Be warned, this is a very grimdark story, there’s plenty of death, destruction and gore.

Michael R. Fletcher has done it again. Sin and Sorrow is the finale of City of Sacrifice, and what a glorious end it is.

It manages to be a satisfying conclusion, while also opening the door for possible future works, which in my book is ideal.

“When there’s no future you have nothing to lose.”

The characters are just as flawed and human as ever. While circumstances and religion force them in ever more dire situations, their decisions get harder, so even the most horrible actions do

 sound relatable in a way. Sin and Sorrow once more features a lot of psychological as well as ethical questions, and I love how you can really follow thought processes all the way through, even if you might reject the ideas yourself. This is my eyes is one of the main strengths of the author, to make you think, and look into the abyss. To show you that there’s a line between making the right decisions and turning off the path, and if faced with enough horrible obstacles and a life’s horrors the bad path might look like, or even actually be, the only path available. He manages to show the humanity even in the most heinous people, which really works its way into your brain. You can’t help but love to hate, and hate to love these characters.

So yes, I adore the dark tones, and the actual depth to the emotions and psychology, however such a bleak world also needs something to lighten up the read. So there’s quite a bit of banter and dark humour in here, and I chuckled a good few times throughout the book. These little bits really balanced out the tone of the story to make it even more addictive and kept me reading the book in just two sittings! Here’s one example that actually had me snort loud enough for my husband to look at what I’m doing.

“You’re an embarrassment to Cloud Serpent.”

“I’d rather be an embarrassment than hung from a penance tree.” She retreated a few steps, looking back the way they came.

“I’m your High Priest. I order you to stand your ground, nahualli.”

“My ground is the church I was assigned. I’ll go stand there.”

Outside of the characters, the setting and plot are also worthy of praise. It’s a rather complex world – or rather city – with many gods, ranks, magics on top of the different rings in the city. I openly confess I didn’t try to remember even half of the names for herbs, and stones, and only the most important god’s names, but I never got lost in the story anyway. I was a bit daunted delving back in after the long break between books, but I needn’t have worried, I was back on the world and caught up on the story within the first few chapters. There’s a lot of info in here, yet somehow – black magic perhaps? – Fletcher manages to have me crave that info, instead of making it feel like info dumps.

The plot does take a few nice twists and turns, so it never felt predictable to me, while still feeling smooth. Like a river that throws you around while it cuts through the land, but fits its surroundings, rather than like an artificial floodgate that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Like in the last few books, if you read closely you might also find some small, and some bigger, easter eggs that might just link this world to other worlds the author has created, which added yet another layer of appreciation for me. I really want to know if and how there are connections, which makes me already paw the ground in anticipation for more…