Kingdom of the Wicked was one of the first series I read in my reading journey over the last year and a half. I absolutely loved it from the beginning: it has amazing pace, strong characters, hidden plots, and a giant dog. Kerri Maniscalco is an amazing writer and readers can tell that her books are always extensively planned before she starts writing. 

Kingdom of the Wicked follows Emilia Di Carlo, a witch hidden among humans, after her twin sister Vittoria is found mutilated. Emilia uses dark magic she was warned against to uncover the truth behind her sister’s death and accidentally summons Wrath, one of the princes of Hell. Wrath was tasked with solving the murders of several witches in Sicily and they reluctantly work together to find the murderer and exact revenge. 

Of the people in Sicily, there are few to no POC. This is expected though given that it is 1800s Italy. Truthfully, I don’t find the absence of POC here triggering since the inclusion of POC here would be historically inaccurate. 

However, Maniscalco does create POC appearances that make sense in context of the story. In the first book, we are introduced to Anir, a Tunisian and Chinese human member of House Wrath. He is the second in command to Wrath and a prominent character for Emilia to warm up to working with the demon prince. He plays an important supporting role throughout the series in assisting Emilia and Wrath in their objectives. In the second book, we are introduced to Fauna, a dark skinned woman from House Wrath. She helps Emilia adjust to Court and is her most consistent friend throughout the series. 

There aren’t many other realistic POC characters throughout the series, especially since Maniscalco depicts entirely fictional demon characters with unrealistic physical attributes. In my opinion, I wish there were more human POC depictions in each of the Seven Circles, but I also understand that it might take away from the main focal points and add too much unnecessary complexity to the plot. Only two notable POC characters is not enough, but since the book was entirely main character driven, adding even more characters could make the twists and turns of the plot even more intricate.

Every writing decision Maniscalco made had significance that was revealed by the end of the series. I understand why she may have made the decision to minimize POC inclusion, especially since she did not expand on their racial backgrounds to any extent. I did appreciate that she made POC appearances as much as made sense to the storyline, even if it was bare minimum. 

Kingdom of the Wicked: 5 stars

POC representation: 3 stars