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A review by grayroacegnome
Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian
3.0
As someone who is not usually a fan of romance books at all, I enjoyed this one - the narrative still kept me interested overall. This is a character-driven, romance-focused story within a magical realism setting, rather than a plot-driven fantasy novel; I wouldn't personally call it dark academia, it is romantasy that happens to be between university students. The plot is relatively secondary to the relationship development, and it also contains a moderate amount of sexual content during a few different chapters in the second half, so heads up if that's not your bag.
I liked the two MCs a lot, and felt they were well-developed, by the end of the book. They were both flawed, and at times frustratingly introspective but with no real self-awareness, spending a lot of time pendulum-ing between their obsessive love & hate for each other with seemingly no cause (almost that they just suddenly remembered they were still bitter about their past rivalry, then suddenly forgot again) - but they both grew on me during the second half as their views of each other matured. The secondary characters were likable, and although not developed in any great depth, it left a lot of room for them to hopefully build more in the future instalments in this book series.
The writing style itself was really endearing. I enjoyed a lot of the metaphors and prose, though they did occasionally get a little heavy-handed and slightly cringe-worthy. I also loved the queer representation and non-traditional family dynamics at play, and I think they were handled really well which is fantastic to see!
Given my limited experience with romance books, I'm not sure whether the plot being secondary (or even tertiary) to the relationship development & repetitive rivals-to-lovers dynamic is standard for the genre, or specific to this book. Personally I would have enjoyed this more if it had more to-the-point romance and greater development/emphasis of the plot. While I understand that this is only the first book in a series so some mysteries need to be left to explore in the next books, there were a few plot points relating to the antagonist that seemed really interesting but ultimately didn't go anywhere, and it left her feeling underplayed as a character & underwhelming as a threat (after a really promising start). But perhaps that is me trying to make this book fit a different genre rather than reading it for what it is, which would be no reflection at all on the quality of the book or the excellent work of the author in writing a romance novel. As I say, I still enjoyed reading it! And there are still a lot of other great loose ends ready for book 2 which I'm sure will be equally engaging.
I really appreciate Pan MacMillan & NetGalley sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review, it's a good book and I'm very interested to see what else Isabel Agajanian does in future.
I will now include some Content Warnings for those who find them helpful, so STOP READING HERE TO AVOID MINOR SPOILERS!
-----------------
Content Warnings:
- absent parents, potentially triggering for child neglect
- alcohol use
- bereavement, including parent losing a child, and children experiencing loss of friend/parent
- biphobia (briefly mentioned, not depicted)
- murder, body horror, violence & blood
- sexual content, mildly spicy
I liked the two MCs a lot, and felt they were well-developed, by the end of the book. They were both flawed, and at times frustratingly introspective but with no real self-awareness, spending a lot of time pendulum-ing between their obsessive love & hate for each other with seemingly no cause (almost that they just suddenly remembered they were still bitter about their past rivalry, then suddenly forgot again) - but they both grew on me during the second half as their views of each other matured. The secondary characters were likable, and although not developed in any great depth, it left a lot of room for them to hopefully build more in the future instalments in this book series.
The writing style itself was really endearing. I enjoyed a lot of the metaphors and prose, though they did occasionally get a little heavy-handed and slightly cringe-worthy. I also loved the queer representation and non-traditional family dynamics at play, and I think they were handled really well which is fantastic to see!
Given my limited experience with romance books, I'm not sure whether the plot being secondary (or even tertiary) to the relationship development & repetitive rivals-to-lovers dynamic is standard for the genre, or specific to this book. Personally I would have enjoyed this more if it had more to-the-point romance and greater development/emphasis of the plot. While I understand that this is only the first book in a series so some mysteries need to be left to explore in the next books, there were a few plot points relating to the antagonist that seemed really interesting but ultimately didn't go anywhere, and it left her feeling underplayed as a character & underwhelming as a threat (after a really promising start). But perhaps that is me trying to make this book fit a different genre rather than reading it for what it is, which would be no reflection at all on the quality of the book or the excellent work of the author in writing a romance novel. As I say, I still enjoyed reading it! And there are still a lot of other great loose ends ready for book 2 which I'm sure will be equally engaging.
I really appreciate Pan MacMillan & NetGalley sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review, it's a good book and I'm very interested to see what else Isabel Agajanian does in future.
I will now include some Content Warnings for those who find them helpful, so STOP READING HERE TO AVOID MINOR SPOILERS!
-----------------
Content Warnings:
Spoiler
- absent parents, potentially triggering for child neglect
- alcohol use
- bereavement, including parent losing a child, and children experiencing loss of friend/parent
- biphobia (briefly mentioned, not depicted)
- murder, body horror, violence & blood
- sexual content, mildly spicy