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A review by ruth_miranda
The Teras Trials by Lucien Burr
5.0
Well, this was brutal. And I do mean BRUTAL.
So, yes, there's violence - a lot of it - and yet, it never feels cheap, or placed upon the page for shock value only, unlike other highly acclaimed novels of this and other genres. You know why? Because the brutality is masterly done, weaved into the story in a way that isn't quite graphic but haunts your brain.
This novel kept me on my toes, at every line. Constant sense of danger, of foreboding, of something reaaaaaally bad is going to happen, so please be careful, characters, please be on your guards. I expected horror, violence, life threatening situations at every second. Because the author never lets us quite relax, does he?
At the same time, there were moments of such pure deliverance on the part of Cassius Jones, such vulnerability, such confusion, that it is impossible not to relate and feel for him. Cass will surely rise to the top tier of my favourite characters for the depths with which he was written and the layers he carries on him. His religious guilt, the family weight he carries, his beliefs of what and who he owes, the manner in which he starts these trials on the premise that his life is not his own but he must survive at every cost, for others depend on it... all this was masterfully well done and interspersed into the tale in pure, organic way. Cass FELT real, all the time.
Hypocrisy rules the university, and the entire society Cass and his 'team mates' live in. And that same hypocrisy bleeds into the group of young people who attend the trials at the university, in the hopes of attaining some sort of freedom and protection to their families. Hypocrisy was never as present, though, as in the way Cassius is perceived and treated by his fellow colleagues on these trials - for there isn't a single one who would not do what he's done. Fred, especially got on my nerves as she's the very last person who can throw stones at anyone, after what she did. The only difference between her actions and Cassius' was that hers went mostly unperceived because Cass's choice had every eye set upon him, due to circumstances. The fact that a character who goes to most of the novel being rather innocuous and barely there, like Fred did, awakened such anger in me because of her behaviour in the face of what Cass had to do - after what she had done - already speakers wonders about the quality of the author's writing.
The last time I was this immersed and sucked into Dark Academia - and not as an aesthetic, mind - was when I first read Donna Tart's The Secret History. The Teras Trials is up there with it, right now. This has shot straight up to the top five best books i've read this year, and i doubt it can be dethroned anytime soon.
I received an ARC courtesy of BookSirens and the author in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.
So, yes, there's violence - a lot of it - and yet, it never feels cheap, or placed upon the page for shock value only, unlike other highly acclaimed novels of this and other genres. You know why? Because the brutality is masterly done, weaved into the story in a way that isn't quite graphic but haunts your brain.
This novel kept me on my toes, at every line. Constant sense of danger, of foreboding, of something reaaaaaally bad is going to happen, so please be careful, characters, please be on your guards. I expected horror, violence, life threatening situations at every second. Because the author never lets us quite relax, does he?
At the same time, there were moments of such pure deliverance on the part of Cassius Jones, such vulnerability, such confusion, that it is impossible not to relate and feel for him. Cass will surely rise to the top tier of my favourite characters for the depths with which he was written and the layers he carries on him. His religious guilt, the family weight he carries, his beliefs of what and who he owes, the manner in which he starts these trials on the premise that his life is not his own but he must survive at every cost, for others depend on it... all this was masterfully well done and interspersed into the tale in pure, organic way. Cass FELT real, all the time.
Hypocrisy rules the university, and the entire society Cass and his 'team mates' live in. And that same hypocrisy bleeds into the group of young people who attend the trials at the university, in the hopes of attaining some sort of freedom and protection to their families. Hypocrisy was never as present, though, as in the way Cassius is perceived and treated by his fellow colleagues on these trials - for there isn't a single one who would not do what he's done. Fred, especially got on my nerves as she's the very last person who can throw stones at anyone, after what she did. The only difference between her actions and Cassius' was that hers went mostly unperceived because Cass's choice had every eye set upon him, due to circumstances. The fact that a character who goes to most of the novel being rather innocuous and barely there, like Fred did, awakened such anger in me because of her behaviour in the face of what Cass had to do - after what she had done - already speakers wonders about the quality of the author's writing.
The last time I was this immersed and sucked into Dark Academia - and not as an aesthetic, mind - was when I first read Donna Tart's The Secret History. The Teras Trials is up there with it, right now. This has shot straight up to the top five best books i've read this year, and i doubt it can be dethroned anytime soon.
I received an ARC courtesy of BookSirens and the author in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.