I will unfortunately not be finishing this book at around 30%. There was so much promise in this book, the plot is really good & the writing creates a beautiful, dark atmospheric setting. Unfortunately the thing that lets this book down is the characters and dialogue, it's just all so flat and just lacks any real depth, which is such a shame because I really did try to continue on with this book as the plot has so much promise. It's immediately evident that Wilson has pulled a lot of her inspiration from Ninth House, from Andromeda MC , (hello Galaxy Stern) who doesn't belong at the prestigious school , with it's secret societies and their elicit Magic, and lastly a trip to the underworld to save our damsel in distress (except this time it's not Darlington).
In terms of it being a Dark Academia, the main link is the setting, there's the odd mention of classes here and there but nothing in depth or 'academia' driven. I would've loved for some of the clues to include lessons.

Overall if the characters and dialogue was more developed I think I would have finished this book.

Thank you NetGalley & Penguin Random House for this eARC in return for my review.