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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I feel like I could have loved this book, had I any goddamn idea what the grand jeu was by the end of it. Sadly, I do not. I am the suckiest of suckers for anything that smacks of dark academia, and some of the concepts in here were tantalizing.... but with no satisfaction to be found. I don't know what the grand jeu is. I don't think the author does either. And so, I can't care about it, and every other piece of story around it just feels.....silly......as a result.
[Disclaimer - I have not read The Glass Bead Game. Perhaps I shall at some point. But I don't think you should have to read a whole other work for that inspired by it to make a modicum of sense, if it even would.]
[Disclaimer - I have not read The Glass Bead Game. Perhaps I shall at some point. But I don't think you should have to read a whole other work for that inspired by it to make a modicum of sense, if it even would.]
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really wanted to love this book but there was so many different parts that was allusive and hard to follow in a deeper way. The ending chapters were really good but still hard to understand everything that happened and how it was all tied together.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was not what I expected. From the jacket blurb, I thought it would be a political drama mixed with some fantasy elements brought in via the "grand jeu"--I pictured something similar to a more adult version of [b:The Night Circus|9361589|The Night Circus|Erin Morgenstern|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387124618l/9361589._SY75_.jpg|14245059]. Instead, it seemed to be a thinly veiled allegory of the rise of fascism in pre-WWII Europe, laid across a boarding school romantic tragedy. The writing is engrossing, almost engrossing enough at points to realize that the all important, all consuming grand jeu is never actually explained. The political undertones, and the more personal drama at the Montverre school never quite mesh together into a coherent whole, and there's an ongoing tangent about an orphan living in the walls of the school that exists solely for tying off a loose plot thread at the end. The final plot twist is abrupt and rather disappointing, because it raises some interesting possibilities that could have been further explored. A bit of a let down.
Spoiler
The new Magister Ludi is Carfax de Courcy's sister who had been posing as him at the school the whole time, and while the real Carfax actually killed himself, the person Leo fell in love with was alive
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was nothing said in a lot of words. This book is like the people that TRY to mysterious and cool, but the whole time your like “wtf”. The big twist was interesting, but not enough to redeem the book. I did finish the book, but I wish I didn’t. It just didn’t do it for me unfortunately.