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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
dark
emotional
medium-paced
dark
emotional
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:
No
Dark, twisted, a tad confusing. While this book kept my attention out had me confused here and there. I liked the idea and loved the characters. This may have been a 5 star read if I had a better idea of what happened at a few big parts. I will reread this one one day.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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:
No
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Oooooo where to start with this review? I fear it’s going to be lengthy. This was solidly mid for me. If this were not my genre, I think I’d rate it lower, but for the intended audience, some will definitely enjoy this story.
Andrew gives us a couple of things in her set up: some she delivers on and others don’t quite work. At its core, we have a “lovers being forced apart” kind of story between our main characters. The central mystery circles the question of their abilities and how the circumstances of their initial meeting brought about current events.
We have a school for students with special abilities with a secret club. All students at Godbole have had a brush with death and are able to see into other realities or interact with them in a variety of ways. The school sets out to find ways to cross into other worlds and discover…we don’t know.
Delaney, our MC, is deaf and looking to prove she is capable.
The secret club is a group of students looking for a way to cheat death and seeks immortality.
Andrews heavily references Dante’s Inferno throughout the book and also brings in other imagery from stories about hell (mainly Hades and Persephone).
Allll of the above is just in the setup and as the story unfolds, more is brought in. There’s the possibility of other realities, there’re college friendships, there’re biases of the school against Delaney’s disability, and then there’re ancient entities come to life. All of these elements could build on each other, but they don’t successfully at all. Instead, the story feels more like a string of thematic elements, a vision board for dark academia, rather than resulting in plotting that builds to a satisfying emotional and psychological climax.
Delaney’s deafness is a big part of the story. However, it seems to be more impactful to the supernatural element than in her actual life. At the beginning of the story, we see Delaney struggling with note taking because she presumably cannot hear well enough to catch notes. This acts more as a ploy to get her together with Colton, our MMC, than a struggle she faces as after they meet together to study, this no longer appears to be a struggle. I liked that her deafness and what she “hears” in the dark is built up in a logical way, but it becomes less satisfying when her ability to hear or not doesn’t seem to make a difference in her capability. It was the one element of the story the author invested the most in and I think the metaphors worked but the way it added to the plot was…insignificant.
The supernatural element: without getting spoilery, hell plays a role in this book. There are hints along the way with Andrews’ classical references of choice (stories about hell) and the demon like presences the characters are fighting. When we get to the climax of how hell has taken an interest in our characters…it’s not satisfying. Our demons discuss their work being done on earth but the entire of their work was to…send a message to characters in the most bizarre/drawn out/hurtful way? It felt like the school, the studies of the students, the existence of other realms was ultimately inconsequential to the plot climax. So it was kind of a dud.
The pacing was also odd to me. I would often start a chapter and wonder how much time had passed or whether or not there was character growth I missed. Time slips are a part of this story, but they seem to be there to add a sense of fear and not because they actually mean anything or indicate…something supernatural is happening. They’re a random detail rather than something that could lead us to having a deeper discussion or realization at the end. Furthermore, a school that is steeped in Classical references and teaching Latin and surrounded by mystery appears to be…maybe a couple years old? Did I read that right? To have the school and the studies it contains fall to the background such that they don’t play a role was such a miss for me.
I LOVED Delaney’s friends. Unfortunately, they don’t get enough page time to do much besides offer supernatural abilities different than our main characters to help move along the plot and create tension. I think time spent on their friendship to get an idea of the culture of the school overall would have made the story hit harder for me.
The writing style was a little clunky. Besides the pacing problems and time slips that I had, the prose was a little weird. I liked the way the characters spoke to each other and had thoughts. However, descriptions sometimes got weirdly romantic. This isn’t uncommon for dark academia, but Andrews adopted a much broader vocabulary for characters describing objects and the physical world that wasn’t used for dialogue or thoughts. This made the book vibey but also made me wonder why the big guns were being pulled out to use words like “crimson” and “vermillion” to describe carpet when those physical descriptions were not at all thematically important to the story in any way. I liked the descriptions, but thought the emphasis would have been way better used to talk about sound and silence and hot and cold which were much more central to the plot and the themes.
Overall, this had all the ingredients of a book I’d like, but the balance and execution was off. The book definitely suffered by starting with pieces and trying to build to a whole when I think having the end in mind that could be built to and described along the way would have been much stronger.
Quotes
“While her parents eschewed the notion of higher education […] she wanted nothing more. She wanted the regimen, the freedom, the promise of opportunity.”
“Fragile Delaney, who needed constant coddling. But capable Delaney—that was something new.”
“It was incredibly naive of Whitehall,” he said, confessing what he could, “to think we could pass freely between worlds and not expect something uninvited to follow us home.”
“It was bound to happen. You put the master key to the universe in the hands of men, eventually a few of them start to fancy themselves gods.”
“My point is that harboring an ancient entity is a valid reason to take a sick day.”
“He was alive, alive, alive, and the minutes running through him felt suddenly euphoric. Like a drug for once, and not like a poison.”
“She’d fallen in love with him in the quiet. Now, in silence, she loved him still.”
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
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:
Yes
Weird and creepy good YA with a dash of obsessive romance. This read was super engaging, I enjoyed the vibes. The prose is a little purple…but it fits the style and setting of the book. I loved the characters, great representation across the board. It was well paced, the repetitive prose didn’t hold the read back too much. Overall, I liked it and will read more from this author in the future!
I swear I tried! I was anticipating this one all year, but something just didn't click. It felt like I was stuck in a loop of the first three chapters of a high fantasy novel where you know ~what~ is happening yet you feel completely out of it. It reminded me of those clips from Girl Meets World where you understand the words said by the actors but you have absolutely no idea what their point is.