Review
Thank you to Roaring Brook Press for an e-arc of this book!
I love a good dark academia style book, and this one worked so well for me. It is a murder mystery at the core, with the allure of dark academia on top. One thing I will say is that this book is brilliantly written, and I was never sure which way the story or the plot was going to do. She also created so much tension between the characters, both romance and friendship.
Jenni Howell manages to evoke an almost frenzied, impatience feeling in this book. It leaves you breathless, gasping, never quite able to catch your breath as you careen through the book. I will admit, I had to put the book down a few times to take a breather.
I don’t like the comparison necessarily, but I do feel like the vibes are somewhat similar to The Raven Boys. Not quite, but I do feel a familiarity with this book. And I can’t explain it. This book was intriguing from start to finish, and honestly, this book is definitely best read without knowing too much going in, and that is all I am going to say on the matter.
All the characters in this book are morally grey. There is no “good” person here. I really enjoyed that our FMC was just as vicious as the boys in this one. So rarely do we also get someone who is as vicious as the MMC. This book overall was nothing like I expected, and honestly I’m going to have to chew on it some. Maybe eventually do a reread. I won’t call this a The Secret History lite, but it definitely was reminiscent of it in more ways than other dark academia books are. And the thing is, while this is categorized as YA, it definitely has crossover appeal to adults as well.
Definitely recommend this book for gothic/horror/dark academia fans, I think you will eat it up!