In the Acknowledgements, the author admits to being creatively burnt out when attempting to write this book, and IT SHOWS!

The fact that this is a story about vampires does not matter. They can go out in the sunlight, they can drink synthetic blood, they get hungry but don't have to fight back bloodlust, they are beautiful and charismatic but don't use their enthralling abilities for political gain (the most interesting thing vampire glamour is used for is a cautionary metaphor about consent at a party). Basically, there is no dark fantasy element to this fantasy academia! It's just... teenagers being teengers.

The teens are all insufferable. They are self-centered, petty, vapid, and nobody knows how to read below surface levels cues - sometimes they can't even read the surface! And all the tropes are here: The protagonist who's never felt like she fit in, the love interest who's a rebel-without-a-cause, the obligatory Mean Girls, the obligatory non-magical best friends who appear as set dressing and then play no further part in her magical-girl story, the hot vampire boyfriend, the mom who just doesn't understand her, the dorky good mentor, AND the charismatic evil mentor, the teacher who seemed rigid but is actually sympathetic, AAAAAND the evil headmaster who seemed goofy and relatable but was hiding his elitist schmuckery behind a smile. It hurts. It all hurts. Everything was predictable, so the fact that Kat and Taylor took four-freaking-hundred pages to piece together the "mystery" hurrrrts.

The book itself had basic errors: Words out of order, words mistakenly repeated, the wrong character named in dialogue. All basic errors that a proof-reader should have caught. CLEARLY, everyone was too tired to work on this book.

Finally, the tone of this book is angry and preachy. It throws all concerns out on the table at once - queer representation, classism and lack of diversity in elite circles, climate change, rigged and unaffordable healthcare - but doesn't do much to discuss these concerns using fantasy as a lens. Many of these concerns aren't related to the plot at all, and are thrown out at the most jarring times (like mid-villain monologue). Mostly, Kat just starts yelling, "WHY DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT _____?!" and then runs away. Or Taylor scoffs, "Ew, conformists," and walks away. Yelling at the reader through your protagonists is not a compelling way to get your point across. I care about these themes! But I don't care for this delivery. It's not a discussion, it's a scolding. And alienating the reader from the two PoV characters made me not care to read or recommend this book at all. There are WAY better queer, more diverse, more eco-conscious, and more socially critical fantasies out there.