Reviews - In These Hallowed Halls

613 reviews for:

In These Hallowed Halls

Marie O'Regan, Paul Kane

3.4 AVERAGE

hauntedbycandlelight's review against another edition

3.0

dark medium-paced

with_book_and_stilettos's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is supposed to be “A Dark Academia Anthology”, as the title claims. Then why do most of these stories have NOTHING to do with dark academia? The only stories that I’d say fit the genre were The Hare And The Hound, X House, The Professor of Ontography (somehow) and Phobos. Playing wasn’t really DA, but it was one of the few stories I actually liked, so it gets an honorary mention.

Now, let’s rate the stories on their own:

1. 1000 ships by Kate Weinberg: 2 stars, the story was nothing new or surprising and centered a lot about sexual content, which I found tiring and boring. I mean yeah, most of peeps here are ace, but still. The description of sexual content in the short story was so plain and uninteresting that I am definitely even more ace after reading it.

2. Pythia by Olivie Blake: 4 stars. I have no idea wtf I just read, but it was pretty good? I can’t even describe it.

3. Sabbatical by James Tate Hill: 1 star. What is the point of this story? It doesn’t make sense.

4. The Hare and The Hound by Kelly Andrew: 5 Stars. This is what I signed up for! This story explores a self-fulfilling prophecy and the madness it can indulge.

5. X House by J. T. Allison: 3 stars. I liked the overall story, but it was way too foreseeable.

6. The Ravages by Layn Fargo: 2 stars. What do these authors find so appealing about taking revenge on cheating lovers in not very creative ways?

7. Four Funerals by David Bell: 3 stars. I liked the story, but it had nothing to do with dark academia apart from the fact that the protagonist is s teacher.

8. The unknowable pleasures by Susie Yang: 3 stars. The basic idea had so much potential, but it didn’t feel fleshed out. Or maybe a short story wasn’t the right format. The ending was stupid, though.

9. Weekend at Bertie’s by M.L. Rio: 2 stars. Sorry, but there’s just NOTHING dark academia about trying to rob an old lady after she fell down the stairs.

10. The professor of ontography by Helen Grant: 3 stars. The idea was SO GOOD. But on the last pages, it felt like one of those ridiculously bad “horror” movies that are so bad that you can only laugh.

11. Phobos by Tori Bovalino: 4 stars. I have a difficult time rating this. I loved the idea, but there are so many things about the last five pages that I would have changed to make it real dark academia. Still, it was a lot better than most of the other stories in this collection.

12. Playing by Phoebe Wynne: 5 stars. At last, we finally get a good story again