Caitlin Starling’s The Starving Saints (2025) is a historical fantasy from the award-winning author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence. Starling is known for her atmospheric and psychologically tense books, with previous novels winning the Locus and Bram Stoker Awards. Set within a castle that has been under siege for six months, The Starving Saints follows three women as their society collapses under the pressure of imminent starvation. The novel uses the claustrophobic setting of a siege to create a high-pressure environment where social and moral boundaries disintegrate. As the castle’s inhabitants descend into chaos, the narrative explores themes including The Perversion of Duty and Loyalty, The Value of Agency and Core Identity, and Unquestioning Faith Rendering Individuals Vulnerable to Exploitation. In her acknowledgements, Starling notes that she wrote the first draft in late 2020 during a period of lockdown and isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This guide refers to the 2025 Harper Voyager first edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, illness, death, and animal death.

Plot Summary

The novel unfolds in a fantasy setting that combines aspects of a medieval kingdom with magical elements. Within the world of the novel, the dominant religious tradition involves the worship of a female deity named the Constant Lady (she is often depicted alongside several saints). The plot begins in Aymar Castle, where nearly 1,000 people are held captive due to a siege; the neighboring nation of Etrebia intends to starve them into surrender and submission. Residents of the castle include King Cardimir, his main military commander Ser Leodegardis, the Prioress Jacynde (head of the Priory, a religious order comprised of female devotees similar to nuns) and Ser Voyne, a female knight who is a former war hero and now head of the king’s guard. 

Phosyne, another resident of the castle, was once part of Prioress Jacynde’s order, but rejected canonical religion to pursue magic and alchemy, leading her to be branded a heretic, “madwoman,” and potential witch. She previously saved the castle by purifying a contaminated water source and King Cardimir now hopes she will be able to magically create food (prolonging survival during the siege). However, Phosyne struggles with this task and Cardimir charges Voyne with supervising her in hopes of speeding up the process, as food supplies are dwindling. 

Elsewhere in the castle, a woman named Treila secretly plots to enact revenge on Voyne. Treila was once a noblewoman; five years earlier, after a notable military victory at Carcabonne, Voyne spent months at Treila’s family home and the two became close. However, Treila’s father was accused by the king of sending supplies to enemy forces (an act of treason) and Voyne executed him. Treila was stripped of her rank and wealth and forced to flee with nothing; she is presumed dead but has made her way to Aymar Castle and lurks there, seeking an opportunity to avenge her father and punish Voyne for her betrayal. 

A bombardment attack from Etrebian forces leads the inhabitants of the castle to use nearly all iron objects to fashion weapons for self-defense. A short time later, four strangers mysteriously appear inside the castle, and no one can explain how they entered. The four strangers resemble depictions of the Constant Lady and Her three attendant saints (the Loving Saint, the Warding Saint, and the Absolving Saint). Some individuals within the castle, including King Cardimir and Ser Voyne, embrace the arrival of the strangers as a miracle and a potential source of salvation, especially when food magically begins appearing. Others, including Phosyne and the Prioress, view them with suspicion and fear, since the strangers seem to hold individuals in a strange thrall and induce a confused and hallucinatory atmosphere within the castle. 

Treila, sensing impending danger, becomes determined to escape from the castle: She has discovered a secret tunnel that leads to an underground grotto, from which escape might be possible. She and Phosyne begin working together, since they (unlike most inhabitants of the castle) are fearful and suspicious of the Lady and the saints. For her part, Voyne is under the sway of the enchantment and often confused about what is happening around her. She is frequently compelled to obey the Lady and periodically loses recollections of what is happening. Phosyne becomes more horrified when she realizes that many of the inhabitants of the castle are engaging in cannibalism, seemingly without fully realizing what they are doing (due to the enchantment cast over the castle). Under the compulsion of magic, Voyne mutilates Prioress Jacynde after the latter challenges the Lady’s authority. 

Phosyne feels compelled to help Voyne; she realizes that giving Voyne purified water temporarily lessens the effects of the enchantment, causing Voyne to become lucid and realize the horrors of what is unfolding around her. Phosyne, Voyne, and Treila attempt to escape but Voyne cannot pass through the tunnel. Phosyne chooses to remain with her while Treila goes on alone. Treila is able to escape from the castle and realizes that Etrebian forces have retreated: The castle is no longer under siege. She decides to go back and help the others. 

Meanwhile, Phosyne has used her magical powers and logical deduction to learn more about the Lady and the saints, and how they deploy their magic. She has learned that they are repelled by iron (they were thus able to infiltrate the castle after most of the iron was used for weapons). Her own knowledge of her powers is growing. Voyne tries to help the inhabitants of the castle and is successful at killing one of the saints, but horrors have intensified: The Lady’s sinister magical creatures arrive in ever-growing numbers and feed on the enchanted inhabitants of the castle. 

When Treila returns, she encounters Voyne. Treila has had previous encounters with the Loving Saint, who can shape-shift, and she suspects the Loving Saint has assumed the form of Voyne to trick her. She attacks Voyne, who tries vainly to apologize for Treila’s suffering. Unsure what to believe, Treila kills Voyne with a small iron knife.

The Lady is suspiciously interested in Voyne’s body and begins negotiating with Phosyne, offering her power and favors if she removes the knife from Voyne’s throat and surrenders the corpse. Instead, Phosyne has Treila take the body through the tunnel to the cavern. There, Treila impulsively pulls the knife from Voyne’s throat and this act magically resurrects Voyne. Voyne reveals new information about Treila’s father and why he was executed: he surrendered a fortress to the enemy, leading to many deaths. Treila suggests the two of them escape but Voyne insists they try to help the inhabitants of the castle. She orders Treila to take the iron knife to Phosyne: as one of the last remaining pieces of iron in the castle, it is a vital weapon against the Lady and the saints.

Treila delivers the knife to Phosyne but senses that the latter is being corrupted by the Lady’s seductions and her own sense of burgeoning power. Treila is distracted by a confrontation with the Loving Saint: She successfully kills him (without the use of iron) by channeling her sense of inner power and agency.

Once she possesses the knife, Phosyne agrees to trade it to the Lady in exchange for dominion over the castle and all its inhabitants. She hopes this trade will allow her to keep them safe, but she is also secretly driven by her own longing for dominance. Too late, Phosyne realizes that by giving the knife to the Lady, she has made her immune to iron: The Lady can no longer be killed by iron weapons and can now go anywhere she wants. 

After killing the Loving Saint, Treila reunites with Voyne and they go to find Phosyne, fearing that she has been irremediably corrupted by the Lady. A violent physical confrontation ensues between the three of them and the Lady; Treila is severely wounded, but Phosyne uses magic to heal her. Phosyne eventually taps into the full extent of her magical powers and dominion over the castle; she succeeds in killing the Lady by trapping her in a cistern of boiling water. However, Phosyne is terrified of her newfound lust for power and asks Voyne to kill her. Instead, Voyne has Phosyne swear fealty in exchange for protection. This agreement creates an appropriate balance of power between the three women, binding them together in a relationship of mutual care and loyalty. 

The Absolving Saint, the sole survivor, offers to return the iron knife in exchange for his freedom. By returning the knife, he and the magical creatures will return to being unable to enter most human spaces. Voyne accepts on the condition that he also use magic to ensure the surviving inhabitants of the castle will not remember what happened and what atrocities they committed. The Absolving Saint and the last creatures disappear. With the enchantment broken and no enemy lurking outside, Voyne, Phosyne, and Treila walk freely through the castle gates into the world beyond.