I ~devoured~ this book (ha ha) in about 48 hours because I couldn't put it down. I loved the world of Verse and it's gothic pagan vibes. We get a hint of dark academia in flashbacks with folkloric horror in the present storyline. It did feel a bit torn between those two genres for the first half of the book but I didn't mind it too much.

I'm a big fan of magic enacting physical changes on people, which was definitely a recurring theme here. I also loved Alistair and his very Will Turner story (iykyk).

My biggest hangup was the brother/sister pair both being romantic interests and Camille getting far less romantic build up than Alistair, leading to an insta-love feeling that felt even odder given Lark's feelings for her brother. Queerness was very normalized in this world, so perhaps it would have been less jarring if we'd also been able to see other poly romances in-universe.

I think, ideally, the flashbacks should have taken up less space and gotten to the end result of her fallout with Damson sooner. This would have eased some of the genre tension and allowed more space to be given to developing her relationship with Camille.

Overall, this was an addictive gothic romantasy that will definitely have me checking out Clipstone's other books. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.