Emily A. Duncan Books In Order

Publication Order of Something Dark and Holy Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Emily A. Duncan is an NYT bestselling American novelist of young adult and fantasy stories. She is particularly popular for writing her books, Ruthless Gods and Wicked Saints. Duncan was born and brought up in Ohio. Her full-time job is in the field of the youth service library. Author Duncan obtained her Master’s degree from Kent State University in the subject of library science. During her time at the university, she learned how to find obscure texts of Slavic folklore by using the interlibrary loan systems. Most of the time, Duncan can be found writing or reading her favorite stories. In her spare time, she likes to play dungeons & dragons and online video games. Author Duncan is represented by a literary agent named Thao Le at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Today, Duncan resides in Ohio.

When she does not have anything at hand to keep herself busy, she likes to indulge in rating books on online platforms. The inspiration behind writing her first book, Wicked Saints, came from the online role-playing game called Skyrim. One evening in college, Duncan was playing the game instead of finishing her homework and got too involved in it. The game inspired her so much that she came up with the idea of developing a novel set in its neat atmosphere. Duncan says that she has always been attracted to the locations of Eastern Europe, particularly Russia. And it made sense to her when she decided to write a story about monsters and religion set in a fantasy world based on 2 countries where the two things play an important role in their folklore and culture.

Out of the characters created by her in her debut book, Duncan is able to relate mostly to Serefin. She feels that this character resembles her in many ways. Just like her, Duncan is also perpetually exhausted most of the time. And as Serefin thinks like her, Duncan found it quite easy to write about him. The other two essential characters in her novel include Nadya and Malachiasz, who also have some character traits similar to hers. Nadya is filled with complicated feelings about faith and religion, while Malachiasz has the habit of finger-picking and becomes anxious very often. Duncan feels Malachiasz and Nadya are terrible characters and she feels bad to stick them on Serefin, but seems them as a perfect fit as a trio.

Author Duncan is a big fan of young adult novels. She feels that a voice spectrum is portrayed by the YA literature that focuses on a specific time in the life of a person where lots of changes have happened. She explains that it is different in fantasy, where there are far-reaching and vast stakes. In Wicked Saints, Duncan specifically focussed on a period in an individual’s life where their worldview and faith were put into question. This period shows that they have only known things the way they have been raised and when the time changes, they face a wider world that is not quite the one they are familiar with. One of Duncan’s most favorite authors of the young adult genre is Leigh Bardugo. She is a great fan of Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy. When this came out, Duncan was going through a pivotal and weird time in her life. The series also gave her the hope to take up writing and make a career out of it. In her latest book, Duncan has described a story of dark fantasy that revolves around a girl living in a fantasy world in Eastern Europe. This girl runs away from her monastery where she was brought up after an evil prince attacks it. Later, she comes across three refugees who go on to assist the girl in bringing the holy war to an end.

Author Duncan thinks her novels are weird, incredibly cerebral, psychological, and bizarre. She considers herself an auditory and a visual person. So, she always makes a playlist of her favorite music whenever she sits down to write anything. Also, she takes to playing video games and listening to metal music when she is not writing for inspiration. Duncan does not really follow a writing method. She begins to put words on paper whenever she could think of anything and just hopes for the best. Duncan is now looking forward to writing many more exciting YA novels in the years to come and achieve more success in her career.

The popular series, Something Dark and Holy, is a gothic YA series revolving around 2 countries that are involved in a deadly holy war. It features a peasant girl in the lead girl, who is gifted with magic by holy deities. She must use the magic and overcome deadly adversaries to bring the holy war to an end and save the subjects of her kingdom. Author Duncan has described a blood-drenched, snow-frosted fairy tale involving monsters that steal hearts and love turns into a nightmare. The debut book of the series is entitled ‘Wicked Saints’. It was released in 2019 by the Wednesday Books publication. This book features the main characters in the form of a girl, a prince, and a boy.

The girl possesses the ability of speaking to the gods and is looking to save her people without bringing about her destruction. The prince’s life is in danger and is not sure who to trust and who not to. The boy has a monstrous secret. All three of them are required to come together and stop the holy war by assassinating the king. The centuries-long war undergoes an interesting turn when brutality meets beauty as the paths of three people get entwined in a world of mysterious saints and spilled blood.

The second installment of this series is called ‘Ruthless Gods’. It was published by the Macmillan publication in 2020. This book continues to feature the three main characters, Serefin, Malachiasz, and Nadya. Serefin is seen trying to fight off a voice in his mind that has been disturbing him for some time. Nadya loses her faith in her magic and is in a confused state about the path she must choose to move on in life. Malachiasz is fighting against what he has become. While dealing with their personal problems, the group gets torn apart. As their fates get intertwined, they must come up with a plan to defeat the elements controlling them and making things difficult for them.