This was a fun read as someone who enjoys the Grishaverse and wanted more background on the world building. It’s interesting to read about different saints, both those you have seen/learned about in the novels as well as others that are new to the reader. Not necessary by any means, but a beautiful collection of short stories for the Grishaverse fan.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes. Were the illustrations beautiful? Yes. Were the stories haunting and sometimes gruesome, in true Bargdugo fashion? Of course. Was this book worth $26? Absolutely NOT.

They sold it to me because I am an obsessive Grishaverse fan, an easy mark, a true pigeon (and also, it was a gift). But there are 27 Saints in here, and they each have a full page illustration, and many of the chapters are separated by a fake gilded page so that the illustration is on the left-hand side. So of the 121 pages, maybe 80 of those pages contain writing? I mean, add it to your collection if you must, but try to wait and see if they release it in paperback or something.

I love collections of fairytales connected to a fictional fantasy world.
The Lives of Saints is exactly that but it also includes beautiful illustrations throughout.
This is a book that would be nice and spooky to listen to as read by someone else in a small wooden cabin in the middle of the woods. It achieves the spooky-fairytale vibe pretty well!

However, many of the fairytales are <i> very </i> short and they end all of a sudden. I felt that most stories needed more work to make them intriguing to their full potential. We are given very little time to get know to any of the saints and then it's difficult to be strongly affected when awful things happen.

Let's talk about the awful things. This book has a bunch of <b> trigger warnings: </b> violence, gore, bullying, starvation, mutilation, death, drowning, self-harm inc cutting. And probably other things too!
The Lives of Saints is supposed to be a children's book in the Grisha universe and I don't really see that here. Most of the stories very almost comically violent with all the awful things happening to everyone. I felt like the violence was forced in to make sure that the reader understands how rough it is to grow up in the Grisha universe with all these death-filled children's tales etc etc. It was a bit too much and the violence didn't add much to the fairytales, I started to expect that everyone will die by the end.