Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
i am so conflicted abt this book. when i was reading it some pages had me gasping and thinking this was one of the best books ever but probably 90% of the pages had me rolling my eyes. much to consider. might change my stars. would not recommend to a friend but would probably recommend to an enemy. but like an enemy i respected?
dark
sad
medium-paced
This had a lot of promise, an academic setting, themes of obsession, idealism, transcendence. Wanting more from the world than it has to give. It was just too pretentious and also somehow too earnest and messy though. The Secret History did it best, and anything comparing itself to that is doing itself a disservice.
I love this cover and I desperately want more lesbian dark academia, so I'm really disappointed by the fact that I did not love this - maybe even more so because I think it had the potential to be amazing. However, (to me) it fumbled from the start (too little build-up or development for Virginia and the choir to warrant even half of the devotion Laura shows them). There's also no academia at all, other than being set a school lmao it's all choir and god here, baby...until like an offhanded mention of doing the SATs or homework (for classes we never attend or hear anything about). And the lesbianism is in the last 5%, so that couldn't save it from its flaws either.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Sexual harassment
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
medium-paced
One of the few most disappointing reads of my life. What I got was something beyond my expectations and horrible. Virginia is completely unbearable.
Aburrido.
Creen que por tener un personaje llamado Bunny ya lo hace Dark Academia?
Creen que por tener un personaje llamado Bunny ya lo hace Dark Academia?
Everything I want in a novel!!! Lesbians, dark academia, crazy Chinese communists. This book was so well-executed. The way the stakes and everything came together was so cleverly done. Virginia’s character is one of the best antiheroes in contemporary fiction that I’ve seen. Devoured this on the beach
(ARC received via goodreads giveaway)
Okay first things first : this book has a scene of attempted sexual assault, as well as suicide and murder. It's a failing of the publisher to not make content warnings for these things available.
The book itself : Burton has created a novel chock full of complex characters who are hard to write off as any one thing. A hard task, when the vast majority of the characters are teenagers, so easy to stereotype and simplify. I found a lot of the motivations here really relatable : the youthful, desperate desire to be Important (World-Historical, in the parlance of this book), the headlong throwing of oneself into causes that matter so much to you, the confusing push and pull of desire and attraction, or lack thereof, both on one's own part and on the part of others. It's really nice to read so many people who are so very morally grey; it's very human.
That said. The character who is set up to be the most dynamic and interesting, is to me, the least dimensional : Virginia Strauss. Everyone is in love with her (literally. everyone.) and I do not know why. She is manipulative, bossy, self-obsessed, and cruel, and yet these teens are in her thrall and carry out her (awful) wishes, even knowing they shouldn't. Burton wrote all of these characters as smart! To the extent that their intelligence (and reading history) snaps my suspension of disbelief that they are teenagers in high school right in half. Yet they become submissive and stupid to the least likable person to be found in this whole book. it just doesn't track.
I also appreciate this book's portrayal of queer sexuality, but am a bit niggled by its lowkey aversion of asexuality. It's never mentioned, which is fine, but many characters bemoan the centralized importance of sex to the lives of others, which is such an ace feeling! Yet the novel has these characters recognize the importance of sex to their own lives, in different ways, and I am just not entirely comfortable with how it lands. I don't think any of the characters *have* to be ace or it's bad; I think though, that Burton wrote ace characters but didn't realize it and/or didn't want to recognize it, and so the introduction of sexuality later feels a bit shoehorned.
I remain torn on whether I think the big Incident of the final act is pure shock value to the reader, or merely shocking in a purposeful way for Laura. The very fact that I don't know explains why I land pretty middle-of-the-road on this one. There's a lot of interesting character dynamics and revelations and arcs that could be in play, but I'm not sure enough in the writing to know that they are there. Ultimately, I think Burton wrote some really interesting and complex characters, and then didn't quite deliver on making their interpersonal dynamics clear to the reader.
Okay first things first : this book has a scene of attempted sexual assault, as well as suicide and murder. It's a failing of the publisher to not make content warnings for these things available.
The book itself : Burton has created a novel chock full of complex characters who are hard to write off as any one thing. A hard task, when the vast majority of the characters are teenagers, so easy to stereotype and simplify. I found a lot of the motivations here really relatable : the youthful, desperate desire to be Important (World-Historical, in the parlance of this book), the headlong throwing of oneself into causes that matter so much to you, the confusing push and pull of desire and attraction, or lack thereof, both on one's own part and on the part of others. It's really nice to read so many people who are so very morally grey; it's very human.
That said. The character who is set up to be the most dynamic and interesting, is to me, the least dimensional : Virginia Strauss. Everyone is in love with her (literally. everyone.) and I do not know why. She is manipulative, bossy, self-obsessed, and cruel, and yet these teens are in her thrall and carry out her (awful) wishes, even knowing they shouldn't. Burton wrote all of these characters as smart! To the extent that their intelligence (and reading history) snaps my suspension of disbelief that they are teenagers in high school right in half. Yet they become submissive and stupid to the least likable person to be found in this whole book. it just doesn't track.
I also appreciate this book's portrayal of queer sexuality, but am a bit niggled by its lowkey aversion of asexuality. It's never mentioned, which is fine, but many characters bemoan the centralized importance of sex to the lives of others, which is such an ace feeling! Yet the novel has these characters recognize the importance of sex to their own lives, in different ways, and I am just not entirely comfortable with how it lands. I don't think any of the characters *have* to be ace or it's bad; I think though, that Burton wrote ace characters but didn't realize it and/or didn't want to recognize it, and so the introduction of sexuality later feels a bit shoehorned.
I remain torn on whether I think the big Incident of the final act is pure shock value to the reader, or merely shocking in a purposeful way for Laura. The very fact that I don't know explains why I land pretty middle-of-the-road on this one. There's a lot of interesting character dynamics and revelations and arcs that could be in play, but I'm not sure enough in the writing to know that they are there. Ultimately, I think Burton wrote some really interesting and complex characters, and then didn't quite deliver on making their interpersonal dynamics clear to the reader.