I gobbled this up in a day and that readability and the premise are definitely the strongest pieces here. It's a mystery set at a magic school, I mean come on. I was sold immediately. The overall experience was good, but not great.

Because our protagonist was non-magic, it allowed Gailey to handwave over some of her world-building and some of the rules of magic. I was mostly okay with that while reading-- Ivy didn't understand things so we didn't understand things. After reading, I was more aware of how that hand waving left an indistinct impression of the story in my memory and feelings. This isn't one that will last.

The story was also super repetitive. We follow the main character Ivy closely, and get a lot of her thoughts about being a fish out of water inside the magic school. It could've been tightened up a lot. I liked her reflections on her decisions-- on the way that she was acting out a part with a confidence she didn't feel. I didn't think we needed to hear over and over the specifics of her feelings toward her sister or her resentment etc. Once established, the reader can carry that and connect the dots for themselves. Overall, I did like Ivy, though.

I don't think the identity of the murderer was particularly shocking. I did think it was a nice gray area motivation, however.

That said, I wanted to warn against some representation/content things. There are two queer couples in this story.

Spoiler

The first are teens who serve as minor background characters. Then, the murdered woman is a lesbian. And the murderer is her partner, though again it was an accident. I just figured it was worth mentioning that the prominently feature lesbian couple are murdered and murderer.

I'm sad to leave behind the potential of this world and this premise, to be honest. I enjoyed it while it lasted but I'm not sure how much will be memorable.