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jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
With mystery and magic, we follow Emory on a mission to understand her new mysterious powers as she holds magic never before seen after an encounter in the caves of Dovermere that saw several casualties and some missing.
Filled with diversity we have several tropes from best friends brother to lovers to enemies, different presences with a dystopian aspect with the institute and dark academia with the presence of Aldryn College. Additionally we have cultural diversity with characters from various backgrounds as well as queer representation within several relationships and forms in this book.
I could not reccomend this more, with hopes that we get to continue to follow Romie and Emory beyond the gate as they continue into mystery against all odds.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
bibliomania_express's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
achay91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content and Abandonment
susanatherly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
emwith's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture
courtsport3000's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It's got:
-dark academia vibes featuring a big old school on a cliff by the sea (with multiple libraries!)
-secret societies with eerie initiation practices
-a unique magic system boasting a diverse array of abilities, each influenced by phases of the moon
-a creepy sanitorium type facility where something sinister is happening
-family secrets on family secrets on family secrets
-dual POVs where both characters are actually equally engaging
-New Adult energy with YA grade romance (not in a bad way)
-betrayals, cover ups, murders, rescues - alll the drama
This is everything I want from a dark academia fantasy. It was thrill to experience and I cannot overstate how eagerly I'm anticipating the sequel later this year. I want to lose myself in this mysterious world again as soon as possible. Highly recommend.
Special thanks to Margaret K. McElderry Books for an ARC in exchange for review.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use and Death of parent
piperclover's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The most notable thing is that I think this is a case of an author who fell victim to having too many ideas and not understanding how to sort through them and pick the best ones for this book. There's 2 main plots going on and while they do intersect, I think they should have been 2 separate books. I think the first book should have been about Emory and Romi and the second book should've been about Baz, Kai, and Jay. I think having an entire book dedicated to Baz, Kai, and Jay's plot line would make it less rushed and shallow. I really only want to read this book about these 3 characters because I find this plot line so fascinating and I absolutely adore Baz and Kai as characters.
I found myself listening to Emory's plot and povs at 2.5x- 3x times speed but would slow down Baz's. I think splitting it into 2 separate books with Romi and Emory in the first book would give you context and understanding for Baz's plotline while also giving each plot its own space without making a book so long that it was nearly unbearable. I just think that there were better ways for this author to handle the amount of story that they wrote into the single book.
There's so much you have to remember and understand in order to even decently understand this book. So incredibly dense with context and lore and you're listening to chapter exerpts from an in story inside the story that is important to the plot so there's a ton of moving pieces. I swear it took 10 minutes to listen to a single percent of this audiobook because of how dense it is. I just could not outright enjoy it. I was intrigued in the overall plot line and I was super intrigued in anything to do with Baz and Kai but anything to do with Emory or Romi bored me.
I was really excited when I first started listening to realize that it's dual POV but then I realized that I would honestly rather it be just Baz's because I hate Emory with a burning passion. I just cannot stand this character. There was one side character in her plotline that I would have loved to have a POV from and would have even loved to read everything happening to Emory through this side character's eyes because that's how much I hated our main character. I think the characterization is completely intended and I don't think you're supposed to think that she is a good person or a lovable person but because of that I could not care about her and honestly I just wanted her to die. And everything she touched and she ruined every person that she interacted with and I just hate her. It's hard to enjoy a story when you downright hate one of the main characters especially when you're in their head so much.
I've seen people say that they enjoyed the way that queer relationships are alluded to in this book, how this book handles the complexity of queer relationships and crushing on people when you're queer. I don't want to undermine the people who believe that but personally I don't think that's what this book does. It frustrates me that there are 2 same-sex relationships in this book and both of them are off screen with dead or perceived dead characters. I don't think that's representation, I think that's a tragic form of queer baiting or something adjacent to it and it bothers me a lot. It's also implied that Kai has a romantic interest in Baz but is never confirmed with words or actions but I desperately want Kai and Baz to get together. They have such a fascinating dynamic as friends and as the last of their house. </Spoilers> when the second book comes out and if these 2 characters do not get together I'm not going to bother listening to it. This book is very plot-driven and not so much character-driven and I need intense character-driven stories in order to care about the plot.
I could go into such detail about all the things that bothered me or disappointed me or liked but wasn't given enough of. The last things that I'm going to mention is that this book has so much blood in it. I'm absolutely horrified by descriptions of blood so when blood letting magic and taking blood became progressively more present, I was getting worried. There are entire scenes that feature blood being drawn or injecting into blood etc. This alone nearly made me dnf at 28%.
There are 3 narrators and I think all 3 narrators did fantastic jobs, particularly Gary Furlong.
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical content and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death of parent
mgcalder's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
luckykosmos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
One was just worldbuilding jargon - there was a point where it didn't feel natural, like something someone would say. It felt like Lacelle held on to the alignment/sign/etc verbiage with white knuckles and wouldn't let go. Maybe this is more a flaw of this kind of fantasy, but as much as I loved the magic system, tied to moon cycles in a very specific way, it did take me out.
The other was
I loved the Collapsing switcheroo and the characters involved there. I think there's a lot of potential in book 2, because with a bit more editing, I would have adored this.
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Death of parent