have had half of his charm…