Saint Death’s Daughter – C. S. E. Cooney

Lanie’s family has served as the right hands of the ruling family of Liriat since its founding, and have always had a relationship with Doedanna, the goddess of death. They were usually necromancers, but Lanie is the first necromancer born in a century – her parents were the chief assassin, and chief executioner. Where this gets interesting is most young necromancers are allergic to violence, so Lanie has to be raised by the family’s revenant, since being near her parents, or her very nasty older sister Nita, opens up wounds.

This is an interesting book. There’s a lot of death involved, but the relationship to death is very interestingly explored. Lanie has a joyful relationship with the dead that she raises, contrary to the relationship the killers in the rest of her family do. And they are all pieces of work. I’d say this book is not for the faint of heart – there are some very adult themes explored, and plenty of violence along the way. The world building is super interesting – I will read more in this series, just to see where things go.