Enjoyment rating: 2
Quality rating: 3

I realized about halfway through this book that this wasn’t my kind of book and I wasn’t the right audience for it, but I’ll try to be otherwise as objective as possible.

In the beginning of the book, the vibes were immaculate, as the kids say. The book had a rich academic atmosphere full of mystery and intrigue. The description of the library alone had me convinced this was THE book for me. The dark academia elements were right on, and Page trying to find her way in a new school with her classmates from different worlds is well done. I loved the references to classic literature, and I enjoyed the fact that I had to pull out a dictionary and Google more than once to brush up on my vocabulary or references to Greek mythology. That doesn’t happen very often, and it’s exactly what I’d hope for in a dark academia book. I wish some of the references had more depth to the story instead of just showing how educated the characters are, but they’re fun regardless. It was perhaps trying a little too hard, but I was here for it.

Things got weird when it moved from dark academia boarding school with super rich kids to the magical elements. What was working really well was lost in trying to develop and explain what was going on. There are a lot of complex explanations, fast action scenes that are hard to follow, and a lot of confusing events. To be completely fair, I’m not into demons or body swapping as concepts, but I also had a hard time following what was happening — or figuring out why I should care. There are a lot of weird things going on, and I found it more gross and disturbing than enjoyable in any way. 

The character development started out well, but several characters had big moments later in the book that didn’t hit for me because their development had paused. I sometimes had a hard time remembering which character was which, which got even worse when body swapping came into the picture. It seems like found family was supposed to be a key element of this, but there were characters that never seemed to have a relationship built with Page herself except for just being part of the friend group automatically. 

It also seemed like there wasn’t a lot of development in the overall effects of what happens in the book and how this school and the actions of it have been going for so long. What happens after the events in the book? What kind of impact did this have in the world? How closely connected is the mythology of this book to the real world? I never could figure it out. There’s a big need not to ask too many questions to get through the book, and I found myself not wanting to ask them because I didn’t really want more details about this weird world anyway. I did wonder why all of these students for generations didn’t ask those questions though. The kids that go to this school are supposed to be smart, but oh boy are they willing to be oblivious about some really weird stuff. 

Overall, this wasn’t a book for me. I just don’t like gruesome elements, demons, or body-swapping much. If I read something with those elements, I need the book to be well-written to convince me to stick around anyway. This book didn’t do that. However, I think dark academia fans looking for a dark magic story may enjoy this a lot.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book for purposes of review. My opinions were not influenced by this at all.