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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
dark
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
At the beginning, this was so good, then i lost the plot and i became bored. I was so excited to read a wlw dark academia book, especially i read this book without knowing this. But then Felicity was so infuriating and i didn't like her, bor i did like the other girl.
You guys don't understand... I'm obsessed
I can't form coherent sentences because I happen to only be eloquent when I have to talk shit. But I'm done hating! Today it's love.. I... love today.
''Bury my bones deep, that I might feel the flames of Hell
-Last words of Margery Lemont, recorded by those present at her burial''
This is everything I've ever wanted from dark academia, hell, everything I've ever wanted in a book. This is what I wanted The Secret History to feel like. Victoria Lee gave me everything and managed to give the world a wonderful book with no male characters.
From this point I guess you could consider these as light spoilers (light because they're totally out of context) but I have to share my thought process in the form of pictures I've been saving from Twitter from the past years.
Me as soon as we were told that E was practising her forgery skills
The fact that we had an unreliable narrator makes this book even better for me. Maybe that's the main reason I loved it so much. But just remember: take your meds, kiddos! No matter how much you think you don't need to, If you start feeling like you're being haunted by your ex that cannot mean anything good for your sweet pretty brain. Of course, you could just blame it on the witches. To each their own.
From now on, you can probably find me sitting on my bed at 3am thinking about Felicity and how I would like to start a formal petition to add her to our ''Good For Her'' canon.
I'll write something better and actually helpful to those looking into reading this book later, when my will to live comes back from the grave.
I can't form coherent sentences because I happen to only be eloquent when I have to talk shit. But I'm done hating! Today it's love.. I... love today.
''Bury my bones deep, that I might feel the flames of Hell
-Last words of Margery Lemont, recorded by those present at her burial''
This is everything I've ever wanted from dark academia, hell, everything I've ever wanted in a book. This is what I wanted The Secret History to feel like. Victoria Lee gave me everything and managed to give the world a wonderful book with no male characters.
From this point I guess you could consider these as light spoilers (light because they're totally out of context) but I have to share my thought process in the form of pictures I've been saving from Twitter from the past years.
Me as soon as we were told that E was practising her forgery skills
The fact that we had an unreliable narrator makes this book even better for me. Maybe that's the main reason I loved it so much. But just remember: take your meds, kiddos! No matter how much you think you don't need to, If you start feeling like you're being haunted by your ex that cannot mean anything good for your sweet pretty brain. Of course, you could just blame it on the witches. To each their own.
From now on, you can probably find me sitting on my bed at 3am thinking about Felicity and how I would like to start a formal petition to add her to our ''Good For Her'' canon.
I'll write something better and actually helpful to those looking into reading this book later, when my will to live comes back from the grave.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book... just wow, and not in a good way.
Nice things about the book:
-the actual writing was well done and very lyrical
-there was a great spooky atmosphere throughout the book that kept you as unsettled as the main character
-Very intriguing concepts
-The last 2 chapters were thrilling and suspenseful. A real cat and mouse situation. If only the whole book felt that way.
Not great things about this book:
-Felicity, the main character, was very self-centered and not very memorable. She was easily manipulated and did not think through her actions. Pretty unredeemable and unlikeable who did not see any red flags.
-Ellis, the main love interest, was even worse as a character and person. She was manipulative, horrible, and everything pretentious you can think of. I actually yelled at the audiobook as I listened when she did awful things.
-There were hits of magic and witches throughout the book that were never fulfilled. Don't go into this book looking for fantasy
-I kept on thinking there was no point in these characters being teenagers. They felt like college-age women. They constantly drank, smoked, and even rented a car (even with a fake id, a 17-year-old would not look like a 25-year-old, which is how old you need to be to rent a car). I do not think any of these girls had a time when they were not drinking booze or at least some coffee. This book would have felt better if the author gave up the pretense of this being YA and just made it adult.
-Did not handle mental health issues well at all.
-70% of the book was just atmosphere and no plot. Then the book's tone shifted from magical mystery dark academia to suspense.
Tldr: Good in theory book with decent writing but with horrible characters, bad pacing, but an interesting ending.
Nice things about the book:
-the actual writing was well done and very lyrical
-there was a great spooky atmosphere throughout the book that kept you as unsettled as the main character
-Very intriguing concepts
-The last 2 chapters were thrilling and suspenseful. A real cat and mouse situation. If only the whole book felt that way.
Not great things about this book:
-Felicity, the main character, was very self-centered and not very memorable. She was easily manipulated and did not think through her actions. Pretty unredeemable and unlikeable who did not see any red flags.
-Ellis, the main love interest, was even worse as a character and person. She was manipulative, horrible, and everything pretentious you can think of. I actually yelled at the audiobook as I listened when she did awful things.
-There were hits of magic and witches throughout the book that were never fulfilled. Don't go into this book looking for fantasy
-I kept on thinking there was no point in these characters being teenagers. They felt like college-age women. They constantly drank, smoked, and even rented a car (even with a fake id, a 17-year-old would not look like a 25-year-old, which is how old you need to be to rent a car). I do not think any of these girls had a time when they were not drinking booze or at least some coffee. This book would have felt better if the author gave up the pretense of this being YA and just made it adult.
-Did not handle mental health issues well at all.
-70% of the book was just atmosphere and no plot. Then the book's tone shifted from magical mystery dark academia to suspense.
Tldr: Good in theory book with decent writing but with horrible characters, bad pacing, but an interesting ending.
I read the last 35 pages of this book so fast to finish it before the liveshow and everything is a blur but will I go back? I don’t think so lol
I was expecting to love this more, to be honest, which is a shame! I think this book tried to explore so many things all at once, and if it had stuck to maybe one or two less elements, it would have been better executed, but maybe that's wishful thinking on my part. I felt like the plot was a little bit all over the place, and we didn't dive into the characters enough, which is often my favourite part of dark academia. I loved the school setting and wish we would have learned more about the history of the school because that was super interesting to me. I also loved the witchy vibes of it all, I think that was my favourite part. The dark academia aspect of it was there, but like many books that are called dark academia books these days, it seemed to be more about name dropping and vibes than having a role in the actual story itself. I love when the art referenced in the book has an influence on the way the story is told, on the plot or on the characters' personalities or actions, and I didn't find this here. I think that if you're looking for a spooky, murdery fun times, then this could be for you but my personal expectations were not met, sadly!
I was expecting to love this more, to be honest, which is a shame! I think this book tried to explore so many things all at once, and if it had stuck to maybe one or two less elements, it would have been better executed, but maybe that's wishful thinking on my part. I felt like the plot was a little bit all over the place, and we didn't dive into the characters enough, which is often my favourite part of dark academia. I loved the school setting and wish we would have learned more about the history of the school because that was super interesting to me. I also loved the witchy vibes of it all, I think that was my favourite part. The dark academia aspect of it was there, but like many books that are called dark academia books these days, it seemed to be more about name dropping and vibes than having a role in the actual story itself. I love when the art referenced in the book has an influence on the way the story is told, on the plot or on the characters' personalities or actions, and I didn't find this here. I think that if you're looking for a spooky, murdery fun times, then this could be for you but my personal expectations were not met, sadly!
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have sooo many questions about this book, what happened, and the ending!
First let us start with some Content Warnings: Death, Violence, Manipulation and emotional abuse, Child neglect (past/offscreen), Mental health issues, Substance abuse, Suicide references (no actual suicide), References to racist history at a PWI. Victoria goes into more detail about each of these on her website (http://victorialeewrites.com/a-lesson-in-vengeance-content-warnings/).
This book is YA Dark Academia. Now this is my first dark academia book so I have no prior knowledge of the genre. I really enjoyed this book. Now I'm not sure the genre is for me, I found myself a little anxious not knowing if there would be a HEA or what could happen to the characters.
I could not put this book down. I just had to get to the ending. This is told from the POV of Felicity, who is returning to school after taking a semester off. She is really struggling with her mental health. She is an unreliable narrator and I'm still questioning if some parts of the book really happened how she thinks they did.
The twists in this book were incredible, I did not see them coming and when I thought I knew something, I did not. I was contently guessing! I found this book very enjoyable and I will have to check out some more dark academia to see how I feel about the genre as a whole.
First let us start with some Content Warnings: Death, Violence, Manipulation and emotional abuse, Child neglect (past/offscreen), Mental health issues, Substance abuse, Suicide references (no actual suicide), References to racist history at a PWI. Victoria goes into more detail about each of these on her website (http://victorialeewrites.com/a-lesson-in-vengeance-content-warnings/).
This book is YA Dark Academia. Now this is my first dark academia book so I have no prior knowledge of the genre. I really enjoyed this book. Now I'm not sure the genre is for me, I found myself a little anxious not knowing if there would be a HEA or what could happen to the characters.
I could not put this book down. I just had to get to the ending. This is told from the POV of Felicity, who is returning to school after taking a semester off. She is really struggling with her mental health. She is an unreliable narrator and I'm still questioning if some parts of the book really happened how she thinks they did.
The twists in this book were incredible, I did not see them coming and when I thought I knew something, I did not. I was contently guessing! I found this book very enjoyable and I will have to check out some more dark academia to see how I feel about the genre as a whole.
yet another book marketed as supernatural that turns out to have a perfectly logical and natural explanation to all the supernatural shit in it as a gotcha to the reader. explanation which, of course, requires a lot more suspension of disbelief than if there were actually witches and ghosts in godwin house. god. i like the ambience, i guess. guessed the plot twist which always makes me feel smart.