This was much better than I had expected, but I still had some issues with it. At first, I was worried that it would live up to the same dark academic tropes as all of the books of that genre. While it did share many of them, it stuck out because of its fantasy elements. I liked the way that the story unfolded and how we learned about the characters, but sometimes it felt like the character growth would happen and then a few chapters later revert to how they originally were. The plot was great, except for one plotline that was never resolved at the end and was forgotten. Other than that it was a nice read and I would be happy if there were a sequel only to tie up the loose ends.