Reviews

Well, I'm sad to say that the quest for a truly excellent sapphic academia continues. Although I liked this a good deal better than the last sapphic dark academia I read, I still found some things lacking.

Like many readers, I had a hard time seeing how all four perspectives fit together. Often it felt like I was reading two to three different books. I think if all four characters had personal connections to each other, it would have worked much better. As it was, basically the only character that Louisa had any relation to was Karina. This made the different perspectives feel additionally disjointed. However, all characters went through satisfying development, whether for better or for worse. Preston, falling into the latter category, ended up being an interesting vehicle for exploring the intersection of art, capitalism, and the 2010s internet through a lens that captured both the 2011-2012 setting of the book and the hindsight that the author has 10 years later.

Speaking of the early 2010s...a small thing that bothered the heck out of me was the timeline of Preston's Tumblr. The book says that he started it shortly after his mother's death, which happened when he was 14. This would have been 7-8 years before the events of the book. Tumblr was launched in 2007, 4-5 years before the events of the book. I was surprised that a Millennial author would get this detail wrong—and she could have resolved it by saying that he started on another platform and then migrated to Tumblr, but no, it explicitly says that he started his Tumblr soon after his mom died. This bugged me way too much but I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to get right. Am I crazy??

I read this book in April 2024, as I'm watching encampments protesting the genocide in Gaza go up on university campuses across the country, so the Occupy setting of this book felt especially timely. I might recommend this book to anyone looking for parallels in their reading life to current events.

Anyway, I think this would be a solid read for the art girlies looking for something meditative and gay. Just don't expect it to be The queer academia of all time.

Content Warnings

yaeligrace04's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

craaaaapbag's review against another edition

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4.0

didn’t expect to like it tbh😭

atgerstner's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Every single time we got a Robert or Preston POV I wanted to skip it. Robert ended up actually being quite lovely and interesting, but Preston is irredeemable. Loved Louisa and Karina. Loved the language.

veronica_em's review against another edition

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3.0

I only really cared about Karina and Louisa, the men really weighed down the book. Also, I enjoyed reading it but the message of this book is very muffled and unclear.

kaeteas's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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