Intriguing in concept, rushed and flowery to a nearly incomprehensible degree in execution. I bumped up my rating to a 2 stars because thought the ending portion redeemed it, albeit not by much. So many things happened without much flow or proper development to connect them. The fantasy elements certainly didn’t help, they were either nonsensical(in the case of the caemi) or unclear(in the case of Tychon’s ghost, and the secret society/cult making people ascend to angelhood). Some of the concepts were interesting, and there were the starts to some genuinely intriguing or great story elements—like Adair’s relationship to Veaer, and the moral conflict central to the plot. But so much of this was just vibes. It’s sold as dark academia, but it’s missing the academia critique, so there’s just a bunch of pretty, creepy gothic imagery. What on earth was going on with the butterfly imagery/metaphors?? They kept popping in and out. And what about when they were supposedly in Veaer’s chest cavity, despite her being alive?!?! Was that metaphorical????

I also think this being placed in the world of Tell Me How It Ends without that context being given to the readerbase beforehand(this is sold as a standalone on the author’s Instagram) hindered the worldbuilding. Different terms and kinds of magic weren’t given much explanation. It’s even unclear when this takes place?! Because it’s clear from the last names that this is about the descendants of the TMHIE cast, there’s even statues of them important to Adraredon’s history, so how far in the future is this?? 

The characters were flat as paper. I barely gathered enough traits to be able to call Adair a “favorite”. The dialogue is frequently robotic, not a single thing outside of their attendance of and activities inside the academy is known about these characters, and Veaer’s characterization is essentially built around her obsession with Elise. (And I know this isn’t a characterization issue but, god, the run-on sentences. They were so frequent it sometimes stressed me out.) Which in the  beginning, is completely impossible to pinpoint a reason for. She barely knows this girl, doesn’t have many emotionally significant or vulnerable scenes with her, and basically only knows that she’s pretty and powerful. Also that she murdered her friend. But because of this, Tychon’s murder, and Elise asking Veaer to “help figure out his death” was basically the only thing that drew them together.  

Also, what the hell was going on with Tychon’s ghost??? His motives were super unclear. Did he still care for Elise after death because he was kind of in denial? Why did he choose to haunt Veaer?? Did he hope she’d seek justice?? What were his emotions about any of this?!?!?!?!

I was hoping to find this better than the reviews made it out to be, but this felt too much like a draft. If this had gone through more rounds of editing, I think it could be a gripping, creepy story. It feels weird to be so harsh about an indie, but there were genuinely so many technical and story issues that made it difficult to enjoy this.

Dear god this was a reading experience like no other. I would not like to experience this again.