This book was very close to being great to me, but there were a few parts that fell flat. I’m usually all for no plot, just vibes, but I don’t know that that was what the author was going for. I think they nailed the dark academia aesthetic and setting, and the pretentiousness can be fun if your ready to indulge in it, and those were the parts I really enjoyed. However, I found the plot got a little convoluted at times. It was very repetitive in the middle with chapter after chapter of just characters talking at each other about the same thing over and over again, then there was A LOT of plot stuff revealed at the very end, and I didn’t buy into one of the main conflicts*. All that being said, I am still looking forward to the sequel, and hopefully in it my issues with this first one will be resolved.

*

When they realize they need to kill off one of their group to advance to the second phase they’re really conflicted and torn up about having to kill someone BUT in their first night at the institute they kill like a dozen people without a second thought (and I think for most characters it was their first time killing anyone) and none of them are as affected by that as they are by just the thought of having to kill a member of their group (and it’s also a really easy choice to make because one of the characters objectively sucks in every way). Unless I missed something, I felt this was not explored or set up very well at all.