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clairew97's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Child death, Gaslighting, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Chronic illness
queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this book in two days. I'm still coming down from the high of finishing it, so I'm not sure if it was technically good, but I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are spectacularly interesting. Reina and Callum could use a bit a fleshing-out; but Libby, Nico, Parisa, and Tristan were amazing POVs. Libby was obviously meant to be the audience avatar, since she is the first POV, and it's no secret that most of the target audience is likely to be women of academic background and/or anxiety/ MI. There were definitely enough clues along the way where I saw the Ezra twist coming. I'm much more interested in the mystery of Dalton. Faults few and far between in my opinion include: lack of depth to Nico's character, plot relying heavily on the miscommunication trope (although there is some reason for it), and a bit of pseudointellectualism since I didn't buy into the sci-fi explanations and philosophical arguments.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Kidnapping
Minor: Death of parent
rachrreads's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I received an ebook from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I am unsure how I feel about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading from these characters POVs— well except for Callum’s. I hated how malicious Callum was, especially considering he was an empath. Libby, while annoying, was the most relatable for me. Parisa is a queen. Nico is charming and a bundle of energy. Tristan was intriguing and his powers are still a mystery to me. Reina was the much needed calm center for the group.
I found the explanation of the magic to be lacking. The word medeian is used in contrast to witch, but it is not clearly explained what the difference is. I think medeian is just a highly skilled and/or trained wizard and a witch is just a common person with magic and no training, but not sure.
I do not fully understand the plot and what happened at the end either. Every time I thought I understood what was going on, the next chapter confused me even more. I am intrigued to see where Olivie Blake goes with this though, so I am tempted to read book 2.
Also Twitter made me think NicoLibby was gonna be a huge relationship in this book. I was thoroughly disappointed to learn they were not. Olivie please make them endgame or I will cry. I need my beautiful academic rivals to lovers who were always destined to be together. Thank you
I am unsure how I feel about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading from these characters POVs— well except for Callum’s. I hated how malicious Callum was, especially considering he was an empath. Libby, while annoying, was the most relatable for me. Parisa is a queen. Nico is charming and a bundle of energy. Tristan was intriguing and his powers are still a mystery to me. Reina was the much needed calm center for the group.
I found the explanation of the magic to be lacking. The word medeian is used in contrast to witch, but it is not clearly explained what the difference is. I think medeian is just a highly skilled and/or trained wizard and a witch is just a common person with magic and no training, but not sure.
I do not fully understand the plot and what happened at the end either. Every time I thought I understood what was going on, the next chapter confused me even more. I am intrigued to see where Olivie Blake goes with this though, so I am tempted to read book 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, Alcohol, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Kidnapping
leahpardon's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
1.75 ( and that’s generous )
It was…disappointing to say the least. The characters had so much potential, yet fell short, underdeveloped and boring. Most of them were recycled copies of “edgy” stereotypes and were somewhat 2D. The plot as an idea was great, though it wasn’t put into action the way it could’ve. It was dull, for the majority of the book. The last 25% or so when it gets interesting.
The ending was a cop out.
It was…disappointing to say the least. The characters had so much potential, yet fell short, underdeveloped and boring. Most of them were recycled copies of “edgy” stereotypes and were somewhat 2D. The plot as an idea was great, though it wasn’t put into action the way it could’ve. It was dull, for the majority of the book. The last 25% or so when it gets interesting.
The ending was a cop out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Murder, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcoholism and Classism
Minor: Chronic illness
charlereads's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, and Suicide
vonny3492's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Death, Confinement, Bullying, and Alcohol
nicole_m's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a good book. The theme was dark academia. Wonderful read for the fall. <Spoiler> I would have like for their to have been more action. For instance, at the end I was like that’s it, but in almost a good way . Overall, nice book and I recommend to those who like what is stated above.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Medical content, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, and Terminal illness
If the warnings above trigger you then i don’t recommend this book. If not give it a try if you like and enjoy!fromlindenmere's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence
lessthelonely's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
OK, this one was a long time coming. Thanks BookTok for the recomendation.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was skeptical of it - and you might think it's because the book is self-published, but nope! -, mostly because the chapters weren't tagged in the contents of the eBook, somehow, so I assumed that the book only had 8 chapters. I was delightly surprised it wasn't true.
I actually went beyond wanting to read this book to actually reading it only because many people raved about it being MLM, WLW and also having heterossexual relationships. I get why that was said, but I was highly dissappointed to know that the LGBTQ+ content was mostly a sex scene and an I love you scene that was really intense but felt kind of flat for me: I believed this book was going to go a very certain way, it being with 3 pairs of closed emotional and romantic relationships but with added openness, as in... polyamory.
I was all in for that, and the thing is I was sort of right? There are very defined relationships here, but I don't think any of them actually reached what I was hoping, which is fine, if the sequel takes it from here. I guess I was just hoping to feel highly depressed about these 6 blaring attractive characters that were painfully my type (Nico de Varona, I'm specially looking at you, you little shit; Callum, you're second) just be happy, because their flaws could make me feel loveable, which is something I haven't been feeling a lot.
This book is PACKED with text. And I'm usually awfully skeptical of books who go for the mysticism and pretty words, but this book does it right. It's a lot of information and a lot of wandering, but it's always beautiful. One thing I noticed is that many chapters happened to follow a certain technique: we start at a point B, and right at the beginning the character focuses on something that happened before B, so A, after which they go back to point B and finish that little thread. I noticed it being used quite a few times, but it never deterred from the experience.
Other thing I feel like I must say is that even though I loved all these characters, there were some that felt a bit lacking at times, namely Reina, whose flaws weren't as explored as, for example, Libby's, Parisa's, Nico's or even Tristan's. Secondly, Tristan's problems seemed highly convoluted, and there's a scene that basically leaves him totally bare. I suspect that this was done to tell us there's more to him than this. If that's not the case, I'm going to be extremely sad.
Finally... Callum. I really liked Callum but he caused me severe emotional distress because No way you're that cynical without it having some real toll on you. I'm expecting that Book 2 will go into his actual flaws, because I didn't seem like we saw any flaws or vulnerability from him this book: what I got from what he's been through is that he's a victim and product of his own environment which... ouch, that hits close to home, but at the same time, I was always on constant edge reading his thoughts and feelings. It was highly distressed because it seemed like he's always on the verge of letting himself feel and be a bit truer to his own humanity, but that didn't really happen, not in this book.
Either way, that's the only reason I won't give this book 5 stars. Read it. It's dark, it's mystic, it's absolutely fantastic and it deserves the hype that follows it. Ms. Olivie Blake, thank you for your service.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was skeptical of it - and you might think it's because the book is self-published, but nope! -, mostly because the chapters weren't tagged in the contents of the eBook, somehow, so I assumed that the book only had 8 chapters. I was delightly surprised it wasn't true.
I actually went beyond wanting to read this book to actually reading it only because many people raved about it being MLM, WLW and also having heterossexual relationships. I get why that was said, but I was highly dissappointed to know that the LGBTQ+ content was mostly a sex scene and an I love you scene that was really intense but felt kind of flat for me: I believed this book was going to go a very certain way, it being with 3 pairs of closed emotional and romantic relationships but with added openness, as in... polyamory.
I was all in for that, and the thing is I was sort of right? There are very defined relationships here, but I don't think any of them actually reached what I was hoping, which is fine, if the sequel takes it from here. I guess I was just hoping to feel highly depressed about these 6 blaring attractive characters that were painfully my type (Nico de Varona, I'm specially looking at you, you little shit; Callum, you're second) just be happy, because their flaws could make me feel loveable, which is something I haven't been feeling a lot.
This book is PACKED with text. And I'm usually awfully skeptical of books who go for the mysticism and pretty words, but this book does it right. It's a lot of information and a lot of wandering, but it's always beautiful. One thing I noticed is that many chapters happened to follow a certain technique: we start at a point B, and right at the beginning the character focuses on something that happened before B, so A, after which they go back to point B and finish that little thread. I noticed it being used quite a few times, but it never deterred from the experience.
Other thing I feel like I must say is that even though I loved all these characters, there were some that felt a bit lacking at times, namely Reina, whose flaws weren't as explored as, for example, Libby's, Parisa's, Nico's or even Tristan's. Secondly, Tristan's problems seemed highly convoluted, and there's a scene that basically leaves him totally bare. I suspect that this was done to tell us there's more to him than this. If that's not the case, I'm going to be extremely sad.
Finally... Callum. I really liked Callum but he caused me severe emotional distress because No way you're that cynical without it having some real toll on you. I'm expecting that Book 2 will go into his actual flaws, because I didn't seem like we saw any flaws or vulnerability from him this book: what I got from what he's been through is that he's a victim and product of his own environment which... ouch, that hits close to home, but at the same time, I was always on constant edge reading his thoughts and feelings. It was highly distressed because it seemed like he's always on the verge of letting himself feel and be a bit truer to his own humanity, but that didn't really happen, not in this book.
Either way, that's the only reason I won't give this book 5 stars. Read it. It's dark, it's mystic, it's absolutely fantastic and it deserves the hype that follows it. Ms. Olivie Blake, thank you for your service.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence
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