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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
The line between female obsession and sapphic love drew me in but I stayed for Burton’s command of language and atmosphere. Had me hooked until the very end.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
GOD. 5 stars. this has everything. those sapphic friendships where you’re too obsessed with each other, where everything she says seems right and holy. the boarding school dark academia setting and how so much of this is a cautionary tale about romanticizing institutions like that instead of making them change.
Laura as a protag, who I know some people don’t like but I completely understand because I was also a romanticizing, naive, virginal teenager at sixteen. the way the friendships feel so fragile but also larger than life. the ending, god, the murder-suicide – it feels inevitable but it hits so hard.
and i love the way Laura goes from desperately wanting to believe in something more & bigger, to growing up and realizing life isn’t a story but that doesn’t make it any less meaningful … I could weep over this book
Laura as a protag, who I know some people don’t like but I completely understand because I was also a romanticizing, naive, virginal teenager at sixteen. the way the friendships feel so fragile but also larger than life. the ending, god, the murder-suicide – it feels inevitable but it hits so hard.
and i love the way Laura goes from desperately wanting to believe in something more & bigger, to growing up and realizing life isn’t a story but that doesn’t make it any less meaningful … I could weep over this book
a parallel parallel world where twelve year old me got her wish granted and went to boarding school instead of dodea high schools
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The characters felt very surface level and there wasn’t much growth. I enjoy the details and it felt like this book didn’t have a lot of depth.
Sapphic dark academia with religious overtones? It was not perfect and yet and yet and yet it satisfied a very specific itch for me. I think about how people talk about their "Fleabag era" but this is taking self-destruction and masochism to another level. I do love a pathetic main character.
This book feels like a self aware dark academia book that almost pokes fun of how dramatic dark academia can be. It’s very angsty in a teenage way. I enjoyed it but I can see why other people wouldn’t.