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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-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
Closer to a 2, honestly. The writing is good but the end (especially the character motivations and some of the details) didn't work for me.
mysterious
medium-paced
2.5 stars rounded to to 3!
I had high hopes for this book, and I can’t say it lived up to my expectations. This is, perhaps, why we should stop comparing every single boarding school/murder novel to The Secret History. No book will *ever* be The Secret History, and it does them a great disservice to advertise the book for “fans of The Secret History”.
The story’s protagonist, Felicity, is just all over the place. I think that we were supposed to see her as an unreliable narrator — and she was, certainly, unreliable — but it was missing a certain je ne sais quoi. Her point-of-view definitely did read like that of a mentally unstable person, so at least that was accurate.
The whole rich, girls-only boarding school setting was indeed perfect for the novel’s events. The strange, obsessive, filled-with-blood-lust girls all blended in with one another — how can you identify a killer amongst a school of girls obsessed with niche subjects, fake rituals, and custom-tailored clothing (as a side note, I have never *ever* seen the word ‘bespoke’ used so many times in a book)?
Now for some spoilers:
I felt as though this book tried to pull the same kind of stunt as CoHo’s Verity, in which a plot twist is thrown in at the very end of the book in an attempt to make the whole work seem much more complex. The end of this book was very disjointed, and I quite literally refused to believe that such unstable people could have lied their way out of suspicion for a murder case.
It just comes barreling out of nowhere at the end of the book that — oh, duh! — Felicity knew where Alex’s body was — because she’s the one that buried it! And that - whoops! — she commits another murder and seems to develop a taste for blood! And the fact that Ellis just gets too into the method writing and decides to commit a pretty heinous murder! Ellis’s role in the story was just so strange. Why was she so, so obsessed with driving Felicity insane? Like the book, the postcard, and the grave dirt? Yes, it worked to unsettle her, but why do it in the first place? Maybe I’m just too dumb to understand it but some of the things that Ellis does were just kind of weird.
If the author was looking to scare an easily-spooked girl, they succeeded! Ouija boards and murderous ghosts and ritual murders?! No thank you! Scared me a little too much for my own comfort. But if you like to be scared, maybe this book is for you!
I had high hopes for this book, and I can’t say it lived up to my expectations. This is, perhaps, why we should stop comparing every single boarding school/murder novel to The Secret History. No book will *ever* be The Secret History, and it does them a great disservice to advertise the book for “fans of The Secret History”.
The story’s protagonist, Felicity, is just all over the place. I think that we were supposed to see her as an unreliable narrator — and she was, certainly, unreliable — but it was missing a certain je ne sais quoi. Her point-of-view definitely did read like that of a mentally unstable person, so at least that was accurate.
The whole rich, girls-only boarding school setting was indeed perfect for the novel’s events. The strange, obsessive, filled-with-blood-lust girls all blended in with one another — how can you identify a killer amongst a school of girls obsessed with niche subjects, fake rituals, and custom-tailored clothing (as a side note, I have never *ever* seen the word ‘bespoke’ used so many times in a book)?
Now for some spoilers:
I felt as though this book tried to pull the same kind of stunt as CoHo’s Verity, in which a plot twist is thrown in at the very end of the book in an attempt to make the whole work seem much more complex. The end of this book was very disjointed, and I quite literally refused to believe that such unstable people could have lied their way out of suspicion for a murder case.
It just comes barreling out of nowhere at the end of the book that — oh, duh! — Felicity knew where Alex’s body was — because she’s the one that buried it! And that - whoops! — she commits another murder and seems to develop a taste for blood! And the fact that Ellis just gets too into the method writing and decides to commit a pretty heinous murder! Ellis’s role in the story was just so strange. Why was she so, so obsessed with driving Felicity insane? Like the book, the postcard, and the grave dirt? Yes, it worked to unsettle her, but why do it in the first place? Maybe I’m just too dumb to understand it but some of the things that Ellis does were just kind of weird.
If the author was looking to scare an easily-spooked girl, they succeeded! Ouija boards and murderous ghosts and ritual murders?! No thank you! Scared me a little too much for my own comfort. But if you like to be scared, maybe this book is for you!
dark
mysterious
tense
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:
Yes
I……did not like this. It’ll definitely be someone else’s cup of tea, but there was so much about it that ultimately wasn’t for me. I would have probably loved it when I was younger. I think some of the writing was rather nice and the author did a good job conveying a sense of atmosphere and place, but overall the plot, characters, and pacing were at the best the times fine and the worst of times boring.
Oh, I forgot to mention that this book is also pretentious as fuck, and there are whole conversations that are just there to show how clever the author is as they're referencing figures and books and theories that 95% of readers are unfamiliar with. These conversations have nothing to do with the story or the characters, and they are so dull.
Spoiler
Felicity was a very dull protagonist, and the book suffers for us having to be with her the entire time. (I also abhor the use of present tense for books, and I found it very difficult to get past that.) Ellis is a little manic pixie, but in a way where it’s like…..mysterious and literary. But also boring?? She’s so predictable? And so are all the plot twists — they’re seen from a mile away. The pacing was so slow that at one point in the middle I realized I was just bored out of my mind. The book picks up towards the end, but there’s a good chunk of it that’s just shoved full of ghost lore and nothing happens. I also felt like this simultaneously was so much about the Dalloway Five but also not about them at all. Like, there was both too much written about them but also too little. The book followed the same repeating pattern of Felicity hallucinating but not, Ellis manipulating her but not, o no ghosts but not, and it grew tedious. Again, I did not have the patience for this, but maybe I wouldn’t for the Secret History either if I read it for the first time now! But for my personal experience reading this, it was very meh.Oh, I forgot to mention that this book is also pretentious as fuck, and there are whole conversations that are just there to show how clever the author is as they're referencing figures and books and theories that 95% of readers are unfamiliar with. These conversations have nothing to do with the story or the characters, and they are so dull.
i read the second half with a dark academia playlist on in the background and suffice to say, the vibes were immaculate
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes