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viselik's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
SCHIZOPHRENIA, SUICIDE, SELF-HARM, ABUSE, IFFY SEXUAL SITUATIONS OR INCEST
I would have done lower stars if I could. This book honestly handles the topics inside of it really poorly. If I wasn't so stubborn about my rule about finishing a book, I would have put this down after chapter 10.
I won't really go in-depth here as I'm not even comfortable remembering the book fully, would highly recommend The Book Leo's video here on this book as she states a lot of what I feel about this book but I'll give a quick rundown of my final thoughts on it.
Spoiler
The main cast of characters all feel quite childlike at times, I'm not quite sure about it. Even the teacher character Vad Deverell feels like this a lot of the time. Even more so on how jealous he gets over Troy or Jax who are both around 19 years old. Corvina (whose name is literally a fish) I can't even get started at how childlike she seemed, or just how unaware of the danger she could be in.
Also, why did it take until around chapter 16 to find out Vad's age? Why is the author hiding it? Not to mention it's only said once, compared to the several times the student's ages are given out or even the amount of times we are told Corvina is in her early 20s.
The author does state that she made Vad's character vague but having that doesn't excuse how one-dimensional he felt most of the time. Even when we are finding out about his backstory it didn't feel like it was helping his character, at times I even preferred now knowing as I was constantly thinking by the end if he was going to kill someone like he did his grandfather.
The main mystery of the book, the Black Ball held every 5 years and each time it's on someone goes missing... well this is never answered. Instead, we get an incest scene about our love interest Vad's crazy family member who wants to have his kids so they would have good 'devil' genes and could run the school. This same family member has caused at least 2 people to jump off the roof and tried to get our MC to do it as well, she does this via a drug... Yeah. I would highly not recommend this book to anyone.
The several sex scenes in this feel rather poorly written, there are a few moments floating around the internet about some of the lines from this book but as I've read I've noticed a few more. Quite a
lot of them are all in the sex scenes and their incessant need to mention madness, but this madness is never really described.
Another thing I noticed about this book, we get a lot of being told but not having it described at all. Like the music from chapter 2 I believe, it's said to be "Haunting. Eerie. Ethereal." though nothing else is really described about it. We don't even know it's a piano till we see the guy who is playing it.
If you are looking for sex scenes, please just go look at the porn without plot tag on AO3 you could probably find even better sex scenes without having to pay for them.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
- Consent is never given in one of the sex scenes. -leahthebookdragon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Mental illness and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual content
carla20's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
rtrotzko's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Death of parent
rad_blackthorn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Sexual assault
abbiexhope's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Dementia, and Grief
Minor: Incest
alannahsh's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
jackiespider's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
tinksreviews's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Mental illness and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
brielleborgia's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
🌶🌶🌶🌶/5
I guess you could say I went straight into this unknowing what to expect. And if you’re interested in knowing what to expect:
🖤Dark Academia/ dark romance
🖤A huge mystery plot/twist you never see coming
🖤Student/teacher
🖤Morally grey frustrating but sexy MMC
🖤Messed up childhoods
🖤Deaths and suicides
🖤Spicy spicy 🎹 (you’ll understand WhY I put the piano)
🖤’I will kill everyone for you’ vibes
This was truly a dark read and it focused a lot on the plot of why are these people dying and why Corvina was invited to attend this school. The romance was more of a subplot, but damn was it THEREEEE. I love morally grey characters so when I met Vad I knew he had to be Corvina’s man. He was a bit toxic and he was very frustrating at times.
*when I was reading this at night, I was freaked out. This is really gothic and creepy at times and I LOVED IT*
Sometimes I felt like Vad and Corvina annoyed me because of all of the suspense. The reader is truly confused until the very end. And after reading it, I feel like I needed to know more. It was the kind of universe that probably could’ve used a duology or even a trilogy for. This is why it’s 4.5 and not 5.
I’m totally picking up Arkana ASAP. Was not disappointed ☺️
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Dementia and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury