A review by midnightbookmusings
Astor Hill by Sydney Madison

dark emotional slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Thank you to NetGalley and PS Published for providing me with the e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. There will be mentioned of some plot points in this review. You are warned.

Astor Hill follows the love story and relationships of Olivia and Ben throughout the fall semester of her junior year and his senior year and all the drama surrounding that since Ben is Olivia’s ex-boyfriend’s older brother. 

First, I want to discuss the positives. This book is a perfect read for autumn. It is very atmospheric and coincidentally, I read it literally during the same time period ish of when the majority of the book took place (October-November), it was very fitting. I love the cover. It’s gorgeous and very eye-catching! And the writing is objectively good with some great quotes.

Unfortunately my enjoyment of the book ends there. 
  • Olivia is very unlikeable as a main character, given her classism, internalized misogyny, and frankly incompetence and lack of ethics as a reporter (but we’ll get to that later). Olivia is very much the poster child of a pick-me girl. Every time there is a new female character introduced, you can guarantee that Olivia will be hostile towards that person until the narrative makes it clear that that person is not a romantic threat to her. Way to go feminism! She’s also shown during her inner monologue to be condescending and classist towards another classmate because “they have always envied us!” Of course, main characters don’t have to be flawless. However, Olivia’s instances of classism and internalized misogyny are never called out or treated negatively in the narrative. Nope. They aren’t even acknowledged. 
  • Ben is boring. It’s like the book is afraid to make him come off badly that it plays it too safe. Ben has xyz issues and conflicts. Guess what? They’re all discussed about and resolved neatly in his inner monologue. And the insta-love thing just doesn’t do it for me. Especially given that it’s only shown at the end of the book
  • Lily! Oh Lily. You exist more as a punching bag and a plot device than a character. Lily’s first appearance through Olivia’s eyes solidly confirm to readers that she’s a mean girl. Then, we flash forward to 3 years later and discover that Lily died on the night we met her. Here’s the thing, she is depicted so badly that the griefs do not really feel earned. And that is saying something considering how quickly the griefs fall into the background and only later resurface towards the end. 
  • The journalism! So, Olivia is a part of  this presumably very prestigious college student-run newspaper. However, as a former student journalist, I really wonder if the authors have ever picked up a student newspaper before in their lives. They don’t report gossip! And they actually tend to have very high journalistic standards. There’s this one scene where Olivia is “interviewing” Ben for the big mysterious story and I cannot emphasize how much I cringed at the way she handles it. I really hope Olivia doesn’t become a journalist in the future. (Also, side note: the Astor Hill newspaper is compared at one point to the Harvard Gazette and the Yale Daily News. The Harvard Crimson IS the student-run newspaper of Harvard College. The Harvard Gazette is the university run news website run by professional journalist.) 
  • The romance: I think the book spends too much time showing how bad Will is to Olivia that by the time Olivia and Ben get together, it’s too rushed. I personally did not see the chemistry in the beginning but they did become cute later on before the melodramatic third act breakup. 
Overall, while the writing is good, the book ultimately falls flat for me. 
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