For such a short book, this was wild.

I've ended up in a hole of reading dark academia and horror this October, and honestly I've been having a great time. This was honestly the perfect book to read in October, especially since this book was not horror, it was also filled with tons of creepy forests, spooky plants, and general scary fall vibes. I don't think this will end up being a favorite book of mine, but I did enjoy it for what it was: a quick, spooky read about death, family, and what you're willing to do to save the people you love (and what happens when you go too far). I liked how it explored the family and sister dynamics, especially in light of some of the major reveals near the end of the book. This book technically has a sort of romance, but it was honestly really weird, and I wasn't into it at all, so I'm just pretending it wasn't really there. Overall, most of the book was 3 stars, but the final reveal and the way it was explored made it 4 stars for me!

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I ended up really enjoying reading this book, and it's been great to see that I still enjoy Roth's writing, even if we've both grown a lot since Divergent. It was interesting to see her blend this sci-fi setting of a broken world with Antigone, and I really liked how it ended up working together. I hadn't been too familiar with Antigone before reading this, but after reading a summary after finishing this novella, I only appreciated how Roth used the source material even more.

Since Arch-Conspirator is a novella, it's overall quite a quick read, and I can see that being an issue for some in this specific instance. The world is such a fascinating one, but we don't actually get the chance to fully explore it. There was a lot to fit in to these 128 pages, and that meant a lot of the further world explanation had to be skipped over in order to keep the story moving and developing. While I didn't necessarily mind not fully diving into the world, I do think this book could've easily been full-length as well. I would've loved to see more about how the world got this way, and more of it's politics and inner-workings. I also feel like it would've given us more space and time to truly connect to the characters, especially Antigone, her sister, and her betrothed, which would've made the final ending even more hard-hitting.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this quick retelling of Antigone, and I quite liked the futuristic spin that Roth added to it! It's made me excited to dive into more of her more recent releases.

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the audiobook ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I usually really love romance audiobooks, so I was super excited when I was approved for this one. I actually ended up quite enjoying the narrators themselves, even if they aren’t new favorites, and felt they fit the characters quite well. I wasn’t always a big fan of how the male narrator did female voices, especially for some side characters, but it didn’t end up bothering too much. I think the narration itself is what made me stick around and finish this book, instead of DNFing it.

I wanted to love the romance itself, and it had many elements that I felt like could build to a good romance, but it just never got there. My biggest issue with the book were the female characters, and how it felt like there was just women hating on other women. About 50% of the named female characters were simply there to prove how hot James was and ogle over him (and that 50% is counting family members and older women). It was just such a frustrating pattern: we’d meet a woman who served some other narrative purpose at first (played a role in the wedding, was a shop-owner, etc.), and as soon as James shows up, they’re just there to ogle him and make Ivy jealous. Even if I had been enjoying the book besides this, this would have ruined it for me.

Alongside that, I also just didn’t feel any chemistry or sparks between Ivy and James. It felt like so much development happened off-page, with dates or scenes being introduced but then ending up being summarized instead of actually diving into conversations between the pair. I also just never felt any real fire behind their ‘rivalry’, and since this is what the entire book is kind of built on, it made a lot of the story fall flat. Don’t get me wrong, Ivy and James were cute together, but I would’ve been just fine if the story ended up with them not being together. Their journey also felt like such a straight path, with no deviations, that it was uninteresting because there was no tension behind any of it.

Overall, while I enjoyed the narration and will definitely be listening to more audiobooks done by these narrators, the story itself just wasn’t for me, unfortunately!

Even though I kept putting off reading this book for one reason or another, I was still quite excited for it now that I’d finally gotten to it! I mean, it has a sapphic romance, court politics, and assassination attempts, all things I generally love in fantasy! Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to that excitement, though I did still enjoy my time with the book. It just never ended up fully gripping me, and I found it harder and harder to get myself to continue reading the book.

One thing that this book definitely did well was the POVs. Even though the book was written in first person, it was typically quite clear which character we were reading through at any particular moment, and that’s usually quite hard to accomplish with first-person writing in fantasy. I felt like Xania and Lia were both quite clear and distinct characters, and the beginning of the book set them up quite clearly (even if I felt like things got a bit more muddled later on).

I was quite into the romance at first, but it quickly fizzled out for me, unfortunately. I was just never fully able to get on board once we got past the pining, and it felt like there wasn’t that much chemistry and love during the middle/second-half of the book, even if it did come back a bit for me right at the end. Since this was one of the big driving forces of the book, it made some scenes in the second-half of the book fall flat for me, and I found it harder and harder to be invested in the book.

I think my main disappointment was the ending itself, and I felt like it could’ve been done differently to make it more impactful. We miss the POV of one of the characters for most of it, and I felt like that choice made us lose the impact of the final few chapters a bit. If we had seen both sides of it, those final moments and the repercussions for Xania and Lia’s futures might’ve felt more built-up/fleshed out. As it was, I felt like it almost came out of nowhere, and we never got the time to truly sit with the consequences of it, either as the events were happening or afterwards. It just made the whole thing fall flat for me, in the end.

Overall, I am glad I finally read this book, and I still quite enjoyed reading it, even if it isn’t a new favorite.

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

When I first heard about this book, it sounded fantastic. I was overjoyed when I was approved for the ARC, and couldn’t wait to get started, especially since I was in the middle of a dark academia binge (and I believed this was one, though it unfortunately is not). While this book overall was quite gripping and intense, the ending fell flat for me, making it a 3-star read rather than higher.

I was pulled into Clare’s story quickly, for quite a few reasons. There’s just something constantly off about her, and the narration (done by Clare, in the future), makes nods to this strangeness, dropping small hints here and there to keep you guessing. The friends she makes are also just, extremely intense, but in a way that’s not entirely off-putting, and you can see why Clare is drawn in by them. It’s honestly just a fantastic set-up to this kind of thriller novel. The tension and my excitement were also kept up for most of the book too, but this puts even more pressure on the ending and the final reveals as well, since they need to be able to carry and be worthy of all the build-up that led to it.

For me, this is exactly where the book lost me. Not only did the ending feel off compared to the build-up, but it also felt quite rushed. We suddenly got all the reveals at once: the truth of future-Clare and her current occupation, what happened to Tabitha and why, and what Tabitha and Ava had been hiding from everyone else. I think some of these reveals or some aspects of the ending would’ve worked for me in isolation, but when it was all packed together it didn’t make quite as much sense, nor was everything explored as well as it could’ve been. I felt like the book ended abruptly, with Clare shoving me off a cliff with no time to actually digest or process any of the reveals. At first glance, it just didn’t make sense, and then the story ended before it could try to convince me it did.

Overall, this book was a fun ride, but the ending soured it a bit for me. I still enjoyed my time with it overall, and I can definitely see myself trying more books by this author in the future!