This is one of the most engrossing and intense books I've ever read. It's not a thriller, and it only has a smidge of horror. But it also had me on the edge of my seat for a scene of our protagonist getting out of a car -- twice!
(I think the first exiting-a-car scene is my favorite moment of the book.)

This is the story of Effy, an architecture student in 1930's fantasy Wales. She is under intense pressure from her all-male classmates, and so it's a dream come true when she gets to escape to a remote project. She goes into the countryside to design a renovation of the manor of her FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME. Effy is obsessed with the novel Angharad, a tale of a woman fighting the Fairy King. It's Effy's favorite because she hallucinates the Fairy King stalking her, and the novel is the only thing that makes her feel sane. However, the manor house is not the escape she wanted, as a rival student also has a project there, and the Fairy King lurks close in the wild cliffs.

It's a coming of age story. It's hauntingly gothic. It's a romance. It's a book that is playing with what fantasy stories mean, in a very metatextual way. Sometimes it feels like realistic dark academia, sometimes urban fantasy with a side of horror. It's YA, in a way that is accessible without ever being annoyingly teenagerish.

I love it. I'm obsessed with this beautiful novel. It's so emotional and raw and poetic and mysterious.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperTeen for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

Merged review:

This is one of the most engrossing and intense books I've ever read. It's not a thriller, and it only has a smidge of horror. But it also had me on the edge of my seat for a scene of our protagonist getting out of a car -- twice!
(I think the first exiting-a-car scene is my favorite moment of the book.)

This is the story of Effy, an architecture student in 1930's fantasy Wales. She is under intense pressure from her all-male classmates, and so it's a dream come true when she gets to escape to a remote project. She goes into the countryside to design a renovation of the manor of her FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME. Effy is obsessed with the novel Angharad, a tale of a woman fighting the Fairy King. It's Effy's favorite because she hallucinates the Fairy King stalking her, and the novel is the only thing that makes her feel sane. However, the manor house is not the escape she wanted, as a rival student also has a project there, and the Fairy King lurks close in the wild cliffs.

It's a coming of age story. It's hauntingly gothic. It's a romance. It's a book that is playing with what fantasy stories mean, in a very metatextual way. Sometimes it feels like realistic dark academia, sometimes urban fantasy with a side of horror. It's YA, in a way that is accessible without ever being annoyingly teenagerish.

I love it. I'm obsessed with this beautiful novel. It's so emotional and raw and poetic and mysterious.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperTeen for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.