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A review by dinipandareads
A Darker Mischief by Derek Milman
2.0
Special thanks to Scholastic Press for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 1.5 stars rounded up
I don't know where to begin because I'm struggling to find something positive to say. I thought this would be outside my comfort zone because the spookier side of dark academia always creeps me out too much but I was willing to give it a chance. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this at all and by the 30% mark, I spent every moment reading it thinking about DNFing and wishing it was already over. I don't know if it was because this book suffered from trying to do too much or if it was simply the writing that made everything come across poorly, but I found the characters irritating, the plot underwhelming, and it wasn't a satisfying conclusion or explanation of the Society and their purpose. In the end, nothing was challenged, so much was excused away, and I found myself thoroughly confused as to what I had just finished reading.
I'm not going to spend too much time going into what didn't work for me but ultimately:
To put it plainly, the writing was bad. It was choppy and disjointed and made for such a poor reading experience. Not only do we jump from scene to scene with nothing to differentiate the breaks, but I felt the author tried too hard to make the writing poetic and mysterious only to fall short of the mark. Throughout the read, I found myself constantly confused and asking: what does this even mean?! What am I even reading? How does this even make sense? It was painful. There was little atmosphere and a distinct lack of emotion which made it difficult to connect to the setting and the characters. Despite being inundated with an overabundance of historical facts and figures about Essex, from the abandoned buildings and secret locations, I would not be able to tell you how the school was laid out or what even the structures looked like as a whole. There was too much context that was not well explained!
I actively disliked the characters. There were moments I did feel for Cal because what he went through was horrifying and heartbreaking and it's not something anyone should have to experience. Despite being sent away from home, it's clear how much he loved and missed his parents. By the time he stumbles across Society, he's desperate and would do anything to find his place in this elite boarding school because he's tired of being a pariah everywhere. That said, everything that happened with him was so convenient—he so easily solves all the mysteries and puzzles and very quickly excels at everything he tries even once. I ultimately grew frustrated with the way his story was told. I think it's just that I never really understood who he was, what he stood for or what he even wanted in the end. As the story progresses he makes increasingly stupid and irritating decisions that don't make sense for his "careful" character, especially when it comes to Luke, who I'm sorry to say, I detested. There are a lot of secondary characters introduced, many of whom are insignificant and disappear after being part of the story for a section and others who remained one-dimensional and had such toxic personalities that I couldn't care less about them. In particular, Luke and Pinky were two characters I couldn't bear and I didn't understand what we were meant to think of or feel for them. I don't know if this was intentional by the author but having to endure repeated appearances of these two as the "main secondary characters" made this an even more trying reading experience.
Finally, I didn't think there was more for me to dislike but I loathed the romance. I'm so sorry—that wasn't romance and it was completely unbelievable. Simply because Luke was such an awful one-dimensional character who didn't seem to have redeeming qualities and who treated Cal like an afterthought. There was no chemistry and quite frankly, no romantic vibes. I'm quite sure Cal also didn't understand Luke either, and he often mentioned how little they knew each other, so it was hard to believe for even a second that they were in love. It honestly made me angry and while I'm all for romance subplots, this was not it.
Overall, I'm genuinely disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy this and I'm confused by all the people who are giving it high ratings because did we even read the same book?
I don't know where to begin because I'm struggling to find something positive to say. I thought this would be outside my comfort zone because the spookier side of dark academia always creeps me out too much but I was willing to give it a chance. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this at all and by the 30% mark, I spent every moment reading it thinking about DNFing and wishing it was already over. I don't know if it was because this book suffered from trying to do too much or if it was simply the writing that made everything come across poorly, but I found the characters irritating, the plot underwhelming, and it wasn't a satisfying conclusion or explanation of the Society and their purpose. In the end, nothing was challenged, so much was excused away, and I found myself thoroughly confused as to what I had just finished reading.
I'm not going to spend too much time going into what didn't work for me but ultimately:
To put it plainly, the writing was bad. It was choppy and disjointed and made for such a poor reading experience. Not only do we jump from scene to scene with nothing to differentiate the breaks, but I felt the author tried too hard to make the writing poetic and mysterious only to fall short of the mark. Throughout the read, I found myself constantly confused and asking: what does this even mean?! What am I even reading? How does this even make sense? It was painful. There was little atmosphere and a distinct lack of emotion which made it difficult to connect to the setting and the characters. Despite being inundated with an overabundance of historical facts and figures about Essex, from the abandoned buildings and secret locations, I would not be able to tell you how the school was laid out or what even the structures looked like as a whole. There was too much context that was not well explained!
I actively disliked the characters. There were moments I did feel for Cal because what he went through was horrifying and heartbreaking and it's not something anyone should have to experience. Despite being sent away from home, it's clear how much he loved and missed his parents. By the time he stumbles across Society, he's desperate and would do anything to find his place in this elite boarding school because he's tired of being a pariah everywhere. That said, everything that happened with him was so convenient—he so easily solves all the mysteries and puzzles and very quickly excels at everything he tries even once. I ultimately grew frustrated with the way his story was told. I think it's just that I never really understood who he was, what he stood for or what he even wanted in the end. As the story progresses he makes increasingly stupid and irritating decisions that don't make sense for his "careful" character, especially when it comes to Luke, who I'm sorry to say, I detested. There are a lot of secondary characters introduced, many of whom are insignificant and disappear after being part of the story for a section and others who remained one-dimensional and had such toxic personalities that I couldn't care less about them. In particular, Luke and Pinky were two characters I couldn't bear and I didn't understand what we were meant to think of or feel for them. I don't know if this was intentional by the author but having to endure repeated appearances of these two as the "main secondary characters" made this an even more trying reading experience.
Finally, I didn't think there was more for me to dislike but I loathed the romance. I'm so sorry—that wasn't romance and it was completely unbelievable. Simply because Luke was such an awful one-dimensional character who didn't seem to have redeeming qualities and who treated Cal like an afterthought. There was no chemistry and quite frankly, no romantic vibes. I'm quite sure Cal also didn't understand Luke either, and he often mentioned how little they knew each other, so it was hard to believe for even a second that they were in love. It honestly made me angry and while I'm all for romance subplots, this was not it.
Overall, I'm genuinely disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy this and I'm confused by all the people who are giving it high ratings because did we even read the same book?