3.87 AVERAGE

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I feel as though I just read 500 pages of set up. Dark academia/trial competition set in Purgatory? Sounded amazing. And it started off pretty strong. Interesting magic system and assortment of characters. But I don't think we needed all the povs. While I did enjoy them, I would've liked to have delved deeper into some of their pasts and motivations. Maybe the focus should've been on just a couple or a few of them. And I also wanted more of the history of the magic and lore behind this reaper school and the opposing sect. It felt like we were only given the weakest of breadcrumbs until the end when it feels like the author tried to info dump in order to reveal the twist leading into book two. For 500 pages, why do I feel like I learned so little? The pacing was weird, and I'm just left with a bunch of questions.  Maybe I'll continue the series, though I fear by the time the second book comes out, I'll have forgotten quite a bit cause nothing really stood out to me. I also hope this is a duology and not a drawn out, bloated trilogy.
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
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

it’s…not very good. good enough that i’ll read the next book when it comes out, but the fantasy element is full of plot holes imo, the characters all having super traumatic backstories honestly just pisses me off, and the relationships are not realistic
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous mysterious 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: Complicated
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced