Aspects of this were really well handled: the intersection of black culture and Arthurian legend, grief and how and why it’s processed like it is by the protagonist, especially. Other parts—such as the love story, that of course, has a bad boy and a good boy involved, was really, really forgettable. 

However, by the end it does get pacy and more interesting than I had expected. There’s plenty more interesting stuff that can happen in future instalments, and the amount the text had to breath really nurtured all those things to a point that felt organic and not like a very typical first book the genre is so fond of. 

Classifying it as dark academia is a bit mystifying, though. I mean, sure she is technically in college, but basically all of the book has nothing to do with classes or, like, academia… so, yeah. Just some buzz words attached to it, I guess.