Reviews

Great writing but at times felt like a Yale brochure which i acknowledge helped with world building but still felt bleh especially considering the author went to Yale 💀
Twist at the end that I didn’t see coming!!!
Of course leaves it open for a sequel, also unsure how I feel about white authors writing poc characters esp as their main ones

bookishsamah's review against another edition

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3.0

I started this book a few months back and I just couldn’t get myself to continue reading. It was just so freaking slow paced. And now I kind of regret not finishing this sooner because the ending got me like ????????? It’s like I’m on a boring slow car drive and the next thing I know, I’m in a fighter jet.
Based in an Ivy League setting, with several secret “societies” tampering with dark magic and a society called Lethe monitoring the activities of the other societies, traumatic backstories, lust, and the uncanny, this book was a combination of eerie fantasy and sinister power. The characters were amazing. Alex Stern is my newest fictional crush and it ain’t changing anytime soon. She’s sarcastic, she’s bold and she takes no shit. Daniel Arlington who could seduce me to the dark side with his intelligence and geekiness, Dawes who’s the cinnamon roll of this story and detective Turner with his sarcasm. However, this book is definitely not my favourite book of Leigh.
I actually give this book a 3.5 out of 5 but since GoodReads isn’t giving this option to us, I’ll go with 3. The world building was too slow. The first 50-100 pages were just nothing. Or maybe I just wasn’t able to grip the writing idk. It took me a LOT of motivation to finish this. Reading shouldn’t be a chore but this book kind of felt like one. But I thought this had potential to have a mind blowing ending and it definitely did. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but it CERTAINLY WAS NOT WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END. I can’t wait for Hell Bent’s release and go further into the story.

crocodileteeth's review against another edition

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4.0

Very good book. Just very long and a little boring at times. There’s so much information and so many names that it’s hard to keep track of everything that’s going on. However, I think the last few chapters made it worth it.