⚠️This contains slight spoilers!

I REALLY wanted to love this book for how much praise it got, but I think the overall message and complex themes were lost on me. I also want to state that I understand how dark academia is a critique/commentary on elitist education, and it can be described rather satirically. I understand the characters aren’t meant to be likable, the themes were supposed to be dark, etc. Though that doesn’t take away from the fact that I did not have a fun time reading this like I anticipated.

I should have checked the trigger warnings because I was completely blindsided by the themes of attempted suicide, actual suicide, incest, abuse, substance abuse, blatant bigotry, and rape fantasies. Like oh, my, goodness.

One part that made me feel very unsafe was when Camilla was telling Richard that her own twin- her own blood and family- was physically abusing her and being extremely protective, not in a brotherly sense but in a romantic sense. And apparently the group knew that Charles and Camilla having a sexual relationship, but I can’t help but believe that it was not consensual in the slightest. So Richard proceeds to imagine what it would be like to grape her (around page 470 or smth if I remember correctly).

Like who in their right mind??? Anyways I found every character insufferable except for the professor because he was the one I knew least about. I also liked how romanticism was displayed through his character by making him never see things as how they really were but the best version of it.

This book also had a slew of homophobia and blatant racism that was not explored more deeply considering this novel should be a commentary on those things in the education system or the social life of a student. It felt more like the dark academic theme was a way to excuse her just randomly and sometimes excessively repeating slurs and justifying it by saying “it’s deeper than that”. Like okay?? Then at least leave think pieces or portray how those scenes point to something more complex than just repeating the n-, f-, and r- slurs successively. It felt like a child learning their first swear word and they won’t stop saying it.

Also considering that the book is almost 600 pages, you would hope that things are actually developed. However I wish we knew more about Camilla’s character for example. I wanted to know more about why she seemed so emotionally detached and her experience of being the only girl in a group of unhinged (in the worst way possible) guys. Also of course the author had to force a pathetic romance between Camilla and all of the straight guys in the friend group. Like majority of them felt so random or unbelievable.

TLDR; read the trigger warnings, the pacing and character development could have been better considering its length, some parts were just random bigotry that didn’t move the plot, and everything was insufferable. Bonus points for nice imagery and descriptions tho.