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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
this was truly excellent to me. i’m willing to look past a lot of the issues I had with this book in the beginning because this touched on so many things I love endlessly. it was dark and gruesome while also beautiful and mysterious. the concepts all tied together in a delicious dark academic fairytale. atta and sonders romance complimented the main plot of this excellently and seeing them come together to fight the fae had me fully unable to put this down.
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
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:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
If you are looking for a gothic, dark academia, spooky book set in Ireland in the 90’s – you’ve found it. The Exorcism of Fairies (great name by the way) follows the story of Atta, a struggling grad student who grew up knowing more about morgues and autopsies than anything else. She attends Trinity College in Dublin where she works part time at a family friend’s morgue, part time as a TA, has a full class load and oh yeah, steals bodies to perform her own autopsies on Unknown Infected corpses from the mysterious plague raging through Ireland right now before selling them to a secret society.
Totally normal…. Right?
I really liked the plot, premise, and tension in this book. This isn’t a spice filled book (there is spice, but it is around 60% of the way into the book), but it is a tension filled one. Atta gets involved with Professor Murdoch (otherwise known as Doctor Frankenstein) who she is the TA for. They have a tumultuous relationship (he’s grumpy, she’s stubborn) at first, but it’s definitely worth it. The chemistry pulled me in and I couldn’t stop reading to know more.
For the plot itself, the premise is the perfect spooky/fall season read. The world building is immersive, and I could picture all the descriptions of the Infected so perfectly. I was waiting for when the fairies would appear (as indicated by the title of the book) and I was not disappointed when they did.
There were some parts of the plot that felt incredibly rushed, even if I understood why they were written that way. I will not detail them since they are major spoilers, but I felt like certain scenes could have been expanded on to understand the motivation between characters or certain characteristics of the main character could have been explained. Additionally, I did feel like the ending was wrapped up too quickly.
My biggest con about this book is how relationships with other women are written. With Imogen (Atta’s friend/old roommate), she keeps subconsciously cataloguing her by how she looks. For instance, almost every reference to Imogen concerns her long blonde hair, long legs, or big boobs. At one point, a man says hi to Imogen first before Atta and Atta thinks, “She wasn’t blonde, busty, and long-legged, after all. Most young men hadn’t yet realized the appeal of soft curves and more to grip.” Another example is how with Emmy (Atta’s current friend/roommate), she has this constant internal acknowledgment that Atta is sooooo glad she’s not like other girls. It’s brought up repeatedly as seen here: “She felt bolstered by Emmy rather than the competitive girl world most women lived in that Atta found disturbing.” Those comments just felt unnecessary and made me roll my eyes at Atta because girl you’re 28 not 14? Act like a grown woman!
Overall, I did enjoy this book and the atmosphere it created, but I also would have like some more explanations for why certain things happened in the book and better relationships between Atta and the women in her life.