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challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
** spoiler alert ** OKAYYY, I know I'm a bit late... like a whole month late (talking to my book club) but omgoshh. So first off. I got a Kindle on Friday... and I do not care... YOU READ LIGHTNING SPEED on that thing. it's literally insane. The way a book I was reading for two months turned into like 4 days and then done was crazy. But on to the book.
Okay so at first the book was slow, too descriptive for me and all that. BUT WHEN I TELL YOU... It hit that scene where the gama ghost thing slammed her head into the refrigerator at a gas station and I was like WHATTTT. And Ive been in my seat ever since. It ended up being so good to me. And definitely has show potential. Like those teen shows like TVD, Supernatural, Teen Wolf. Like it ate. Like after those over a 100 pages of slowness it was totally worth it. I forgot about how slow the start was. I honestly feel like the book didn't start until that scene lol. I loved my main girl Alex, she was straight-up savage after she was done pretending and I loved it. I loved Dawes, I wish I learned a bit more about Darlington though. Maybe I'll get that in the next book.
I do want to read the second one.
There was some TWs tho... Her and her friend went through some crazy stuff.
Okay so at first the book was slow, too descriptive for me and all that. BUT WHEN I TELL YOU... It hit that scene where the gama ghost thing slammed her head into the refrigerator at a gas station and I was like WHATTTT. And Ive been in my seat ever since. It ended up being so good to me. And definitely has show potential. Like those teen shows like TVD, Supernatural, Teen Wolf. Like it ate. Like after those over a 100 pages of slowness it was totally worth it. I forgot about how slow the start was. I honestly feel like the book didn't start until that scene lol. I loved my main girl Alex, she was straight-up savage after she was done pretending and I loved it. I loved Dawes, I wish I learned a bit more about Darlington though. Maybe I'll get that in the next book.
I do want to read the second one.
There was some TWs tho... Her and her friend went through some crazy stuff.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault
I wouldn't want my daughter reading it until after highschool.
adventurous
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Sexual assault
Minor: Racism
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a ride. At first I was genuinely annoyed by all the references to history & literature, etc I definitely did not understand, but damn did the story sink its teeth in until I was just willingly eaten alive. Hell Bent here I freaking come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Alcohol
Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Murder
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Yum yum yum I love how polarizing this book is. For me, 4.75 stars rounded up. I had a lot of fun.
Starting with cons: Due to the setting at Yale, this book runs the high risk of making its readers feel dumb sometimes. Leigh Bardugo went to Yale for undergrad, was in Wolf's Head, and also researched the h e l l out of Yale's history to make a cohesive, believable backstory. The depth of information fell flat to me as someone who doesn't care about the architecture and alumni of Ivy Leagues. It was a good plot device to show Darlington's intelligence, but occasionally read as, "Look at how much I thought this out and how smart I am!" She toes the line between knowing how grating academics can be and becoming an insufferable know-it-all herself (I understand this bc I am a huge nerd, currently in grad school, and can be academically insufferable). There are probably a ton of references I didn't understand (I'm sure some of it was written for English buffs and Yale students). This makes the book a bit too long, imo. Also, the chapters skip around in time and I don't think that was necessary, though it wasn't too hard to follow.
To be fair, Bardugo's world building ability is unbelievable, and I thought all of her main characters were unique, real, and multifaceted.
Pros: Pretty much everything else. Fun magic system, spooky dark academia, ghosts, sentient houses, whodunit, powerful misfits, revenge, a bi (?) female lead, extremely developed world, and a twisty-turny plot.
Important to note - this book is DARK. Like, graphically dark, and sometimes very gross, and often sad. Check the TWs/CWs.
Leigh Bardugo is an excellent writer and I highly recommend this if you like second chances, dark academia, and magical murder mysteries. It feels like this book was set up to knock the next one out of the park - I can't wait to start the sequel!
Starting with cons: Due to the setting at Yale, this book runs the high risk of making its readers feel dumb sometimes. Leigh Bardugo went to Yale for undergrad, was in Wolf's Head, and also researched the h e l l out of Yale's history to make a cohesive, believable backstory. The depth of information fell flat to me as someone who doesn't care about the architecture and alumni of Ivy Leagues. It was a good plot device to show Darlington's intelligence, but occasionally read as, "Look at how much I thought this out and how smart I am!" She toes the line between knowing how grating academics can be and becoming an insufferable know-it-all herself (I understand this bc I am a huge nerd, currently in grad school, and can be academically insufferable). There are probably a ton of references I didn't understand (I'm sure some of it was written for English buffs and Yale students). This makes the book a bit too long, imo. Also, the chapters skip around in time and I don't think that was necessary, though it wasn't too hard to follow.
To be fair, Bardugo's world building ability is unbelievable, and I thought all of her main characters were unique, real, and multifaceted.
Pros: Pretty much everything else. Fun magic system, spooky dark academia, ghosts, sentient houses, whodunit, powerful misfits, revenge, a bi (?) female lead, extremely developed world, and a twisty-turny plot.
Important to note - this book is DARK. Like, graphically dark, and sometimes very gross, and often sad. Check the TWs/CWs.
Leigh Bardugo is an excellent writer and I highly recommend this if you like second chances, dark academia, and magical murder mysteries. It feels like this book was set up to knock the next one out of the park - I can't wait to start the sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mysterious. Magical. All- consuming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Rape
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You know a book is going to be fun if it opens with a map, so I got a real kick out of this book opening with a map of the Yale University campus and surrounding area.
I had a really good time with this one, but it's definitely an "add a star if you've ever lived in New Haven, Connecticut" situation. Extraordinary sense of place, both in the "wow, Alex is eating at Mamoun's Falafel! She's shopping at Good Nature Market! She's dropping lore about Yorkside Pizza!" sense and the "I can follow the exact route Alex is taking in my mind's eye" sense.
I really enjoyed the Magical Realism of it all, and the book oozes personality and flavor, but the actual plot is fairly workmanlike—the murder mystery at the core of the story just isn't that gripping, and some of the investigation and deduction really started to blur together.
And it's hard to say whether I actually like Alex; her personality is (by design, I think) really grating at times, but she's a really interesting choice of POV character. This book could have easily followed a more generic Yalie-type character, who gets to be a fish out of water just by virtue of being a Normal Girl discovering a secret magical underbelly. Instead, Bardugo uses Alex's marginalized identities to explore the divide between Towns and Gowns, a divide that might be the defining conflict of New Haven, in a way that feels naturally interwoven with the plot.
I don't know that I'm going to drop everything to pick up the sequel, and I didn't find the button it ends on to be an especially compelling hook, but I'm interested to see if it can build on this premise in an interesting way. All in all, a perfectly fun time!
I had a really good time with this one, but it's definitely an "add a star if you've ever lived in New Haven, Connecticut" situation. Extraordinary sense of place, both in the "wow, Alex is eating at Mamoun's Falafel! She's shopping at Good Nature Market! She's dropping lore about Yorkside Pizza!" sense and the "I can follow the exact route Alex is taking in my mind's eye" sense.
I really enjoyed the Magical Realism of it all, and the book oozes personality and flavor, but the actual plot is fairly workmanlike—the murder mystery at the core of the story just isn't that gripping, and some of the investigation and deduction really started to blur together.
And it's hard to say whether I actually like Alex; her personality is (by design, I think) really grating at times, but she's a really interesting choice of POV character. This book could have easily followed a more generic Yalie-type character, who gets to be a fish out of water just by virtue of being a Normal Girl discovering a secret magical underbelly. Instead, Bardugo uses Alex's marginalized identities to explore the divide between Towns and Gowns, a divide that might be the defining conflict of New Haven, in a way that feels naturally interwoven with the plot.
I don't know that I'm going to drop everything to pick up the sequel, and I didn't find the button it ends on to be an especially compelling hook, but I'm interested to see if it can build on this premise in an interesting way. All in all, a perfectly fun time!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Moderate: Drug use, Murder
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
The writing style was a little more complex than I had initially thought, however, the second half of the book captivated me more. Just be aware of the trigger warnings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Self harm, Sexual assault
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use
Minor: Rape