» QUICK OVERVIEW «
Stars: ★★★☆☆
Plot: ★★★★☆
Readability: ★★★☆☆
Characters: ★★★☆☆
Writing: ★★☆☆☆
Recommend: ✗

» PLOT «
Following the survival of a multiple homicide, Alex joins Yale's freshman class and is tasked by the school to supervise their school's secret societies. But soon after the year starts, the death of a fellow student as well as other unexplained events occur, causing Alex to start to uncover the truth behind the secret societies and the sinister happenings around them.

I'll just out it out there, murder mysteries aren't my thing. At no point in this book, was I interested in the murder mystery. I just wanted to follow the characters... and then they removed the best character from the second half of the book...

On the other hand, I did like the general concept of the story.

» READABILITY «
Half of me really wanted to finish this book, the other half didn't want to read (maybe because I was kind of in a reading slump, or maybe because I prefer light-hearted books). After one of the better characters was taken out of the book, it became much harder to finish. (At this point, I spoiled the book for myself by looking up the ending/plot. This is not a good thing, but I can't deny that there was a point where I really wanted to keep reading.)

» CHARACTERS «
I only really liked one character, and I was very disappointed to find out the he wasn't really present for the second half of the book. No one was really likeable or relatable, and that made it so that I was not as invested in the story.

» WRITING «
Maybe the audiobook went by too fast and I missed it, but the lack of clarity between the past and the present sections was not as clear as it could me. I'm not the biggest fan of being confused, so the writing was just meh.

» OVERALL «
This was my first foray into dark academia and... it wasn't bad. Personally, this book is on the same level as Leigh Bardugo's other books, and also like the other books, I don't know if I will continue with the series.